A convicted pedophile who began identifying as “transgender” after his incarceration is currently housed in a women’s prison in Minnesota, where he has been exposing himself to women and writing poetry about rape. Daniel Patrick Benz, who legally changed his name to Danielle Marie Whitebird in June of 2023, has been accused by multiple female inmates at Shakopee women’s prison of exposing his penis to them and asking them to read aloud poetry he wrote containing descriptions of rape.
Female inmates have told Reduxx that the fear of retaliation from prison officials has kept many women from filing official complaints. One common method of punishing inmates is to place them in segregation, or “seg,” which is a temporary form of solitary confinement.
“They put Danny in the same unit as me,” said inmate Chaos Bell. “Since he has been in the unit, he has been showing his penis to us, having women read his poems that are about rape. He is across the hall from [redacted] and she told someone that he showed his penis to her, too. He got aggressive after I confronted him. I keep telling everyone to report him, but they are scared of going to seg.”
Another inmate, who will be referred to as “Jane Doe” to protect her safety, verified the claims to Reduxx and said she lodged a complaint on September 1. “I was working cleaning the unit, and he was housed in RSVLT upper B. His room was right next to the bathroom I was cleaning,” Doe said.
“He called my name and asked me if I wanted to see his dick. I said no, and he said, ‘Well, can I read you something?’ and he started reading out of his book where he writes poems. What he was reading me was gross. He mentioned things that consist of rape and being in charge.”
“I do not feel safe at all, especially since I filed the report,” Doe continued. “I know there are other girls who are afraid to come forward. An officer came to speak with me and all he asked me was, did Danny leave the unit immediately after what he did to me. I do not think they are taking this seriously. I just saw Danny in the court yard this morning and I was really uncomfortable.”
Benz has a lengthy criminal history spanning two decades. Yet despite his many convictions for robbery, assault, and the sexual abuse of a 6-year-old girl, Benz was released last year from women’s prison MCF Shakopee. He was recently arrested and placed in MCF Shakopee for a second time after being convicted on new felony charges shortly after his release. According to the accounts provided by female inmates, he began behaving in a sexually aggressive manner almost immediately.
After his most recent release from Shakopee in September 2024, Benz was again arrested in June this year for threatening law enforcement upon their discovery that he was in possession of illegal firearms. As reported by Alpha News, an officer noticed his pickup truck exit from an area of storage units after midnight. The truck was missing its front license plate, causing the officer to become suspicious.
Law enforcement confronted Benz and discovered a power tool in his pocket, as well as bolt cutters and a pry bar inside the truck. Officers soon observed that three storage units had been broken into, and a search of the pickup truck uncovered a loaded handgun, a modified 12-gauge shotgun, and 20 rounds of ammunition. Officers ran a background check, noted Benz’s extensive criminal history, and saw that he had been prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition due to four prior violent felony convictions, including burglary with a dangerous weapon and criminal sexual predation.
Benz was previously transferred into the women’s facility in 2023 while serving a sentence in a men’s prison for the theft of a motor vehicle in 2018, a charge which carries a maximum ten-year sentence. During his time there, he was also accused of exposing himself to women. It is unclear what measures, if any, the Minnesota DOC took to address his sexually aggressive behavior.
The convicted sexual predator obtained a transfer to the women’s prison by claiming to suffer from “gender dysphoria”. On February 27, 2023, Benz filed a civil rights complaint which ultimately resulted in his transfer into MCF Shakopee.
The complaint was lodged ahead of his legal name change to Danielle Marie Whitebird in June of that year, after his petition was approved by the state of Minnesota. In addition to the name change, Benz also was supplied with a “replacement birth record” which declared his sex as female, despite not having undergone any surgeries, according to his own legal complaints.
In 2007, Benz was convicted of criminal sexual misconduct with a victim under the age of 13. According to court records obtained by Reduxx, St. Louis county police officers responded to a tip from the Eveleth Police Department in July regarding the sexual abuse of a minor.
Eveleth police had received a text message informing law enforcement that Benz had “played a game of touch the peanuts” with a 6 year-old girl. The informant, whose name has been redacted, said the girl had been acting oddly for two weeks. The child divulged to the individual that “Dan” had sexually molested her on multiple occasions.
Benz had been staying in the same residence as the victim after having been evicted from his apartment. During an interview with a social worker, the girl stated that Benz had been touching her genitals.
