CALIFORNIA/MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
By Karen Zamora Star Tribune OCTOBER 7, 2016
A priest from California was charged Friday in the Twin Cities with engaging in sexual activity with a woman for whom he was conducting mass in Mendota Heights, authorities said.
Jacob Andrew Bertrand, 33, of San Diego, was charged in Dakota County District Court with third-degree criminal sexual conduct during a religious advice meeting and third-degree criminal sexual conduct during ongoing meeting for advice.
“Any time you have someone in a position of trust and responsibility that is taking advantage of that, you have a tragic situation,” County Attorney James Backstrom said Friday. “And that is what we are alleging that happened here.”
According to the criminal complaint, in July 2010, Bertrand, an ordained priest from San Diego, visited a Mendota Heights woman he had met in 2009 in Rome while they were studying spirituality and he was a deacon. In June 2010, the woman and Bertrand had flown to San Diego for his ordination as a priest.
At one point during his trip to Minnesota, Bertrand and the woman engaged in a private mass in the basement of her Mendota Heights home, where they also had sexual contact.
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