A former Detroit police officer currently living in North Carolina is facing charges that he sexually assaulted a series of women more than two decades after the crimes occurred in Michigan.
Benjamin Wagner, a 68-year-old retired police officer living in Pitt County, is facing charges for sexually assaulting five women between 1999 and 2003, said Kym Worthy, prosecutor for Wayne County, Michigan, during a press conference on March 19.
These assaults allegedly occurred while Wagner was employed as a sergeant at the Detroit Police Department in Michigan, where he began working in 1989, Worthy said. While she couldn’t disclose how long Wagner had been on their radar during the press conference, Worthy referred to the charges against Wagner as “a culmination of a multi-year journey to justice.”
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The Greenville Police Department helped the FBI locate and arrest Wagner at the Pitt-Greenville Airport in North Carolina on March 17, according to a Facebook post from the Greenville police.
“At this time, we have no information to suggest Wagner was involved in any criminal activity in Greenville,” the department said. “He has not been connected to any local cases, and his DNA has not matched any cases in our system.”
Carolina Public Press reached out to Greenville police for comment, but did not receive a response before publication.
Wagner moved to Greenville, N.C., after his retirement from the Detroit police in 2017, but will return to Michigan to face his charges there, Worthy said during the press conference.
Wagner had been working at the airport for Piedmont Airlines and has been “immediately suspended pending the investigation,” the corporate communications team for Piedmont Airlines said. The airline did not address when Wagner had any disciplinary issues while working for them in the past when asked by CPP, but said they were cooperating with the investigation.
“We are aware that a Piedmont Airlines team member was arrested recently at the Pitt-Greenville Airport,” the communications team said. “We are fully cooperating with law enforcement on their investigation and any further questions should be referred to them.”
Wagner received “several awards and commendations” during his time with Detroit police, Worthy said. Todd Bettison, the chief of police at the Detroit Police Department, said the allegations against Wagner “absolutely shock the conscience,” and that his actions “do not represent the integrity and the values and the mission of the officers of the Detroit Police Department,” during the press conference.
When CPP reached out to Worthy’s office, Maria Miller, director of communications at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office in Detroit, referred CPP to the earlier press conference and said Worthy wouldn’t comment further on the case at this time.
The ages of the women Wagner allegedly assaulted ranged from 15 to 23 years old at the time, Worthy said. Among the charges Wagner is facing are criminal sexual conduct in the first degree and kidnapping, according to Michigan court records.
In each of the alleged sexual assault cases, Worthy approached the women with a gun while they were walking to a friend’s house, the store or school and then forced them to go with him to another location before assaulting them. Wagner threatened their lives if they reported the assaults, Worthy said.
At this time, it’s unknown whether Wagner had any contact with the victims or whether he engaged with them while on duty before the alleged assaults, Worthy said. However, the assaults all occurred within five and a half miles of Wagner’s home, she said.
During the press conference, Worthy said she couldn’t answer to the circumstances of Wagner’s retirement from the police department or whether he had any other allegations or charges against him in other locations.
When asked during the press conference whether there could be more victims, Worthy said “anything’s possible,” but wouldn’t comment any further. She said while the allegations and charges in the five cases being discussed were closed, she still considers this to be a “continuing investigation.”
Detroit sexual assault kit backlog
The charges against Wagner surfaced as part of a larger, years-long effort to investigate unsolved sexual assault kits discovered in the Detroit police warehouse in 2009, Worthy said. It took eight or nine years to test more than 11,000 cases, starting with the oldest ones that were nearing the statute of limitations, she said.
Backlogs like this aren’t unheard of. CPP reported on such a backlog in North Carolina back in 2019, saying the state had “the most untested rape kits in the entire nation,” with more than 15,000 untested kits.
However, that backlog ended in 2024 under then-Attorney General Josh Stein. After working through and testing all of the kits, his office added more than 5,000 DNA samples to the CODIS DNA database, resulting in roughly 2,700 hits. Because of those hits, at least 114 arrests were made, according to Stein’s monthly column from April 2024.
“We’re also making sure another backlog of kits never builds up again in North Carolina,” Stein said in the column. “Now, each kit comes with a barcode so prosecutors, law enforcement, and especially victims can track the status of their kit.”
Wagner’s arraignment was scheduled for March 26, and his next scheduled appearance will be for a probable cause conference on April 7, according to Michigan court records.
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