By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
Editors Note Paragraph 6 was updated for clarity at 7am on 5/19/2025
Last Thursday, the Northfield Public Schools announced in a letter to families that a former Northfield teacher, Katie Hanson, has been charged with two felony counts of electronic communication of sexually explicit materials to children. According to the criminal complaint, Hanson, while employed as a teacher at Northfield Middle School, sent sexually explicit pictures of herself to several Northfield High School students. The letter also stated that former Northfield Police Officer and Student Resource Officer (SRO) Gabriel Crombie has been charged with one felony count of aiding an offender to avoid arrest (harbor or conceal).
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann stated that he was angered by what happened:
“And it angers us. It angers us that about the impact that these kinds of allegations, you know, have on our students, our staff, and of course our community, because we’re all one. And anytime we have something like this happen, it affects us all and it is certainly not the kind of behavior that we expect in our school district.” – Dr. Matt Hillmann, Superintendent of Northfield Schools on the KYMN Morning Show
Northfield Police Chief Jeff Schroepfer stated that they were committed to transparency. Furthermore, because the investigation included a former Northfield Police Officer, the department asked the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to be involved in the investigation:
“When we learned that Officer Crombie potentially was involved, we involved the outside agency being the state BCA to investigate that side of it. So we would that’s a complete transparency thing as well. We didn’t want to look like, ‘hey, we’re investigating ourselves,’ so we brought in an outside agency. ” – Jeff Schroepfer, Northfield Police Chief on the KYMN Morning Show
In the spring of 2024, two complaints were filed. One, with the School District which was anonymous and through a third party. Hillmann said that their was not enough information in this complaint for the school district to be able to complete an investigation. The second complaint was filed with the former officer Crombie who took no action on the complaint. A second complaint filed on December 9th led to an investigation being opened by the new school’s SRO. Hanson was placed on leave on the 9th, and she resigned two days later.
Listen: To KYMN’s full conversation with Police Chief Jeff Schroepfer and Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann here
Read: The full statement from the Northfield Police Department here
Read: The full statement from the Northfield Public Schools here
“So as far as the school district and the Police Department, we can’t investigate what we don’t know. Unfortunately, in this case, the former officer likely knew some things but never brought it forward to the rest of us to investigate.” – Jeff Schroepfer, Northfield Police Chief on the KYMN Morning Show
Crombie and Hanson were charged in Rice County Court, with Steele County Prosecutors charging Hanson’s case and Waseca County Prosecutors charging Crombie’s case.
Will have attached to our website the full statements from the School District and Northfield Police Department, as well as KYMN’s conversation with Hillmann and Schroepfer.
Hillmann made a request of the community going forward:
“We have some exceptional public servants and of course, the actions of those among us do cast a light on everyone else. And I just ask that people put, this where it belongs. Right on on the alleged actions of two individuals. And the people who are continuing to do excellent work each day deserve that respect and that trust for the excellent work that they’re doing, both with the Police Department and in the school district.” – Dr. Matt Hillmann, Superintendent of Northfield Schools on the KYMN Morning Show
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