Clergy sex abuse victims announce new lawsuit

They also challenge prosecutor to go after predator

Bizarre cleric taught at 3 MO schools and in TX & CO

He often knocked boys out with drugs before sodomizing them

Some older child sex crimes in MO can be criminally charged, SNAP says

What
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will
-- announce a new child molestation and cover up lawsuit against a notorious, bizarre serial predator,
-- criticize St. Louis County prosecutors and urge them to pursue charges against him, and
-- urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered their crimes to call police, get help, protect others and start healing.

When: TODAY,Wednesday, May 5 at 1:30 p.m.

Who: Two-three adults who were molested as kids by clergy and who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

Where: On the sidewalk on Central Ave. in front the county courthouse on Central in downtown Clayton

Why
A new civil child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit accuses Brother William Mueller of molesting a boy and his church supervisors of concealing the crime. For decades, Mueller belonged to a Central West End-based religious order called the Marianists. Since 2005, Mueller has been sued more than 40 times in Missouri & Colorado and faces accusations in Texas. In a deposition, Mueller repeatedly pled the Fifth Amendment and dodged questions.

This victim met Mueller while he was a student at St. Mary’s High School and where Mueller was a brother and a principal in 1981. In 1982, according to the suit, Mueller sexually assaulted the boy at the school by “induc(ing) him to ingest a pill, which caused (him) to become sedate and helpless.” Mueller then allegedly sodomized the boy, and told him to not tell anyone. He used a similar modus operandi when he victimized other children.

The suit charges that Mueller had molested other kids “before assaulting (this boy)” and that the Marianists “knew that Mueller had sexually assaulted others (earlier) but failed to inform the children and/or their parents.” Instead of “reporting Mueller’s criminal behavior to either the police or the prosecutor,” church employees “assisted Mueller in fleeing and escaping criminal punishment by sending (him) to New Mexico,” the suit says.

Last week, Cooper County MO prosecutors filed criminal charges against another predator priest, Fr. Gerry Howard (a.k.a. Carmine Sita), for alleged child sex offenses committed more than 20 years ago in Boonville. SNAP believes that St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch could and should pursue charges against Mueller using the same little-known state law. http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/apr/29/former-boonville-priest-is-arrested/

His church supervisors sent Mueller to a Catholic ‘treatment’ center run by a controversial St. Louis-based group called the Servants of the Paraclete, which still operates one such center just outside St. Louis today.

Besides St. Mary’s, Mueller also taught at Vianney, Chaminade and a Catholic high school in Colorado and San Antonio (where he now lives.) A photo of him is available at BishopAccountability.org .

Mueller’s victim is being represented by Florida attorney Adam Horowitz (305 931 2200) and Columbia MO attorney Bryan Bacon (573 874 7777). Bacon himself was abused by Mueller at Vianney and settled with the Marianists in 2007 for $160,000. But Bacon continues to pursue legal action against Mueller as an individual.

Mueller is represented by lawyer Martin Hadican who has helped a number of accused predator priests. Of the dozens of Catholic religious orders in and around St. Louis, none has been sued more often for molestation than the Marianists. At least six times in the last three years, other local Marianists have been named as accused pedophiles. They include Fr. Robert Osborne, Fr. William Christiansen, Brother John Woulfe, Brother William Mueller, Fr. Daniel A. Triulzi, and Brother Tony Pistone.

Contact
David Clohessy 566 9790, Mary Ellen Kruger 807 2372, Barbara Dorris 503 0003