A third-grade teacher at Severna Park Elementary School on Thursday repeatedly testified that he did not sexually abuse multiple students in his classroom.

Matthew Schlegel, 45, of Severna Park, took the stand in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court at his trial on charges of sexual abuse of a minor, third- and fourth-degree sex offense and second-degree assault. He testified on direct examination for less than 10 minutes.

One by one, Patrick Seidel, one of Schlegel’s attorneys, asked whether he committed each of the acts alleged in the indictment.

“Is that true?” Seidel asked.

“No,” Schlegel replied, “it is not.”

Schlegel is suspended without pay. He’s being held in the Jennifer Road Detention Center without bail.

Testimony throughout the day was marked with repeated objections.

“Come on up,” Circuit Judge Pamela K. Alban would instruct the prosecutors and defense attorneys, who then gathered at the bench to resolve legal disputes while white noise played in the courtroom.

Schlegel initially had been accused of sexually abusing eight students.

But the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office dropped all the charges related to three of those students after concluding it would be detrimental to their mental health to testify at trial.

On cross-examination, Assistant State’s Attorney Sean Fox put photos of the five students on an easel one by one and asked questions including, “You would agree she’s a pretty little girl, correct?”

Schlegel replied that he did not feel it was appropriate to describe his students that way.

At one point, Fox remarked, “Sir, are you being purposely evasive?” The comment immediately drew an objection.

In the morning, Schlegel’s wife, Sarah, who’s assistant principal of Chesapeake Science Point Elementary School in Hanover, took the stand for about 2 1/2 hours.

The couple have two sons and met while teaching at Tyler Heights Elementary School.

She recalled that her husband came home early on March 15, 2024, after Severna Park Elementary School Principal Kyle Butler pulled him out of class. That’s because there had been an allegation made against him.

People in the community, she said, assumed one of them was sick.

“Folks were reaching out to offer support,” Sarah Schlegel testified. “Thinking of us.”

But public opinion in the community later shifted to outrage.

An explosion went off one day at about 1:30 a.m. in their driveway. “PETO” was spray-painted near their property. Flyers featuring a photo of her husband along with a warning that he was a pedophile were stuffed into mailboxes in their neighborhood.

Then, on May 16, 2024, Sarah Schlegel testified, she noticed that there was an unmarked police car outside their house.

Law enforcement, she said, claimed it was on routine patrol. She did not believe that.

So she said she went outside again to speak with the officers and stated, “We have children in the house. Please wait if you’re going to approach my husband.”

Later, Sarah Schlegel said, a van pulled up — and there was an officer hanging out the side with a gun.

Police, she said, then placed her husband under arrest.