Former Hayfield HS Principal Pleads Guilty to Child Sex Abuse
Wabasha, MN (KROC-AM News) - A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for next month for former Hayfield High School Principal Grant Klennert.
According to Wabasha County District Court records, the 37-year-old Hayfield man today entered guilty pleas to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct during what was scheduled as a pretrial hearing. Under the plea agreement, another first-degree count and another second-degree count of criminal sexual conduct will be dismissed.
About a year ago, the Hayfield School Board accepted Klennert's resignation after the Wabasha County Attorney's Office filed the charges against him in December 2022. The charges allege Klennert, who was a teenager at the time, "repeatedly and forcefully" sexually assaulted a juvenile boy between 1997 and 2003. The criminal complaint alleged Klennert was 18 years old by the time the sexual assaults ended in March 2003.
The charges also list two other victims. A woman alleges she was 13 or 14 years old when she was sexually assaulted by Klennert at a residence in Wabasha and a second man told investigators he was 7 years old when Klennert sexually assaulted him at the same residence.
He is currently scheduled to be sentenced on the afternoon of February 20.
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