A young woman testified Monday that while she was in eighth grade, her then-teacher, Abdul Wright, who was once named Minnesota Teacher of the Year, sexually abused her several times at school.
The woman testified that one incident occurred in a storage area at the back of a classroom as Wright’s three daughters, ages about 5 to 9, watched a movie in the darkened room. The youngest girl came back and interrupted them, she told the court.
“I just didn’t think it would come this far,” the woman, now 22, said when Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Evan Powell asked her how she felt about testifying.
Wright, 39, is charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for allegedly sexually assaulting the woman during the 2016-2017 school year when she was 14 years old. Sahan Journal is not identifying the woman because of the nature of the case.
Wright waived his right to a jury trial, meaning that Hennepin County District Court Judge Sarah West will review evidence in his case and decide the verdict. Wright, who was named Minnesota Teacher of the Year in 2016, was criminally charged in August 2024, after the former student’s mother reported the abuse to police.
Student says abuse occurred in several classrooms
According to the criminal complaint, Wright was the student’s eighth grade language arts teacher at Harvest Best Academy, a charter school in north Minneapolis. She told a forensic interviewer that Wright groomed her, giving her special attention in class. He would take her and other students to Timberwolves games and would drive her to dance practice. He was also her basketball coach.
The former student testified Monday that Wright asked her for her phone number so they could play games together on their phones. After playing games a few times, they began to have frequent personal conversations. She said that she began babysitting Wright’s three daughters in his classroom after school, and that he formed a close relationship with her mother.
But, the woman testified, sometimes Wright’s daughters weren’t at the school when she showed up to babysit, and she ended up spending time with Wright instead. She said Wright would comment on her appearance and how her clothes fit.
“How did those conversations make you feel?” Powell asked.
“It got really confusing,” she said. “I felt like the dynamic was, I’m a child and he’s an adult. So if he’s making that okay, then I guess that’s fine.”
Wright eventually began to kiss and touch her, she told the court.
“I just felt numb, like I was just there,” she testified.
Wright sexually assaulted her repeatedly in multiple locations, including in several classrooms at Harvest Best Academy, she said.
Her testimony is scheduled to continue Tuesday morning.
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Wright’s trial started with opening statements from the prosecution and defense. Wright’s attorney, Natalie Cote, said in her opening statement that the former student lied about the alleged assaults. Cote said the “plausible reason” for making the report was monetary gain.
Wright was a caring teacher who won a “prestigious” award, said Cote, adding that prosecutors will not present any credible evidence to prove that the assaults occurred.
“Her story simply will not make sense,” Cote said of the former student.
Powell said in his opening statement that the prosecution’s case is supported by testimony from other witnesses, and recorded phone calls between the former student’s mother and Wright after she confronted him in 2024 about the alleged abuse. He said Wright cried on the phone, begging the former student’s mother not to seek criminal charges.
“He is apologizing and saying, ‘I know,’ and, ‘Yeah, you’re right,’” Powell said. “He never says it didn’t happen.”
Civil lawsuit says Harvest Best Academy failed to take action
The former student also sued Wright and Harvest Best Academy in a separate civil case earlier this year.
The lawsuit alleges that the school’s former CEO and founder, Eric Mahmoud, refused to take action as required by law when the student’s father raised concerns about Wright’s behavior with his daughter. After she graduated from middle school, her father presented Mahmoud with extensive evidence of text messages and 3 a.m. phone calls to his daughter, but Mahmoud did not report his concerns to authorities or take action against Wright, according to the lawsuit. The father ultimately sought a restraining order against Wright that limited his communication with the girl.
Mahmoud was ousted from his position as the school’s leader shortly after the lawsuit was filed in March.
The lawsuit also points to a sexual misconduct allegation that the school allegedly had knowledge of: A staff member reported to police and the school in 2012 that Wright assaulted her in his classroom that year. The lawsuit says that staff member relayed the incident to another staff member, who confided that Wright had sexually assaulted her the previous year.
Sahan Journal obtained a Minneapolis police report showing that the first staff member reported her complaint to the school’s human resources department and law enforcement, but no criminal charges were filed.
Wright’s school personnel file shows three employee infractions in his career there, all related to tardiness or attendance, according to the file obtained by Sahan Journal.
Proceedings in the civil lawsuit are on pause until Wright’s criminal trial concludes.
Another former Harvest Best teacher under fire
The school also faces a second lawsuit related to a different teacher, Aaron Hjermstad, who has been convicted of sexually assaulting players on his basketball team. A tentative settlement in the lawsuit has been reached, according to a letter filed in court earlier this month.
Hjermstad and Wright’s employment at schools now consolidated as Harvest Best Academy overlapped from 2016 to 2020.
Hjermstad was convicted in Hennepin County District Court in 2021 for sexually assaulting four boys. One of those boys filed the lawsuit against Hjermstad and Harvest Best Academy in 2020. The lawsuit alleges that the school was negligent when it hired Hjermstad, who was first accused of sexual assault in 2015 when he worked at Excell Academy in Brooklyn Park.
Hjermstad faces 12 new counts of criminal sexual conduct, and is scheduled to stand trial beginning next week.
