3 women say Renaissance Festival boss assaulted them as teens

Two women have joined an earlier accuser in alleging that a onetime Renaissance Festival and Trail of Terror supervisor sexually assaulted them when they worked for him as teenagers, according to charges filed Wednesday.

The numerous counts of criminal sexual conduct in total span assaults from 2012 to 2017 while Bryan E. Ellinger managed staff at the seasonal attractions and support what prosecutors say he admitted after his arrest in January, when the first woman came forward.

"I guess I have predator behavior because I'm a predator" and need therapy for sex addiction, one of the two criminal complaints filed Wednesday in Scott County District Court quote the 31-year-old convicted sex offender as saying in a jailhouse phone call.

Ellinger, of Shakopee, appeared in court Thursday and remains jailed in lieu of $400,000 bail ahead of a court appearance Tuesday.

Defense attorney Richard Swanson said Ellinger called him Wednesday night and expressed that "he wants to see what can happen and is willing to talk about a resolution." Swanson said he and the County Attorney's Office are "in discussions" about all three cases, but he declined to offer specifics.

According to the criminal complaints:

The two women behind the latest charges came forward once word circulated about Ellinger's arrest in late January.

One of the women told police that she was 15 years old when the 24-year-old Ellinger took her into a Trail of Terror trailer in 2012 and had sex with her.

They both told authorities that it was widely known that Ellinger was preying on teenage girls working for him. One of them said he "flocked" around girls her age back then, the charges read.

Another woman who contacted police about a month ago said she was 17 and he was 28 when Ellinger assaulted her in 2017 on the job at the Renaissance Festival and at the Trail of Terror.

She also said Ellinger took her to his mother's home and forced her to join in sex with him and his girlfriend. County Attorney Ron Hocevar said Thursday that "we're interested into looking into that" encounter and possibly charging her as an accomplice.

At one point, the woman recalled telling Ellinger that she was sexually abused as a child by a family member. Ellinger used that information to "role play like he was the abuser from her prior victimization," a scenario that made her feel degraded, the charges read.

Ellinger has at least two convictions for sex-related crimes in Minnesota, according to court records. He was charged in Scott County as a juvenile in 2007 and found guilty of third-degree sexual assault for having sex with someone more than two years younger than him as well as indecent exposure. In 2009, he was convicted as an adult for failing to register as a predatory sex offender in 2009.

About a year later, he started working for Trail of Terror along with the Renaissance Festival.

A spokeswoman for the operators of the two attractions, Shakopee-based Mid-America Festivals, said the company does not initiate background checks on prospective contractors but has them promise in writing to follow its policies, including avoiding harassment or causing other harm. Each of the contractors also attest to having a history free of crimes or conduct that causes or risks violence against vulnerable adults or children.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

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