#Ex-theater director charged with sexually abusing four students

A former theater director at a Minnesota middle school has been charged with sexually abusing four teenage students, including in dressing rooms and a costume attic, authorities said.

Jefferson Jerome Fietek, 46, was charged Wednesday with sexually abusing four male students between the ages of 14 and 16 at Anoka Middle School for the Arts from 2009 until he resigned and left Minnesota in June 2019, the Star Tribune reports.

Fietek, who is facing seven felony criminal sexual conduct charges in all, allegedly watched porn with some of his victims and told them not to tell anyone.

The onetime theater director is also accused of abusing some of his victims in dressing rooms at the school and inside an attic used to store costumes, the Star Tribune reports.

Fietek worked at the school from 2005 until he resigned in June 2019 to take a job as an assistant professor at Emerson College in Boston, according to the newspaper.

Emerson College announced in a statement late last month that an unnamed employee “had engaged in serious misconduct” before being hired there.

“We take these allegations very seriously, including by referring the matter to external legal authorities,” the statement read. “The employee is no longer an active faculty member at Emerson College, and our administration has taken additional steps to preserve the safety of our community.”

Fietek is also accused of buying an airplane ticket for one of his victims to visit him in Massachusetts, charges show. The teen said he sent Fietek nude photos up to 30 times before realizing “it was kind of weird for a grown man” to be asking for them, the Star Tribune reports.

Another victim told investigators with the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office that Fietek had abused him for three years, starting when he was 15.

“At the time … I was special to him, you know, and so I wanted to do whatever it was that I could to make him happy,” the victim said.

Fietek contacted one of the victims via online dating app Grinder, while the other students were a part of his theater productions, investigators allege.

Fietek, who also unsuccessfully ran for the Minnesota House in 2014, was taken into custody Thursday by cops in Malden, Massachusetts, where he now lives, Malden police Capt. Marc Gatcomb told The Post.

Fietek was arrested without incident after answering the door to his apartment and being told of the warrant for his arrest, according to an incident report.

“He told me he was aware of it, but did not think a formal arrest was to occur,” the report states.

A message seeking additional comment from Emerson College was not immediately returned Friday.

Fietek, who was arraigned at Malden District Court, is also facing a fugitive from justice charge. Authorities in Minnesota will now seek to extradite him back to the state, Gatcomb said.

“He didn’t say anything about the case,” Gatcomb said. “He did believe there was an investigation going on, but said that he didn’t think an arrest was imminent.”