Former Coach Speaking Out Now That Investigation is Closed

KIMBALL -- A former Kimball high school football coach and teacher is speaking out after being accused of sexual assault last fall.

Johnny Benson says because he didn't have tenure in the district he decided to resign rather than be terminated after the investigation began back on October 10th. He says he fully cooperated throughout the investigation.

In May the Stearns County Attorney's Office decided to decline filing charges in the case because they were unable to prove any crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt.

Benson says he's now focused on returning to the classroom and football field this fall.

Would it be fair for me to get my job back, yeah sure, of course, it would, but it's not going to happen though, that's not the world we live in.  But I'm going to teach and coach again, I already have a couple of job offers.

According to Stearns County documents a football player and Benson were alone in the locker room around 6:00 p.m. on October 9th. Benson allegedly rubbed a product called Biofreeze on the player to help him with an injury. The player says he has no memory of what happened next until he went to his locker and realized it was 9:00 p.m.

Surveillance camera video from outside the locker room shows Benson leaving the locker room at 9:05 p.m. and then the custodian and the player's mother entering the locker room at 9:07 p.m.

They found no evidence of Benson's DNA on the player and no evidence of any drugs in his system. There was also no sign of any assault or trauma.

Benson says he knows some of his interactions with people will never be the same, and he expects the story to follow him around his whole life, but he wants to continue to pursue his passion.

How important is it that we're moving forward all the time.  We talk about what did football teach me? Football taught me a lot, but the number one thing is that it teaches you to stand tall when everybody wants to knock you down.