Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Charges dates back to when Klennert was a teen

 

A former Hayfield Community Schools administrator accused of criminal sexual conduct when he was a teenager has pleaded guilty in the case.

Grant Thomas Klennert, 38, a former principal at Hayfield High School, has amended his pleas on three of five counts of criminal sexual conduct Monday in Wabasha District Court.

Two of those counts was first degree criminal sexual conduct while the third is second degree.

Klennert was initially charged with five counts of criminal sexual conduct, one of which included criminal sexual conduct-significant relationship with a victim under 16.

Sentencing will be held on Feb. 20.

Klennert is accused of sexually assaulting three victims between the years of 1997 and 2003. 

He was arrested in December of 2022 after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

In the court complaint, the first victim told Wabasha County detectives that he was “repeatedly and forcefully assaulted” by Klennert starting as early as second grade.