Special Ed Teacher Sexually Abused His Own Stepdaughter: Cops

Hi, Fabian. How are you? Fabian, how are you? How are you? How are you? This is the moment police searched the home of a special education teacher who was accused of sickening crimes. I believe she had said that she didn't want your crusty kisses was what she had said. And then she said that you guys started talking about French kissing. Fabian Benjamin was arrested and accused of sexually abusing a student who went to his school. And you will see what happens when he's right as rights. He is ready to talk. We're on the case presented by law and crime. I'm Chris Stewart. A lot of times when the suspects read their rights and they're asked if they want to keep talking, the idea that what they say could be used against them in the court of law is enough to keep them quiet. But in this case, involving a teacher accused of sexually abusing a student, you will see that he was more than willing to give his side of the story. So let's start with this newly released body cam video. It comes to us from Cochise County, Arizona. And it's the morning that police are serving a search warrant at the teacher Fabian Benjamin's home. Yeah, a lot of rain cameras. [knocking on door] Two dogs. I almost didn't hear her real quick. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, Fabian. How are you? Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's just a little, um, protective Cleveland. Nice to meet you, sir. You too. We do have a search warrant for the residents, as well as for your person. We're here to essentially collect electronic devices and cell phones. This is in relation to the ongoing investigation involving you and your family. This is going to be your copy, okay? If you'd like to look it over. And is there anyone else in the residence today? Yes, my girlfriend. Okay. Any weapons? Uh, they're all in trouble. In the truck? In your truck. Yeah. Okay. Do you have anything on you? Any phone or anything? Myself on your cell phones. Let me just go ahead and grab that. Just a photograph. I see you have something else on this side. I'm just going to patch you down a little bit. Yeah. Okay. Give me a favor. Go ahead and interlace your hands over here. Interlace your hands. Now, before you get to the questions, that police had for Fabian Benjamin. Here's what we know about him. He taught special ed at Buena High School in Cochise County, which is right along the U.S. Mexico border in the southwest corner of Arizona. And Fabian was reportedly going through a lot. He was going through a divorce with the mom of the alleged victim in this case. And that alleged victim was also a student according to police. Now, we have the police report. That alleges that the victim's mom came forward to law enforcement with allegations that Fabian had sexually abused her daughter. A conversation on body cam, it's very cordial, shockingly so. Fabian seems to know that this day was coming. That law enforcement was going to show up to his house with a search warrant and that these allegations were out there because of some paperwork that the victim's mom had filed against him. Now, police have some very disturbing questions for Fabian. But first, they have to read him his rights and determine if he wants to continue talking and watch that moment as it happens. And how he pauses, he almost looks up and then decides that he wants to keep talking. Because of the nature right now, since it is a search warrant and everyone is technically detained currently, what I am going to do is I am going to rebrand just to cover you, cover me, cover our bases basically. So you'd have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to talk to a lawyer and have him present with you while you are being questioned. If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be appointed to represent you before any questioning if you wish. You can decide at any time to exercise these rights and not answer any questions or make any statements. Do you understand each of the rights I explained to you? Yes. Okay. I'd like to ask you a couple of questions. Are you cool with that? Yes. Yes. So obviously the biggest thing that I kind of wanted to talk about was how all of this came out, but I wanted to know what your relationship is like currently with her mom and. It has been tough two years ago. She decided to lead me. We were living in my family home. The environment was very tense. Everybody was getting, you know, agitated with everybody. I was more happy at work. She was thinking that I was cheating. So she decided to up and leave. I would keep in contact with them. Kids got cell phones. She has a cell phone that I was paying for. Eventually, I got to the point where I found out from the kids that they were pretty much about to be homeless. And she was job searching. So I took days off. And I went out there with you all packed them up and gone back. And they stayed with my mom for, again, for exactly how long. Basically, until she was able to find a natural place and get a job. And she got employment back at her old job. My previous employer as well. I know they're upset with me because I never really got back with the mom. Their mom and our family and interactions were never the same. But Vicki did pull me aside. A few months back. I can't remember exactly when. I was like, you remember December timeframe. Asked me to spend more time with the kids. I was working two jobs and going to school. I just finished my master's in January. So I'm