“One night when her mommies went to pick up her daddy, she was with Dan at her house,” reads the 2007 complaint. “They were sitting together watching a movie… [The girl] stated that Dan reached with his hand and went inside of the left leg of her pajama pants. He then put his hand inside her panties and touched her on top of her vagina.” The victim also described other similar instances of abuse.
Benz was handed the maximum 25-year sentence. However, his long history of criminal behavior indicates that he was released after serving just five years, in approximately 2012, when he was convicted of a misdemeanor for giving a police officer a false name – a charge that appears multiple times throughout his criminal record.
While incarcerated in a men’s facility, Benz began claiming to experience “gender dysphoria”. When filing a request for a change of name and legal sex in February 2023, Benz claimed to be a “transgender woman [whose] legal documents do not match my gender and gender identity.”
“It is painful, difficult, and uncomfortable for the party addressing me, when they inquire about the ‘male’ legal name, and my ‘male’ sex identifier are on my legal documents,” Benz wrote.
He continued: “I humbly request this court changes my ‘current legal name’ Daniel Patrick Benz to Danielle Marie Whitebird, and my current sex identification from ‘male’ to ‘female’, in order to match my gender and gender identity. This will alleviate my unnecessary suffering.”
Concurrently, Benz had also filed a human rights complaint requesting a transfer to the women’s prison MCF Shakopee on the basis of the Eighth Amendment’s clause against “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“Ms. Benz-Whitebird’s case satisfies both elements of the deliberate indifference test,” Benz wrote in his complaint, referring to himself in the third person. “She has presented extensive evidence that, despite hormone therapy, she continues to experience gender dysphoria so significant that she continues to have thoughts of self-castration and is at serious risk of acting on that impulse again.”
The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) violated Benz’s human rights, he claimed, by failing to transfer him to MCF Shakopee in a “timely manner,” and “failing to house Plaintiff in a female facility according to her gender identity which would ensure safety and reduce the risk of sexual victimization.”
Benz is not the only trans-identified male transfer to Shakopee who has been accused of exposing himself to women held there.
Bradley Richard Sirvio, who is serving a life sentence for brutally beating a man to death with a hammer, recently underwent genital surgery and has allegedly been exposing his mutilated penis to female inmates.
Former Shakopee inmate Rebeca Warmbo regularly communicates with women prisoners and advocates against the placement of trans-identified male convicts there. Speaking with Alpha News journalist Liz Collins, Warmbo said Sirvio has repeatedly exposed his genitals to female inmates.
“As soon as he got it done, he started showing it off to everybody,” Warmbo said. “He’s been exposing himself to the women in there, and ended up going into segregation for it.”
“How can you feel safe when you have a man showing off parts that are now deformed and cut off? The reason why they’re doing this is because they’re afraid that when these new laws go into effect, they’re going to be sent back to a men’s prison. They’re doing this so they can guarantee they will stay in a women’s prison,” she added.
As is typical for “transgender” body alterations obtained while incarcerated, taxpayers have footed the bill.
At least five male convicts have been transferred to a Minnesota’s women-only prison following the adoption of a gender identity policy by the Department of Corrections in January of 2023. Two of the men who are now being held at MCF Shakopee are sexual predators serving sentences related to the abuse of children.
One of the men convicted of child sexual abuse who has been transferred in to Shakopee has, according to sources, become visibly erect after he stood up during a classroom session and began ranting about the harmful impacts of rape. Elijah Thomas Berryman is currently serving his 25-year sentence at the women’s prison, having pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct committed against a child over a period of a year.
According to reports from inmates, Berryman has used his internet privileges to obtain photos of female inmates’ children in order to threaten them into silence.
Last year, a man with multiple convictions for domestic assault who was transferred in was accused of attacking a female inmate. Nathan Trevon Jones, who calls himself “Natalia,” is a repeat offender who was most recently convicted of assault in the fifth degree, was said to have repeatedly punched a woman during an altercation.
The prison policy was altered following a June 2022 lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Corrections which ultimately resulted in the implementation of measures permitting male convicts to be housed in the female estate.
The discrimination claim was filed by the trans activist non-profit organization Gender Justice on behalf of Craig ‘Christina’ Lusk, who was serving a five-year sentence for the possession of methamphetamine at the Moose Lake correctional facility for men. In order to aid their legal fight to have violent men placed into the women’s prison, Gender Justice was granted nearly $500,000 in taxpayer funds from the administration of Governor Tim Walz.
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