Brett Benson of Eagan: Investigation, Denial, and Grooming Law

Brett Benson is a former Eagan High School music teacher in Minnesota who, after a nearly two-year Eagan police investigation, was described in a 100-page detective’s report as having engaged in a “pattern of predatory grooming behaviors” with female students across two districts over more than a decade. He was never criminally charged, denied all allegations through his attorney, resigned from the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan district in March 2023, and surrendered his Minnesota teaching license in December 2024. His case became the driving force behind a new state law that makes sexual grooming of a minor a standalone felony.¹

How the Investigation Started

In 2022, a student on an Eagan High School band trip to Italy reported seeing Benson sneaking another student out of her hotel room. A chaperone passed the report to District 196, which on March 30, 2022 notified both the Eagan Police Department and the Minnesota Department of Education and placed Benson on paid administrative leave the same day.²

What began as a single-trip inquiry grew. Eagan detective Chad Clausen interviewed more than 40 people, including teachers, parents, former students, and Benson, over roughly two years. His 2023 report traced alleged conduct back to at least 2011, when Benson worked as a reserve teacher and show choir band director at Jefferson High School in the Bloomington district.¹

What the Police Report Described

Clausen’s report described a recurring pattern. Benson allegedly identified female students he characterized to himself as “petite,” “shy,” and “insecure” early in their high school careers, then built trust through targeted attention, compliments on their appearance, and gifts. He reportedly pulled students from other classes for private sessions in practice studios and arranged to sit beside them on school trips. According to the detective, interactions that began as friendly progressed into sexualized communication and, in some instances, physical sexual contact.¹

Two Eagan High School teachers told police they had seen “inappropriate” and “flirtatious” behavior by Benson but did not report it, citing reluctance to “call out a colleague” and a lack of what they considered concrete evidence.³

A separate Minnesota Department of Education review of the Italy trip found that Benson and the student involved had exchanged more than 10,000 text messages, which the agency called “excessive and discrete communication,” and that Benson had discussed “feelings and relationships” with her and let her “disregard established procedures” on the trip. The MDE nonetheless concluded in 2023 that “maltreatment is not determined,” finding no evidence of sexual material, communication, or contact.¹⁴

The Former Students Who Came Forward

The most detailed public account came from Hannah LoPresto, who met Benson in 2012 as a 14-year-old freshman percussion student. Benson was 25. LoPresto said he called her out of other classes for private lessons, told her she was “wise beyond her years,” and shared personal details that blurred the line between teacher and confidant. During a senior-year band trip to Greece, she said, Benson arranged to sit next to her on the plane, repeatedly pulled her away from the group, and told her, “Things are going to be different when you’re 18. There’s things I wish I could tell you now that I can’t.” For her 18th birthday he gave her a framed photo from that trip; investigators later found the same image on his phone.⁴

LoPresto alleged that on her last day of high school, shortly after she turned 18, Benson asked her to meet him in a practice room around 7:00 a.m., where he put his hands down her shirt and pants. The police report noted that on the morning of the alleged assault, Benson texted his parents about “an incident with a student this morning that once again is causing me anxiety.” Clausen wrote that “the sexual contact was not consensual in nature due to Brett’s grooming behaviors that started freshman year of high school.” LoPresto said Benson later appeared at her graduation party, made physical advances, and sent sexually explicit texts during her freshman year of college.⁴¹

A second former student, Sophie Panetti, alleged that beginning in 2011, when she was 17 and Benson was working in the Bloomington district, he groomed her through flirtatious messaging, comments about her body, and requests that she keep their contact secret from her parents. She said the relationship later included sexting and explicit phone calls. As of late 2025, the Bloomington Police Department had forwarded her case to its investigations department for review.¹