always very busy. The limited time that I actually have to interact with the kids is very brief. Fabian's story is that he's a loving stepfather. That he's the responsible one. And if his adopted kids are upset about anything, it's that they don't get to see him enough. He also talks about how his stepdaughter seems to be more fixated on getting money from him recently. So let's get into the allegations and I will warn you as they all are in these types of cases. They're incredibly disturbing and this case is still active. So we want to note that they're just allegations at this point. And Fabian Benjamin is still working his way through the legal system and he's innocent until proven guilty. But in one part of the police report that we read. The alleged victim claims that Fabian quote wanted to see her tummy because he liked how flat it was. And then when they were allegedly talking about the candy Hershey kisses, the victim allegedly said the Fabian quote, "These are better than your crusty kisses, apparently making some kind of joke." And Fabian replied, "Well, you haven't had my French kisses." And then he allegedly said, "It's where I put my tongue in your mouth." So another thing that I wanted to talk to you about in regards to some of the stuff. What is she referring to about the conversation that you guys had regarding French kissing? Had to do something with Hershey kisses and I believe she had said that she didn't want your crusty kisses was what she had said. Do you remember that conversation? I did not. I did have Hershey's kisses in my classroom and I gave her kisses. And I would joke, you know, like there's my kisses, you know. But it was, I don't remember French kissing ever come here. Gotcha. Has she ever had any discussion with you about even if it's her like asking about what certain romantic gestures are or certain sexual? I guess conductives, like did she ever ask you stuff about that? I'm not quite sure exactly what you're referring to, but we would have discussions about boyfriends. And same with the girlfriends and relationships. And I always told them that you don't need relationships right now. Currently, I'm not sure. That's when it comes to joining the military, but I didn't do a relationship. You don't need that. She would discuss. Like not being loved or being, you know, boys being interested in her. And I just reassured and reaffirmed her that, you know, it doesn't matter. You don't need it. You know, I would kind of point out a lot of the other relationships and what was going on at point out with a lot of the teenagers. And I would say, like, you don't need to be like, you don't need to be showing skin. You don't need to be, what's called, constantly thinking about or being. Just basically always thinking about does other person, right? So you're not doing your work, right? You need to be focusing on work that is your job right now. So that's his answer to the allegation. And as we go on, I'll tell you, these allegations get more disturbing and the questions become darker from law enforcement to Fabian Benjamin as they're trying to figure out what's going on. With the other allegations she made, obviously, they're pretty serious in nature and pretty sure that you saw what was written down. Talk to me about, where do you think that's coming from? Is there a possibility because sometimes there is where someone can misconstrue an interaction and believe it to be one thing when it may not have? Is there any interaction you can think of that happened because of the constraint? The only thing I can think of, which was actually in the last, it was the order of protection where it says I have tended to pull down her pants. The only thing I can think of was when I had bought her some leggings and we were trying to figure out what the size was, that's it. So there was nothing sexual about it. I was trying to figure out the size of her pants. And I had asked her at first if what her size was and it's not like I just like turn around and let me look at the tag or try to find the tag. That was it. As far as the other allegations go, like having her take off her clothes, like, no, I don't have that kind of interaction with her. We are very, very together. And that interaction where you checked the size of her pants, do you know when that was? I have no idea. I don't care. Would you say in the last year, was it years ago? No, it would be within the last year because I just bought her the leggings, worked out the leggings from Fabletics and I didn't actually, the reason why I bought her Fabletics was because I was buying her gifts and it's like a reoccurring membership. And I had a credit and at the time, I didn't want to buy her anything. So I bought some of them and I wanted to start doing hiking. But those are just some of the allegations in this police report that the detective is talking about. Another part of the report that we saw, the alleged victim said that Fabian Benjamin allegedly exposed himself to her in the car and asked his stepdaughter to engage in sexual activity. It is far too graphic to read that part of the police report word for word. But in another alleged instance, this teacher was accused of being undressed and the victim said that he tried to lure her into a room and he allegedly tried to take her pants off and she said that she told him to stop. And would either of the kids go like with you while you were getting changed? No. No. Okay. And when I spoke with him, he had mentioned that there were a handful