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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