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	Complaint Lists Details of Pastor-Woman Relationship By Brian Voerding Winona Daily News [Minnesota] January 31, 2007 http://www.winonadailynews.com/articles/2007/01/31/news/01complaint.txt At first, the pastor was her friend and confidant, someone who freely offered advice on marriage and life and once saved her from suicide. They talked about her faith and her struggles, about spirituality and commitment and how vulnerable she felt with him. Then the talk turned to panties, and that's when everything began to fall apart, according to a criminal complaint filed in Winona County Court on Monday. The 14-page complaint released Tuesday accuses the Rev. Donald Dean Budd with felony sexual conduct and outlines a 31/2-year relationship with a woman who claims she was too emotionally fragile to say no to his advances. It's a story about an alleged abuse of power that stopped just short of sexual intercourse, a story that began with a funeral and ended with a secret recording. The woman first came to the 62-year-old Budd for counseling in summer of 2003, after the death of her grandfather. She wasn't a regular churchgoer, but came to know Budd, the pastor at Winona's McKinley United Methodist Church, when he performed funeral services for her grandfather. She told him her personal problems and said she was considering suicide. He loaned her a tape called "Hell," and it helped. She grew to trust him and took him out to eat at places like Pizza Hut in exchange for his free sessions. Prosecutors allege as the sessions continued, Budd and the woman talked more and more about her beauty and body. One day, Budd allegedly asked to see her in her panties and she agreed; later, he asked to see her naked and she agreed to that, too. That led to a series of encounters, where Budd allegedly fondled her — in the church, in her house, in his home. He frequently asked her to undress but never did himself; he told her it was so he could control himself from having sex with her, court documents state. He kept two pairs of women's panties in the bottom right drawer of his office desk at the church, and asked her to model them for him. At one point, he told her he loved her, the complaint states. When she married in late 2004, Budd performed the ceremony. He allegedly told her he was envious. The couple separated in less than a year, and Budd gave them marital advice when they came to him together and prosecutors claim he continued to touch her when she came alone. In 2005, she began to grow emotionally stronger and felt manipulated. That fall, Budd allegedly touched her for the last time and stopped the marriage counseling. In November 2006 she went to the Winona police. Investigators arranged to have her meet with Budd at Godfather's Pizza, and wired her with a transmitter so they could record the conversation. The recording was later used to find probable cause for the 10 felony counts of sexual conduct. During the 70-minute meeting, Budd worried aloud that she was recording him. She said she wasn't. The complaint details the taped conversation: She brought up the sexual encounters, which he acknowledged. He told her he would have stopped if she had told him to. She asked him if she had satisfied him. "You know you did," he replied during the taped meeting. She asked him why he touched her in the church. He said it was the most sacred place. She asked him how he planned on getting into Heaven. He told her he was hoping for grace. Reporter Brian Voerding can be reached at (507) 453-3514 or at bvoerding@winonadailynews.com
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