Judge Won’t Dismiss Case Against Bismarck Teacher

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A judge has refused to dismiss charges against a former Bismarck teacher accused of having sex with a 15-year-old student. He also won't move her trial.

Thirty-five-year-old Susan Duursma is accused of a sex act with a teenage boy three times between March and July last year, when she was a physical education teacher at Wachter Middle School. She's since resigned.

Duursma has pleaded not guilty to three counts of corrupting or soliciting a minor. Her attorneys asked Judge Bruce Romanick to throw out the case, and if he allowed it to proceed to move the early May trial out of Burleigh County to ensure an unbiased jury.

The Bismarck Tribune reports Romanick denied both requests.