After SC arrest, ex-Port Royal preschool worker set to appear in Iowa federal court
After his on-campus arrest left a community reeling, a former Beaufort County preschool worker is expected to appear in federal court halfway across the country early next week.
St. Helena Island resident Brandon Scott Baker, a 38-year-old former employee at Sea Island Sprouts preschool in Port Royal, is scheduled for an initial appearance in Iowa federal court at 11 a.m. CST Monday for his charge of sexual exploitation of a child.
The hearing was initially scheduled for Friday in a Cedar Rapids courtroom but was rescheduled the morning of, judicial records show.
As part of the hearing, he will choose whether he wishes to participate in a preliminary hearing and detention hearing over the next several days. A detention hearing would include the setting of his bond, according to Tony Morfitt, a spokesperson at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa.
Baker was arrested at the preschool Jan. 27 by the South Carolina Attorney General on three state charges of sexual exploitation of a minor. The day after bailing out of the Beaufort County jail, Baker was arrested again by Homeland Security Investigations and extradited to Iowa for the federal charge, which involves accusations of Baker sexually abusing an underage boy.
It was unclear the order in which Baker’s two criminal cases — the federal case in Iowa and the state charges in South Carolina — could eventually be adjudicated. Morfitt said a grand jury would need to indict Baker before he can stand trial in Iowa.
Brandon Baker’s federal charge in Iowa
In the federal case, Baker is accused of possessing nude photographs of an underage boy, whom Baker allegedly had a “sexual relationship” with while living in Iowa around 2013, according to federal court documents. Baker was 26 at the time the photos were taken.
The photographs were uncovered over a decade later, when Baker lived in Telluride, Colorado and worked at the local Rainbow Rascals Rockies preschool, authorities said. Police found an SD card containing the images in an April 2024 search of his home and workplace after receiving a tip about suspicious online activity linked to Baker, according to the federal complaint.
Baker’s arrest in Beaufort County, SC
Public records listed Baker’s address as Beaufort County beginning in June 2024, about two months after he was detained and questioned by Colorado police. He was not charged with a crime in Colorado at that time.
Baker was arrested Jan. 27 during morning dropoff on the campus of Sea Island Sprouts in Port Royal. He is facing three state charges of possessing and exchanging child sexual abuse material. His arrest warrants allege he used a “file-sharing network” to commit the crime in his St. Helena home as early as Nov. 15.
After Baker’s South Carolina arrest, parents spoke out in support of Sea Island Sprouts, saying the “system” failed the school because Baker’s federal background check did not show the active investigation in Colorado.
In early communication with parents, Sea Island Sprouts administrators said there was “no indication” that any students had been harmed by Baker, The Island Packet previously reported. But after one report of “suspicious actions” received from a parent earlier this month, the Port Royal Police Department launched its own investigation into the employee’s conduct during his roughly six-month stint at the school, according to Port Royal police.
This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
