PUEBLO (CO)
The Pueblo Chieftain
By PATRICK MALONE
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Lawyers for two men who are suing the Catholic Diocese of Pueblo and the Marianist religious order said Thursday that more suits are expected to be filed accusing a former Roncalli High School teacher of rendering students unconscious with ether and molesting them.
Two suits seeking $10 million each were filed in Pueblo district court Wednesday against the diocese and The Marianist Province of the United States over allegations that they were molested by Brother William Mueller. Mueller taught band and theology at Roncalli from 1966 through its closure in 1971.
Roncalli was operated by the diocese and staffed by Marianists.
The suits accuse Mueller of using the guise of an experiment toward his master's degree in psychology to convince the students to let him knock them out with ether in 1968 and 1969. After they were unconscious, Mueller allegedly fondled one student and sodomized the other.
Mueller is not named as a defendant in the suits. He lives in his hometown of San Antonio. When reached by phone there on Wednesday, Mueller said he had no comment about the suits.