Former head of Hennepin County public defender’s office admits to drunken driving in Wayzata

The former head of the Hennepin County public defender’s office has pleaded guilty to driving drunk in connection with a 2022 incident where police stopped him as he drove east in a westbound lane of Hwy. 12 in Wayzata.

Kassius Benson, 53, pleaded guilty in Hennepin County District Court last week to a misdemeanor drunken driving count. Police stopped him in his pickup truck about 2:15 a.m. on Oct. 15, 2022.

After his arrest, a preliminary breath test administered by law enforcement measured Benson’s blood alcohol content at 0.14%, nearly twice the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.

“I make no challenge to the procedure or test result,” Benson, of Plymouth, wrote in his guilty plea filing.

Benson’s plea calls for a 30-day jail term to be set aside and for him to be on probation for one year. Sentencing has yet to be scheduled.

The stop occurred two days before Benson announced his resignation as chief public defender amid a federal investigation into allegations of tax evasion. He was sentenced in May to three years’ probation and ordered to pay the Internal Revenue Service $213,591.81 in restitution.