Jennifer Mayerle happily returned to Minnesota and WCCO, where she began her career as a summer intern. The Emmy and Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist returned to WCCO as a reporter in 2014 and later also anchored WCCO Saturday Morning for 6 years. Then in early 2024 she focused on her new role as Senior Investigative Reporter.

This week, WCCO launches a series of stories that look at the laws and policies surrounding grooming. We begin with a young woman who came forward to police to talk about what she says she endured in high school. Hannah LoPresto spoke with Senior Investigative Reporter Jennifer Mayerle.

LoPresto became interested in band in the fifth grade. For the studious kid, she says it gave her a break.

"I played percussion so a lot of different instruments. Xylophone, drums, triangle, tambourine, keyboard," LoPresto said. "I was pretty anxious and stressed always about getting good grades. I think that's why I gravitated so much towards having at least one class in my schedule that was a little more lighthearted and easy."

In her freshman year at Eagan High School, she was introduced to a band director named Brett Benson.

"He was extra charismatic and exuberant and just really magnetic," LoPresto said.

As a percussion student, she had private lessons with him. And when she says he started paying extra attention to her, she initially liked it.

"Told me I was special, that I was intelligent, that I was pretty. He would say things like, 'You're wise beyond your years. You seem so much older than you actually are.' To have an adult that I looked up to say those things to me made me feel really good and gave me confidence," LoPresto said.

She says that attention only grew. LoPresto says so did his affection. It's detailed in an Eagan police report taken as part of a larger investigation into Benson's alleged conduct with students. LoPresto had a survivor support dog at her feet during her interview with WCCO.

"Just started putting his hands on my shoulders, or just his language would start to change into being more as if he was romantically interested," LoPresto said.

Over time, she says she isolated from friends. And says he'd call her out of other classes so they could meet.

"It felt like I couldn't get out of it. And it was so shameful and bad, and it felt icky. But he was also like my best friend, in a way, too, at the time. He had pulled me away from my friends and my family and became the person that I talked to the most every single day," LoPresto said.

Phone records LoPresto shared reflect that. On a senior band trip to Greece, LoPresto says things progressed. She says he'd pull her away from the group. And orchestrated the two sitting next to each other on the plane. Other educators recounted similar concerns to police.

"It was all these things at the time felt like coincidences, but now that I know were clearly curated that way intentionally. He kept saying things like, 'Things are going to be different when you're 18. There's things I wish I could tell you now that I can't that I'll tell you when you're 18,'" LoPresto said.

She says he gave her a framed photo from the Greece trip for her 18th birthday. The police report shows the picture was found on Benson's phone. And she says the band director used God when he talked about their connection.

"Saying, 'God wants this to happen.' You need to, like, fill this role for this grand plan that is playing out. That just increased in intensity the closer and closer it got to graduation, to the point where he implied that I had to marry him. And that after everything that had happened over those years, that I didn't really have a choice," LoPresto said.

LoPresto says things escalated further when he called her to the band room as her senior year was winding down. What she says happened is stated in the police report.

"I was sexually assaulted on my last day of high school. And it was at like 7 a.m., 7:30 a.m. in the morning. He put his hands down the back of my pants and down the front of my shirt. I froze. I didn't know what to do. I started crying, and he, I think, immediately got afraid that I was going to tell somebody, or he had never gotten that reaction out of me before. And I just said, 'I want, I want a pass to go to my class,' and I just wanted to leave and get out of there. And he wrote me a pass. And he just kept saying, like, 'Everything is fine. I want to make sure you're OK,'" LoPresto said.

She says that day and the following day at graduation were a blur.

"He kept apologizing and saying he was sorry. I just remember feeling very numb. I had to perform at the graduation itself, and I was so out of it that I played my part in the wrong song. I felt so afraid and like it was my fault what happened, and I didn't know what was gonna happen next, because I still thought I had to marry this person," LoPresto said.

The police report revealed a text from Benson to his parents that day, writing: "An incident with a student this morning that once again is causing me anxiety and I'm not handling it well."

Also described in the police report: texts between Benson and his now wife about an inappropriate relationship with a student.

The detective writes in the police report, "The sexual contact was not consensual in nature due to Brett's grooming behaviors that started freshman year of High School."

Benson, who was not charged, provided a statement. It reads in part, "I vehemently deny any allegations of wrongdoing. I deeply cared for the well-being of every student I have ever taught."

LoPresto is nearly a decade removed from the day she says she was sexually assaulted at school. She says she can more clearly see she was being groomed.

"It just makes me see how vulnerable young people are to, especially a person in a position of power, and just how much you, your brain changes, and how much you grow," LoPresto said.

Asked if she feels like Benson knew what he was doing was wrong, LoPresto said, "Yeah. Looking back, I think he knew, he was very intelligent. He knew what he could and couldn't get away with."

Benson was placed on administrative leave. He later resigned.

In a document provided by Benson's attorney, it says a Minnesota Department of Education investigation about another student concluded that maltreatment did not occur. Investigators could not talk with LoPresto for their report because MDE is only allowed to go back three years.

Here is the full statement from Brett Benson:

"I vehemently deny any allegations of wrongdoing. They are replete with mischaracterizations, exaggerations, and false statements that are wholly inconsistent with who I am as a person and who I was as a teacher. I deeply cared for the well-being of every student I have ever taught. The thorough police and Minnesota Department of Education investigations are closed, resulting in no criminal charges and findings of no student maltreatment. Now, however, I am compelled to defend myself against unproven allegations being aired in the public sphere. I strenuously object to this story, which violates core principles of journalistic ethics. My family and I are thankful this extensive investigation is closed."

Sexual Assault Resources

Young woman comes forward to police to say she was groomed, sexually assaulted as a high school band student | WCCO Investigates

Young woman comes forward to police to say she was groomed, sexually assaulted as a high school band student | WCCO Investigates