A third-grade teacher at Severna Park Elementary School was found not guilty on Tuesday of 18 out of 21 charges that alleged he sexually abused five students in his classroom.

Matthew Schlegel, 45, of Severna Park, showed no visible reaction when he was acquitted in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court of sexual abuse of a minor and third- and fourth-degree sex offense.

But the jury could not reach a unanimous decision after deliberating for about 19 hours on three counts of second-degree assault related to two of the girls.

Schlegel has been held in the Jennifer Road Detention Center without bail since his arrest on May 16, 2024. The trial started on May 19.

Circuit Judge Pamela K. Alban scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to consider requests from Schlegel’s attorneys to grant him bail and dismiss the remaining counts.

“We’re incredibly grateful for the hard work of this jury,” said Peter O’Neill, one of Schlegel’s attorneys, outside the Anne Arundel County Courthouse. “This was a very difficult case.”

“Going into this case, we knew we had a challenge ahead of us as it relates to the nature of the charges that were filed,” he added. “Fortunately, this jury considered their oath.”

As the foreperson emphatically declared, “Not guilty,” several family members of the girls cried in the courtroom gallery. Some of them stormed out.

One of the mothers of the girls described her daughter as “the strongest little girl I’ve ever met.”

“I wish that justice was served for her today. Unfortunately, it wasn’t,” she told reporters. “But I hope in my heart that we at least have protected the girls after her.”

Schlegel started in Anne Arundel County Public Schools in 2007 as a temporary assistant. He became a full-time teacher in 2008 at Tyler Heights Elementary School and moved in 2016 to Severna Park Elementary School.

He’s suspended without pay.

At first, Schlegel faced a total of 55 charges that alleged between 2022 and 2024 that he sexually abused eight students.

Before opening statements, the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office dropped 22 counts related to three girls after determining it would be detrimental to their mental health for them to testify at trial. Prosecutors later dismissed another 12 counts.

Schlegel took the witness stand and repeatedly denied the accusations.

In her closing argument, Assistant State’s Attorney Anastasia Prigge, chief of the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office’s Special Victim’s Unit, said Schlegel repeatedly touched the girls at and behind his desk.

The children, she said, were telling the truth.

“The problem with Mr. Schlegel is he’s been hiding a secret for a long time,” Prigge said. “And his double life has been exposed.”

“There are just times where people see what they want you to see,” she added.

No one thinks that child sexual abuse is acceptable, said Patrick Seidel, one of Schlegel’s attorneys.

But Seidel alleged that police, prosecutors and social workers were biased and conducted a shoddy investigation. The parents of the girls, he asserted, also asked them suggestive questions.

Seidel pointed out statements that he noted were objectively untrue.

“I’m not saying these kids are lying to you,” Seidel said in his closing argument. “I’m saying it’s not reliable.”

“This couldn’t have happened,” he later added. “It is never too late to do the right thing.”

Speaking at a news conference, Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said she was struck by how much the criminal justice system requires of children, who are victims of crime.

The girls, she noted, took the witness stand and endured hours of cross-examination. So did their parents, Leitess said.

She left the girls with several messages.

“We believe them. There are hundreds of people that believe them,” Leitess said. “We stand behind them.”

Leitess said she respects the jury’s verdict.

But the outcome of the trial, she said, does not change what prosecutors believe happened to them.