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	Split Supreme Court Tosses Sex Conviction of Ex-Priest Associated Press, carried in Worthington Daily Globe November 1, 2007 http://www.dglobe.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D8SL2ET01 A split Minnesota Supreme Court has awarded a new trial to a former priest convicted of sexually abusing women he was counseling. John Bussmann is serving a nearly six-year sentence at the state prison in Moose Lake. The former Roman Catholic priest was convicted in Hennepin County in 2005 of third-degree criminal sexual conduct for his sexual relationships with two women in his congregation. Bussmann, now 53, maintained that the sex was consensual. But he was tried under a law that makes it a crime for clergy to engage in sexual penetration with a person receiving private religious or spiritual advice. The six justices who decided the case Thursday were equally divided over whether the law passes constitutional muster. The split means the law will stand. Bussmann's conviction was overturned because of concerns about the nature of some testimony.
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