Teacher guilty of sexual contact with girl

A former high school teacher and coach took the stand in Hastings Friday, recanting earlier statements to police in which she had admitted sexually touching a student athlete.

A Dakota County jury was not persuaded by her story.

Melissa D. Koehn, 31, of Kenosha, Wis., was convicted of three felony counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Koehn, a former history teacher and girls' varsity basketball coach at St. Croix Lutheran High School in West St. Paul, was accused of fondling a former basketball player multiple times, including in the girl's Eagan bedroom.

Prosecutor Lawrence Clark said that Koehn and the girl had been naked together and fondled each other's breasts, and that Koehn also touched the girl sexually during other encounters toward the end of what Koehn described as a two-year "mentoring" relationship.

The girl had admitted those details to an Eagan police detective on Dec. 21, and so did Koehn, but she said they only partly undressed.

Earlier this week, however, the victim testified that she could not remember her statements to police last December, when she was 17.

A person who is 16 years old generally can legally consent to a sexual relationship, but it is against the law regardless of consent for a teacher or coach to have sexual contact with a student 17 or younger over whom they have a position of authority, said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom.

The day before their statements to police, the two had been caught by an Apple Valley police officer as they reclined in a car during a snowstorm, partially undressed and kissing.

Koehn testified Friday that she first told the detective that no sexual activity had occurred in the relationship, but after he kept her at the police station for three hours, she had low blood sugar and was nervous and scared, so she made up her confession, she said.

"I was cold, hungry," Koehn told jurors. "I was emotionally stressed. I wanted to get out of there."

Koehn did admit, however, that she had kissed the girl on the mouth and exchanged love notes, but only after she took a leave of absence from her position at St. Croix Lutheran High School.

Koehn's attorney, Richard Ohlenberg of Burnsville, had argued that because Koehn had left her job at the school in the summer of 2008, she was not in a position of authority over the teen at the time of the alleged sexual encounters.

In 2008, Koehn had written the girl text messages and letters, including some that talked about wanting to lie next to her as the teen was sleeping so that she could "kiss her face."

"She worked her way into the life of a very vulnerable girl and took it way beyond what any responsible person would take it," Clark told jurors.

Clark said the girl's parents relied on Koehn to learn what their daughter was thinking and for advice.

The parents had let Koehn stay in their home for two weeks in August 2008, sleeping in the 17-year-old's bed while the teen was supposed to be sleeping on the floor, and Koehn had many other sleepovers, Clark said.

Koehn also went on family trips, sometimes for tournaments, to Eau Claire, Wis., Chicago and Duluth, and each time she slept in the same hotel bed with the girl while her parents slept next to them, she said.

In 2008, the girl was troubled and cutting herself with a razor blade.

"She's showing signs of depression," Clark said. "She's shutting down, and at that moment, she's vulnerable."

Judge Robert King Jr. ordered a presentence investigation and a psycho-sexual evaluation for Koehn. Her sentencing is slated for Feb. 5.

Joy Powell • 952-882-9017