Why No Criminal Charges Were Filed

In December 2023, Eagan police referred LoPresto’s case to the Dakota County Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors declined to charge Benson. The alleged contact occurred in 2016, when LoPresto was 18, and Minnesota law at the time criminalized sexual contact between an authority figure and a student only when the student was 16 or 17. Students who had turned 18 were not covered, even when the teacher-student relationship was ongoing. The prosecutor emphasized the decision rested on the 2016 legal framework, not on an inability to prove the facts.¹ Minnesota updated the statute in 2021 to cover students 18 and older, but the change could not be applied retroactively.³

Police also referred the case to the Eagan city attorney for possible disorderly conduct charges, and no charges resulted. On a separate student, police said they believed they had probable cause for a child endangerment charge, but the student declined to pursue it. Investigators were unable to recover reported sexually explicit text messages. When LoPresto tried to file a maltreatment claim with the MDE in 2024, she was told the agency could investigate only allegations from within the past three years.³¹

Benson’s Denial and Departure

Through his attorney, Benson “vehemently” denied the allegations, calling them “replete with mischaracterizations, exaggerations, and false statements.” He said he “deeply cared for the well-being of every student” and pointed to the absence of criminal charges and the MDE’s finding of no maltreatment.³

He remained on paid administrative leave for a year before resigning from the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan district effective March 2023. In December 2024, after LoPresto filed a complaint with the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board, Benson signed a stipulation agreement to surrender his teaching license and waived his right to a contested hearing. The agreement contained no formal finding of misconduct and no admission of wrongdoing. PELSB executive director Dr. Yelena Bailey said the board was “happy with the outcome that this person no longer holds a teaching license in the state of Minnesota.” As of late 2025, Benson was working in finance in the Twin Cities.³¹

The New Minnesota Grooming Law

The legal gaps the Benson case exposed drove new legislation. An October 2025 MPR News investigation brought the story broad public attention, and LoPresto testified repeatedly before Minnesota lawmakers alongside Detective Clausen.⁵

HF 3489, sponsored by Rep. Peggy Bennett (R-Albert Lea) and Sen. Erin Maye Quade (DFL-Apple Valley), passed both chambers unanimously, with House votes of 133-0 on initial passage April 27, 2026 and on repassage May 16, 2026.⁶ Governor Tim Walz signed it into law on May 27, 2026.⁷

The law takes effect August 1, 2026. Its key provisions:

Sexual grooming of a minor is a standalone felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The statute defines grooming as a person 18 or older expressing a desire to engage in sexual conduct with a child and engaging in a deliberate pattern of conduct to develop a false trusting relationship intended to manipulate the child, whether or not sexual conduct actually occurs.
Elevated felony categories apply when the person is in a position of authority or is a school employee.
The three-year limitation that previously blocked state education officials from investigating older maltreatment allegations is removed.
Law enforcement must notify the teacher licensing board when a teacher is charged with grooming.
The Department of Education must release updated mandatory-reporter training guidelines by August 2027 addressing the duty to report grooming and how to recognize its signs.

These provisions appear in the Minnesota House of Representatives’ legislative record for HF 3489.⁸⁹

Because criminal statutes cannot be applied retroactively, the new law does not reopen Benson’s case. At the signing, LoPresto said, “I’m so happy, I’m so grateful. I think it’ll take a while to really feel the magnitude of what happened and what I was a part of.” Clausen said, “We wouldn’t be here without Hannah, and without her willingness to tell her story.”⁷

1
MPR News. Eagan Police Concluded Teacher Brett Benson Groomed Students
2
Hometown Source. District 196 Issues Statement Regarding Allegations Against Former Eagan High School Teacher
3
CBS News Minnesota. Grooming Behaviors: Minnesota Band Director Not Charged
4
CBS News Minnesota. Sexual Assault Accusation: High School Band Student
5
MPR News. New Minnesota Law Makes Sexual Grooming of Children a Felony
6
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. HF 3489 Bill Status
7
CBS News Minnesota. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Signs Grooming Law
8
Minnesota House of Representatives. New Laws: Grooming a Minor Is a Felony
9
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. HF 3489, 5th Engrossment