A jury on Tuesday found a 63-year-old former Eagan pastor guilty of committing fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2021 involving a college-age parishioner.

Bruce Douglas Konold (Courtesy of Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)

Bruce Douglas Konold was the lead pastor at Eagan Hills Church for 25 years until he resigned in February 2022, shortly after his then-wife learned of his sexual relations with the woman.

Dakota County jurors were hung on a third-degree criminal sexual conduct charge against Konold, and acquitted him of two other charges involving a second parishioner — one count each of third- and fourth-degree sexual conduct. They deliberated for part of all of four days before reaching the verdict.

Minnesota law says it’s a felony for members of the clergy to have a sexual relationship with a person they are counseling or to whom they are providing spiritual advice.

Konold’s attorney, Kevin DeVore, said Wednesday the prosecution had to prove that he was meeting with the women on an ongoing basis to give them religious or spiritual comfort, aid or advice in private.

“We argued that wasn’t happening, there were no private meetings to do that kind of stuff,” he said. “And we thought we presented enough for a jury to find him not guilty on all the counts.”

Prosecutors originally charged Konold in August 2022 by warrant with six counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, six counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of harassment. They dismissed all but the four charges in April.

Konold was taken into custody after the verdict. He had been out on a $100,000 bond since Sept. 13, 2022, 11 days after he was booked into jail on the charges.

He’s scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 22. Minnesota sentencing guidelines call for a presumptive stayed three-year prison sentence and up to 364 days in jail, DeVore said.

He said it was adultery

According to the criminal complaint, a 20-year-old woman told police in March 2022 that Konold fondled her at his home in 2021 and it led to numerous sexual encounters, which occurred at his home, the church, hotels and in his vehicle.

She said she began attending the church in January 2021. She said the next month Konold told her she needed a father figure and began providing her with spiritual counseling and guidance on a regular basis.

During a break from college, she said Konold suggested that she stay at his home. One day, Konold gave her several alcoholic drinks — she was not of legal age to drink — and she felt foggy and had difficulty walking. She said he then touched her genitals above her clothing and tried to remove her clothes several times before she pushed him away.

Konold began sending the woman sexual messages regularly and suggested she move into his home at the end of her school year. He got her a cleaning job at the church.

Sexual acts began in May 2021, she said, and continued until the end of the year. She described to police how she had “conflicting emotions about the incidents, explaining that there were certain incidents that didn’t feel consensual,” the complaint read.

She said Konold’s wife approached her in December 2021 and told her “to never show her face again at the church and to disappear completely,” according to the complaint.

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

She said Konold first fondled her at his home in June 2020 and she agreed to have sex with him at a hotel the following November after he promised to leave her alone afterward. She said it later led to numerous sexual encounters, which occurred at his home, her home, a hotel and in his vehicle in places near the church and Lebanon Hills Regional Park.

The complaint alleged that during the time of the sexual acts, which continued until January 2021, the woman continued to regularly meet with Konold for one-on-one spiritual counseling and guidance.

In a March 2022 interview with police, Konold said he had sexual relations with the woman about 15 times. He expressed concerns about the church supporting her mission work, saying that “it was not right that they continue to support an adulteress,” the complaint read. He “quoted a Bible verse regarding adulterous women being ‘stoned.’ ”

Konold described his relationship with the 20-year-old woman as “another adulterous relationship,” the complaint said.

Konold did not directly answer the question from an investigator of whether he considered her as someone seeking spiritual counseling, but said she thought of him as a father figure and “explained that his conversations are spiritual given that he is considered one of the foremost experts in world religions,” according to the complaint.

Konold and his wife divorced in October 2022, according to court records.

Eagan Hills Church, located at 700 Diffley Road, is affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, an evangelical Christian denomination.

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Ryder Ritchie is beginning his quest for an NHL job this week, joining the Wild’s prospects for three days of practices leading to this weekend’s fourth annual Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase in St. Louis.

Minnesota’s second-round pick in June’s amateur draft just turned 18 on Aug. 3 and is a reedy 6-foot-1, 175 pounds. Traded to Medicine Hat of the WHL, he’s expected in Alberta this fall, where he joins a team stacked with NHL prospects expected to make a run at winning the major juniors’ heaviest league.

But Ritchie isn’t intimidated by the company he has this week at TRIA Rink in downtown St. Paul, where he was reunited with a few dozen of the Wild’s best prospects two months after his first NHL development camp.

“I feel comfortable here, I feel confident,” he said after a Wednesday morning practice. “I’m looking forward to it.”

The son of former NHL wing Byron Ritchie, Ryder missed nearly two months of his second season with Prince George with a lower-body injury last winter but still finished with 19 goals and 25 assists in 47 games. In May, he scored four goals and eight points for Canada at the IIHF junior world championships.

