Ex-Beaufort Co. preschool teacher expecting plea offer in federal child porn case
A former Port Royal preschool teacher whose child exploitation cases span several states is set to stand trial later this summer — unless he accepts a plea agreement that his lawyer said was forthcoming.
The federal trial of Brandon Baker, a 38-year-old Beaufort resident charged with sexual exploitation of a minor in South Carolina state court and Iowa federal court, is scheduled for Aug. 17, according to court filings.
Baker’s federal trial was originally set for late April, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark A. Roberts in the Northern District of Iowa twice approved the defense’s requests to delay the proceedings. Baker pleaded not guilty to all nine of his federal charges at his arraignment in late February.
In both motions to continue the Iowa trial, Baker’s defense attorney Jill M. Johnston cited the “voluminous” amount of evidence that needs to be sifted through and the fact that Baker is housed at the Bremer County Jail, making it difficult to schedule in-person client conferences. Bremer County is located about an hour and a half from the Cedar Rapids federal courthouse where the trial is scheduled to take place.
In her second motion, filed June 4, Johnston wrote that plea negotiations are ongoing and “it is likely a plea agreement will be extended to Mr. Baker in the next week.” The delayed trial would allow Baker to consider any proposed plea deal and “determine whether or not he wishes to take his case to trial,” Johnston wrote in the motion to continue, which went unopposed by prosecutors and was approved by Roberts the day after its filing.
Arrested at a Port Royal preschool
Baker was an employee at the Sea Island Sprouts preschool near downtown Port Royal. The school serves children aged 1 through 4.
Baker was arrested at the preschool Jan. 27 during morning dropoff and charged by the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. His arrest warrants allege he had digital files of child sexual abuse material and used a “file-sharing network” to distribute it at his St. Helena Island home.
The day after bailing out of the Beaufort County jail, Baker was arrested again by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations and extradited to Iowa for the federal charge, which involves accusations of Baker sexually abusing an underage boy in Grundy Center, Iowa in 2013, when Baker was 26.
Federal charges involve allegations from Iowa, Colorado
In November 2024, police in Telluride, Colorado, executed search warrants on Baker’s home and the local preschool where he worked, Rascals Rainbow Rockies. Among the items seized by law enforcement was a memory card containing multiple CSAM images, the criminal complaint says, including photos of a “nude prepubescent boy” who in an interview later confirmed to police the two “regularly” had sex in Baker’s apartment in Grundy Center when the victim was underage.
Telluride officials at the time announced the searches and their investigation into Baker, but the police operation did not result in charges until after his arrest in Port Royal. The material allegedly found in Baker’s electronics by police led to his eventual nine federal charges in 2026, including two counts of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
A public records search indicates Baker had a Beaufort County address beginning in June 2024, about two months after he was detained and questioned by Colorado police. Baker worked at Sea Island Sprouts since at least May 2025, according to previous reporting from The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, and records show the school was registered as a business with the S.C. Secretary of State in December 2024.
In a January email, Sea Island Sprouts administrators told parents that based on their limited information from police, “there is no indication that any children at Sea Island Sprouts were involved” in Baker’s alleged crimes.
Port Royal police said they in February they were investigating a report of Baker’s “suspicious actions” during his time at Sea Island Sprouts, following calls from “concerned parents of students and former students.” The department had not announced any charges stemming from that investigation as of June.
