Mankato students return as football coach is hit with child porn charges
Thursday is move-in day at Minnesota State University in Mankato and thousands of new students will descend on campus to prepare for a new school year. In addition to student orientations and new roommates, they'll encounter a community reeling with disbelief, as the university's head football coach faces accusations involving child pornography.
All around Mankato, everyone's talking about football coach Todd Hoffner, who was arraigned Wednesday on charges of using minors in a sexual performance and possession of child pornography.
The criminal complaint alleges that 46-year-old Hoffner used a university-issued phone to take pornographic videos of his three children, all under the age of 10. According to the complaint, the videos show the children dancing in the nude. In one video, the children exhibit sexually suggestive poses.
In the complaint, investigators said they identified the alleged victims as Hoffner's children because the children referred to an adult in the video as "dad."
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In court, Hoffner's attorney, James Fleming, said the videos Hoffner took were quote "private family moments that were videotaped."
"There's nothing in there that's graphic or sexually exploitive or anything along those lines," he said afterward.
The complaint says the videos were discovered when Hoffner took his phone to the university's IT department for service. MSU officials then went to the Mankato Police Department with a CD holding three video files. The Mankato police turned the investigation over to the Blue Earth County Sheriff's Office, since Hoffner lives in Eagle Lake, outside Mankato city limits.
Hoffner has served as head coach of the university's football team for four years. MSU spokesman Dan Benson said Tuesday that Hoffner has been on leave from his position since Friday. The university is conducting its own investigation.
Outside the university Wednesday afternoon, senior Kristin Jackson says news of Hoffner's charges has shaken the community, just as students arrive for the fall semester.
"It's picked up steam pretty quickly. And students are coming back to town right about now. As more people are coming, it's getting to more people," Jackson said.
"I'm hoping it won't cast a bad light" on the university, she added. "The problem is, you've got something like the Sandusky trial and the connections are automatically being made, you know? When you're reading the stories online, there's a lot of negative comments, a lot of things being said, which I think is unfortunate. Hopefully it won't do a lot of damage to the school. It's a good school, and community."
Mankato City Manager Pat Hentges says Hoffner's prominence in the community has heightened everyone's reaction to the news of his arrest and charges. But Hentges praises the university for how it handled the discovery of the videos.
"This isn't a Penn State matter from the standpoint that the university administration, essentially, didn't ignore this matter for 10 years. They dealt with it as soon as they became aware of it," he said.
Still, he says, many people in the community, especially some of the students on the football team, are still trying to come to terms with the charges.
"They're late teens, early 20-year-old young men, and I'm sure there's feelings of betrayal, feelings of anger, there's feelings of uncertainty," he said.
Hoffner's bail is set at $10,000 with conditions, or $40,000 without conditions. His next court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 30. Prosecutors had requested bail conditions to include he have no contact with the children, but Blue Earth District Court Judge George Harrelson said he could have supervised contact.
