The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a Stearns County man's 2023 conviction of interfering with his tenant's privacy by peering in her windows to ensure she was not engaging in premarital sex, which he considered a "mortal sin."

Ryan S. Masog, 44, of Holdingford was convicted by a jury in December 2023 of two gross misdemeanor counts of interfering with privacy following two instances in late 2022 in which he admitted to looking into the woman's windows.

Last year, he was sentenced in Stearns County District Court to two years of supervised probation and ordered to pay the woman $3,000 in restitution. He then appealed the conviction.

According to court documents, a woman in her 20s told law enforcement in late 2022 that her landlord, Masog, had been peeking into her windows. She had moved into his duplex in the 700 block of Rivercrest Road in Holdingford the previous fall and was renting the basement area while Masog lived upstairs.

The woman said Masog had rules written into the lease about not allowing any men in her rental unit past 10 p.m., and said she followed that rule.

In early November 2022, the woman was with her boyfriend in her apartment and the following day, Masog knocked on her door and said that "he saw what [she] and her boyfriend were doing through the bedroom window" and "he did not appreciate that they were engaging in premarital sex," documents state. A similar incident occurred the next month.

After both instances, Masog knocked on the woman's door to confront her about violating the lease. The woman's mother, who co-signed the lease, then sent Masog a message saying she didn't appreciate him looking through her daughter's windows and he said he was "only doing it so to make sure [she] was following his rules," documents state.

During an interview with investigators, Masog said he is religious and wrote his rental contract so "people know they are not allowed to have premarital sex in his residence" by wording it so members of the opposite sex cannot spend the night.

The Appeals Court opinion says Masog considers himself a traditional Catholic who believes premarital sex is a "grave offense against God" and because of this, he would consider himself "an accomplice to that sin" if he did nothing to deter the activity in his residence. But the lease itself contained no such terms about not being able to have premarital sex on the premises, documents state.

Masog admitted to investigators the woman did have a reasonable expectation of privacy in her rental space, but said he wouldn't have "peeked like [that] if she … had a curtain up," documents state.

The woman said she moved into the unit with her young son and didn't have money to buy curtains; Masog gave her a set of curtains to use, and she put them in her son's room.

After being confronted by Masog twice, the woman moved in with her boyfriend for the remainder of the lease.