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A St. Peter man is facing six felony charges accusing him of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl on at least five different occasions.
Tyler Paul Benson, 29, is charged with three counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, two counts of attempted criminal sexual conduction and one count of soliciting a child through electronic communication to engage in sexual conduct.
According to the charges, the Nicollet Ƶ SheriffƵs Office first received a report that Benson had been sexually assaulting a teen girl and sending her explicit text messages. The girl initially denied Benson assaulted her in a police interview, but in a second statement to law enforcement she said she had not been truthful and was afraid of how sharing her experiences would change her life.
The girl told law enforcement that Benson sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions, the first time taking place between Halloween and Thanksgiving last year. The incident began with alleged inappropriate touching by Benson. The girl froze, not knowing what to do, until she got up and left the situation to go to bed. However, Benson continued to pursue her and she woke up later that evening to Benson allegedly forcing sex on her.
The second incident took place on Election Day 2024 when Benson got them a hotel room in the Cities, allegedly under misleading pretenses. That night, Benson allegedly again touched the victim inappropriately. When she asked him to stop, he said it would be the last time. Feeling like she couldnƵt say no, because Benson financially supported her and her family, the girl said she covered her face while he performed sexual acts.
According to the charges, Benson continued to attempt to assault her in December, again engaging in inappropriate touching. The girl got up and immediately left the room, as Benson allegedly begged for her to Ƶjust let me.Ƶ
In a fourth incident, Benson made multiple attempts at sexual contact with the girl over a period of two days, according to the testimony.
The next night, the girl pretended to be asleep, as Benson allegedly attempted to touch her, stretching each time he made a move to make him believe she was waking up. After several attempts at touching her, the girl sat up and told him she was awake the whole time. Benson then moved away from her, repeating ƵIƵm sorry,Ƶ according to the court documents.
In a fifth incident, Benson had sent sexual text messages to the girl.