Minnesota: Catholic priest's conviction for sexually penetrating a parishioner during spiritual counseling reinstated by state Supreme Court

Proceedings

1. Date in cited record · jury verdict and sentence

   Ramsey County District Court, Minnesota. A jury convicted Christopher Thomas Wenthe of clergy sexual conduct for sexually penetrating A.F., a member of his parish who had asked him to serve as her regular confessor and who sought his spiritual counsel, at a 2003 meeting in his church rectory quarters. He was sentenced to 57 months, stayed to 12 months in the workhouse plus 15 years' probation.

2. Date in cited record · multiple rounds of appeal (Wenthe I-III)

   Minnesota Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals twice reversed the conviction and ordered new trials on evidentiary grounds; the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals on the first round (Wenthe II, 2013) and reinstated review.

3. 2015-06-24 · final appeal, Wenthe IV, A12-0263

   Supreme Court of Minnesota. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and reinstated Wenthe's conviction, holding the challenged trial-court evidentiary and instructional decisions were not error, did not affect substantial rights, or were harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

Appellate history

1. Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed and remanded for new trial twice (2012, 2014 on remand); Minnesota Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and reinstated the conviction in the final 2015 decision (Wenthe IV), which is the controlling final disposition.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• served as the victim's confessor and spiritual counselor
• sexual penetration occurred at a meeting held for religious/spiritual counsel
• charged and convicted under Minnesota's clergy-sexual-conduct statute, Minn. Stat. § 609.344, subd. 1(l)