of times that he can remember when you were together, I'm assuming the back room is the master bedroom. Talk to me about those times. What would go on during that time? That was just once or twice. That's where I keep the lint rollers and it's very well lit. So if I was back there using the bathroom or getting changed, they would follow me back there and grab the lint roller because we have dog hair. How many times would that happen where they needed the lint roller? It was really like two or three times because when they were in uniform, they needed to make sure all the hair was out there in uniform and that was pretty much it. Okay. And that sometimes you helped lint roll her? Lint rolled both of them. Both of them? Okay. Anything that could be misinterpreted by her at that time? Was there ever a time that you lint rolled her lower half? Yes. She would ask me, did I get all of it? She would turn around and I wouldn't lint roll everything. Okay. And that included her butt. Okay. When you would lint roll her butt, was there any specific type of way that you did that? Just like this. You have to go sideways just to get the hair to stick to the lint roller because those dogs hair is literally does. It goes in and out. So you've got to go at different angles. During the time that you have ever lint rolled her, did you ever place your hand on any part of her body, such as her genital area, her butt or her breasts? No. Okay, is there anything that you can think of that she might be misinterpreting as? No. Okay. Um, that was one of the things that she had mentioned, was there was an incident where she walked in and wanted the lint roller and that's when she was saying was when you had pulled down her pants. So that I'm trying to figure out where all that's coming from. And if there was an incident where, because accidents sometimes happen, um, and I'm trying to figure out is there something that did happen or was it something that got misinterpreted? I don't know. No. Nothing you can think of? No. Okay. Um, at any point in time, did you ever to perform any sexual favors on you? No. Okay. Why do you think that she would tell me that? I don't know. Okay. So that's Fabian's side of the story. The police report also lays out another disturbing allegation that's made by the victim of an alleged incident that took place when she went to get a lint roller from a bathroom. She claims that she walked in on Fabian watching pornography and he was exposed in the victim claims that Fabian then pulled her pants down multiple times and eventually pressed himself into her behind. He then drove her back to her mom's house and allegedly told her quote, we're never going to do this again. And once again, the word for word in the police report is incredibly graphic to read. Now, in the body cam video, police then go into Fabian's house and they also explain to him that they will be taking his electronics as part of the search warrant. You're comfortable with it. Or I have to do, we're, we're, we're, it's quite, you tell me. Okay, um, the, the other thing that she, when she has seen, we're in a state of undress. So she has seen you make it before. Um, can you think of anything? Did you want to, yeah, okay, can you think of any time when she did see you make it? Or before they left, you know, we would have like some parties or whatever, um, I may have been changing and she could have possibly either walked by, um, during that time and seeing me, we lived together as a family for 10 plus years. So I mean, I'm sure there was instances where she may have accidentally walked in and I just never was aware. Okay. And within the last year, can you think of any times where she did see you make it? No. Okay. Um, and I think I already asked you, you, you haven't, okay, um, as far as it goes, um, with the search warrant that we're doing today for the devices and phones, um, that is because she said that you have shown her new photos of yourself on yourself, um, talk to me about that. I've never shown her new photos and the only, um, again, it's not a mind. I would go through their phones occasionally and to check to see what they were doing. I would find pony porn on their devices and I would discuss it with them, make sure they understood that this is fake, this is illegal, and you shouldn't be watching it. I have tried many times to change the adult settings on their phones through my phone, but every time I do that, something happens with their phones and they, they can't do anything. And because I don't live with them, I can't see what it's actually doing and kind of fix it. So I ended up always having to turn it off and I never got to the point where honestly, I felt like it was appropriate, like effective. Okay. So I ended up getting to the point where I just, I could see what apps they were using, but I couldn't see like, what websites they were going to, um, and stuff like that. And I couldn't, I knew they had access to it, but I could not block it, because again, every time I tried to block it, I get on my phone at 12 o'clock in the morning, called me one time at 10 o'clock at night. I wasn't bad. She was on speed, or was yelling at me because she couldn't access her photos. So you can see Fabian is, it seems being pretty open with investigators and he has somewhat of an explanation for each instance that law enforcement is asking about and he is on the surface being very cooperative in this investigation. So this body cam happened in March of 2025 and Fabian wasn't arrested