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Minnesota church youth director acquitted in sex case

Photo: Vladimir Cetinski, Photos.com

Jun 15, 2012 at 6:11 am

ANOKA, MN (AP) - A jury has acquitted a Ham Lake church youth director on all charges alleging he had sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl.

The Anoka County jury spent more than a day deliberating before acquitting 47-year-old Damian Burkhalter of Blaine on six counts of criminal sexual conduct.

The charges alleged that Burkhalter abused the girl at his home and at youth camps more than a year ago and that sexual incidents continued afterward.

Authorities were notified when the girl told a child protection worker in Kandiyohi County that she had been assaulted.

The Star Tribune reports Burkhalter was a youth director at Glen Cary Lutheran Church in Ham Lake

According to the charges, Burkhalter had ''accepted'' the girl into his family and wanted to adopt her.