Former Eagan pastor sentenced to prison for fondling college-age parishioner – Twin Cities

Priests “should be people you can trust,” Bruce Douglas Konold’s victim told the court Friday.

But the college-age woman said Konold, 63, “betrayed me, betrayed me in my most vulnerable moments and in the most humiliating ways.”

“Your Honor, I have been shamelessly exploited by a man who took pleasure in abusing his position as a priest to derive sexual gratification from my vulnerability,” he said. “My suffering was a means to his end.”

Dakota County District Judge Ann Offermann sentenced Konold to 90 days in jail on Friday. The judge suspended the two-year sentence, making it possible for Konold’s conviction to be reduced to a misdemeanor after 10 years of supervised probation.

The jury is out in September found Konold guilty A 2021 case of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct involving the former parishioner found that the intercourse occurred while he was giving her ongoing religious advice, a felony in Minnesota. They hung Konold on a more serious third-degree charge and acquitted him of two similar charges involving a second parishioner.

conold lead pastor of Eagan Hills Church for 25 years until he resigned in February 2022, shortly after his then-wife discovered his sexual relationship with the woman. After the accusations, she ended her 32-year marriage.

The church is affiliated with the Evangelical Christian and Missionary Alliance.

I longed to be a father figure

The victim began attending church in January 2021, according to the criminal complaint. The following month, he said Konold told him he needed a father figure and began providing him with regular spiritual counseling and guidance.

The woman, then 20, told police in March 2022 that Konold fondled her at his home in 2021, leading to multiple sexual encounters at his home, church, hotels and in his vehicle.

He said Konold suggested he stay at his house while he took a break from college. One day Konold gave him a few alcoholic drinks and he felt foggy and had difficulty walking. She said he then touched her genitals over her clothing and tried to take her clothes off several times before pushing her away.

Konold began regularly sending sexual messages to the woman and suggested she move into his home at the end of the school year. She found him a cleaning job at the church.

He said the sexual acts began in May 2021 and continued until the end of the year. He told police he “had conflicting feelings about the events and explained that some of the events were non-consensual,” the complaint said.

He said Konold’s wife approached him in December 2021 and told him “not to show his face in church again and to disappear completely,” according to the complaint.

In March 2022, police also spoke with a 30-year-old woman who said she and her husband had attended Konold’s church for about 10 years and that he offered her a personal assistant job at the church in 2020.

She said Konold first fondled her at his home in June 2020, and that he then agreed to have sex with her at a hotel the following November after promising to leave her alone. He said this then led to multiple sexual encounters at his home, his hotel, and his vehicle at locations near the church and Lebanon Hills Regional Park.

The complaint alleged that during the sexual encounter, the woman continued to meet regularly with Konold for one-on-one spiritual counseling and guidance.

In an interview with police in March 2022, Konold said he had sexual intercourse with the woman approximately 15 times. In the complaint, he expressed concern about the church’s support of mission work, saying it was “not right for them to continue to support a woman who is committing adultery.” “He quoted a Bible verse about ‘stoning’ women who commit adultery.”

The complaint stated that Konold described his relationship with the 20-year-old woman as “another adulterous relationship.”

Konold told police the woman saw him as a father figure and expressed that “his conversations were spiritual because he was considered a leading expert on world religions,” according to the complaint.

‘Filled with regret’

Konold’s attorney, Kevin DeVore, said in court Friday that the factual basis for the jury’s verdict was that his client touched the victim’s groin area through her clothing. “Additional attempts were made to engage in some type of sexual activity, but these were rejected by the victim and Mr. Konold eventually consented and walked away,” DeVore said.

Konold told the court he respected the jury’s verdict: “And I fully understand that I broke the law. I understand I betrayed the trust of those I was supposed to help and protect. … I am so sorry for those I hurt. This should never have happened.”

Konold said he was “filled with regret, pain and shame,” adding: “My life is now defined by the sins I have committed in a short period of time.”

Offermann told Konold that he had read the presentation research and psychological evaluation more than once and found that “what you focus on…is the consequences you suffer.”

“And just like the statement you made here today… me, me, me instead of those affected,” he said.