that day, but he was arrested months later on July 8th. Here is a video of him sitting down with investigators and he has a lawyer by his side. Thank you. Thank you. How are things going with this school right now? Where were you at with that? I was standing where I was before. I wasn't able to return back to work. Still waiting on some qualifications on the investigation before I know if I can return. Gotcha. And I understood the last place that they had you as I can add in the section. I was supposed to be hired on as the principal of PDS, but I, because of the investigation, they put somebody else in the position. Okay. And you sir, how are you doing today? I'm fine. How are you? Good. So tell me, you guys have been here for two years? We already had an appointment here about a few years. Yeah. But yeah, people who have been talking about two years ago. Well, he told me to where this was. I was like, what is there? I had no idea. You guys were even here. I suppose that's the point, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I have a question before we get started. Of course. Have you developed a problem caused to the rest of my client? Yes, I have. Okay. Well, then let's do that and we'll be on our way. Okay. Don't want to make any comments on any other things? No. At all. Okay. Gotcha. Um. Okay. Sounds good, then. One of the charges that you're suggesting. I'm sorry. I can't see that. It's so dark. You know, they're so dark. They're too young. Right? Yeah. I'm struggling with my contacts this morning. Yeah. Contact. Because you're having issues, so just give me a second. I'll let everything work. Okay. That was the delay this morning with some technical issues. Yeah. Technology. It's wonderful. It works. But it doesn't work here behind me. Well, I was talking to your receptionist about the fact that they don't have a button. She said they did. Hey, broke. Through the door. Yeah. So as you can see here, Fabian's attorney wants to keep things brief. Which is, we often see, the kind of legal advice that a lawyer would give. Take his client into custody, then they can get started in the next step of the process. But as we've been watching this body, Kim, you've probably been able to pick out that Fabian likes to talk. And he has a question for his attorney. Watch this. Can we hear the good questions there? Do you want to hear the questions that they had? Well, I can't stop you from answering your questions. I just strongly recommend that you don't. I understand you guys are willing to talk on your own. With your legal advice here, your counsel here. I just want to, I want to hear and see the questions. Of course. I'm not saying that I'll answer. I just want to hear. It's up to you if you want to ask them. But I mean. I guess it's kind of hard to ask the question without having the other response. Just because the next still leads me to an unanswered question as to what's going on with certain things. If that makes sense. Obviously, not before she'd answer anything. It was just some, it had to do with some things that I found in the phone. That were just concerning regarding one more. That's what it was. So I just, I want to clarification on that. Like I said, I'll respect that you guys don't want to answer your questions. That's what they didn't write, of course. But it just, they had to do it that way. Yeah, if you've developed probable cause to making a rest, he's not walking out of here anyway. That's true. Okay. That's the lady. She's right. It's like the lead you're straight for that one. Here's the moment that a deputy comes in, Fabian's cuffed and brought to the county jail. Fabian resigned from his job as a teacher at Buena High School on July 10th. That's two days after his arrest. Morning. Morning. How are you? So yes, this would be Corporal Fair here. Thank you from here. Go ahead and turn around. Well, it's everything in your pocket time. So you left everything out. There's a frog when he got here. We left his truck in my place. Oh. So we're going to be called at your parking lot. Oh, we have plenty of room, so. And like I said, well, um, Detective Luna's working on the paperwork. So we'll get that covered for it and just need to transport it. Okay. You don't have a PC statement yet. She has it. She's just putting it all together. Okay. I think she was waiting for the outcome of this to finish that. Okay. I'm going to tell us the comment that I got one transport there review, does that matter? Oh, yeah. You can tell him that you're transporting. Um, they're asking for a D.R. number just to contact you. Yeah. Fabian Benjamin was charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, lowering a minor for sexual exploitation, obscene material, furnishing the miners, sexual abuse, and public sexual indecency with contact. And a pre-trial conference on July 20th in his case is still active. And once again, we want to say he's innocent until proven guilty. Now in the wake of his arrest, the sheriff of Cochise County said this quote, this investigation is being conducted in the most efficient manner possible with respect to the victim in this case. It is unfortunate that a person who is placed in a position of trust within our educational institutions can allegedly be capable of these criminal actions violating our youth and their future. For this episode of On the Case, presented by law and crime, subscribe to us on YouTube and Spotify, and we're also streaming on PCI. I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time.