David Michael Miller
Around 30 East High School students filled the small hearing room at the federal courthouse in Madison on Jan. 30. Twelve young women, seated on a single row of bench seating, held the hands of the classmates next to them while waiting for the proceedings to begin. Some of the students were weeping quietly.
David Kruchten, an East teacher who wore a green T-shirt and sweatpants, was escorted in by U.S. Marshals without looking at the students — some of whom are his alleged victims. Cries from some of the students grew louder when Kruchten’s attorney, Joseph Bugni, entered a plea of not guilty for seven charges of attempting to produce child pornography.
Kruchten, a business education teacher at East, was arrested the morning of Jan. 30. In December, he was put on administrative leave by the Madison school district after East students found hidden cameras in their hotel rooms at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis while on a school trip. Kruchten is an advisor to East’s DECA program, an extracurricular club that competes around the country in marketing and business events. The students were attending a DECA conference when they found hidden cameras in their rooms.
The indictment, also released Jan. 30, does not include the December dates when students found the cameras in Minneapolis. The indictment lists charges from on or about Jan. 20, 2019, and Oct. 27, 2019. The October date lines up with a DECA conference in Wisconsin Dells.
However, according to a document obtained by Isthmus, the Minneapolis Police Department has concluded its investigation into the cameras found at the Hyatt Regency. The police findings have been submitted to the Hennepin County attorney’s office for consideration of additional charges against Kruchten in that jurisdiction.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Altman brought up the December trip to Minneapolis by East students when arguing that Kruchten should remain in custody.
“There are at least five different occasions that the government is aware of that devices were found in rooms that the defendant was in charge of and had control over,” said Altman at the hearing. “There is evidence that in Minneapolis he lied to law enforcement…. Students trusted him and turned over the devices they found. Rather than turning them in, he was seen outside the hotel with a box with the devices…he lied to law enforcement about what he did with them.”
Bugni argued to Magistrate Judge Peter Oppeneer that Kruchten should be released, with conditions including GPS monitoring, while awaiting trial. Bugni said the educator “is not a danger to the community.”
“We have isolated incidents that tie to different school trips. That is, there is a targeted community,” said Bugni. “This isn’t someone who is out there preying on every 15- to 18-year-old there is. Instead, this is a very specific crime of opportunity according to the government’s own accusations.”
Altman countered there was a presumption of detention based on the crimes Kruchten is alleged to have committed. Oppeneer ruled that Kruchten would remain behind bars — at least for now.
“I’m not judging whether or not release might be appropriate at some point for this defendant,” said Oppeneer. “I’m unwilling to do it [today], given it’s a presumption case.”
Kruchten’s attorney also shed light on why his client was charged with attempting to produce child pornography.
“We don’t have a single picture that is recovered. We have devices, but no pictures. That is an anomaly that I will exploit to the fullest,” said Bugni. “We don’t have any hard proof of what was produced.”
Kruchten is scheduled to be back in court on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
At the end of the 15-minute hearing, students embraced each other before filing out of the courtroom. A parent of one the victims was heard after the trial saying, “When is the school going to fire this guy?”