The Wild used the 45th overall pick on Ritchie on June 29, and with first-round pick Zeev Buium headed back to the University of Denver this fall, he’s the highest 2024 pick in camp.

Playing in the WHL, he said, has prepared him for his next step.

“You’re used to getting hit, you’re used to playing against big, strong guys,” Ritchie said. “I mean, I was 16 at the time playing against a lot of 20-year-olds, so that was kind of part of it. But I think it helps coming up here, because I’m playing against some 25-year-olds. That part of it helps.”

Barring an injury, there isn’t a sure-fire opening for a prospect on the Wild’s NHL roster this fall, maybe a third-line forward job. Training camp begins next Thursday, and Riley Heidt and Hunter Haight — former third-round draft picks coming off of monster CHL seasons — are the likeliest candidates already in St. Paul this week.

The group will practice again Thursday and Friday before flying Saturday morning to St. Louis, where they will play against prospects the Chicago Blackhawks at 6 p.m. Saturday, then the Blues prospects at 3 p.m. Sunday.

“It’s going to be cool playing for the Minnesota Wild, per se, putting on that jersey with all the other prospects,” he said. “It’s a moment I’m really looking forward to, and I can’t wait to showcase myself and compete out there.”

Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase

At Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, Mo. All practice sessions and games will be free and open to the public.

Friday: Blues prospects practice, 10:30 a.m.; Blackhawks prospects practice, 11:30 a.m.; Blues vs. Blackhawks, 7 p.m.

Saturday: Blues prospects practice, 10:30 a.m.; Blackhawks prospects practice, 11:30 a.m.*; Blackhawks vs. Wild, 6 p.m.

Sunday: Wild prospects practice, 8:30 a.m.; Blues prospects practice, 9:30 a.m.; Blues vs. Wild, 3 p.m.

In the minutes leading up to first pitch Wednesday night, a flyover featuring a quartet of F-35 Lightning IIs from the 421st Fighter Squadron based at the Hill Air Force Base in Utah emerged from behind the left-field scoreboard and zipped over Target Field.

Capt. Parker Jax — a younger brother of Twins pitcher Griffin Jax — and his wife Capt. Chandler Jax were among the pilots involved. The flyover completed, Capt. Carson Jax, Parker’s twin, took the mound to throw out a first pitch caught by Griffin.

The Jaxes’ parents were in attendance, in addition to a host of other family members. Griffin Jax, himself a captain in the Air Force Reserve, estimated it’s been a few years since his whole family has been able to get together, so Wednesday’s reunion at Target Field carried some extra significance.

The idea, Griffin believes, came about during spring training when he mentioned it to Twins senior vice president of communications and public affairs Dustin Morse. The original idea was to have it occur before a playoff game, but the Air Force needed a guaranteed date to plan around, so that idea was scrapped.

It was too close to Opening Day — another day that features a flyover — to execute, so they settled on Wednesday’s game as part of the Twins’ Sept. 11 remembrance ceremony.

While the Jax brothers had a grandfather who served in Vietnam for a “couple weeks,” Griffin said there was no other family military experience until he was recruited by the Air Force Academy out of high school. The Jax family lived about an hour north of the academy’s Colorado Springs campus, which helped lead the boys there, as well.

“They’re a lot smarter than I am so they took it a lot more seriously,” Griffin Jax said. “They knew baseball probably wasn’t going to be in their cards for any career so they knew going there that it was going to be a real possibility to fly, and they took advantage of it.”

On Wednesday, it all came together perfectly, making for a memorable day for the Jax family.

“It’s just going to be really special,” Griffin said before the game.

Margot, Vázquez back

You can’t keep Christian Vázquez out of the lineup for too long, manager Rocco Baldelli found out. Vázquez was placed on the paternity list earlier this week after welcoming his third son with his wife, Gaby, on Monday.

Initially, Baldelli said, Vázquez was not planning on taking a day off, but the manager told the catcher he was “not welcome” at the ballpark Monday.

“We know that the moment and the time you spend with those family on those really important days what that’s like, the emotion that’s associated with it,” Baldelli said. “So ultimately, he ended up taking two days, which I’m really glad he did.”

Vázquez was back on the active roster Wednesday, as was outfielder Manuel Margot, who had missed the past 10 games with a right groin strain. Margot participated in live batting practice along with injured teammates Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Max Kepler, after which the Twins activated Margot from the injured list.

“He’s another guy, he’s very difficult to keep off the field and keep out of the lineup,” Baldelli said. “There are times where he certainly should not be playing and he’s like, ‘I’m good, just put me out there.’”

The Twins optioned catcher Jair Camargo and utilityman Michael Helman to Triple-A St. Paul to make room on the roster for the duo.

Briefly

The Twins will have Thursday off before returning to the field on Friday to face the Cincinnati Reds. Bailey Ober, Simeon Woods Richardson and David Festa are lined up for that series.