September 24, 2005

Central Catholic ex-staffer accused of sexual abuse

SAN ANTONIO (TX)
Express-News

Web Posted: 09/24/2005 12:00 AM CDT

J. Michael Parker
Express-News Staff Writer

Central Catholic High School officials are notifying 2,000 alumni about lawsuits in two states alleging sexual abuse by a former brother who was band director at the San Antonio school from 1971 to 1981.

Three suits were filed this week in Pueblo, Colo., and one in St. Louis against the U.S. Province of the Society of Mary, naming former Brother William Mueller, 67, who reportedly lives in San Antonio.

Attempts to reach Mueller were unsuccessful.

Two of the Pueblo suits claim he administered ether to students under the guise of psychology experiments, sodomizing one and asking the other explicit sexual questions. The third claims Mueller instructed a student to play his trombone in the nude. The St. Louis suit claims he pressed a knife to a student's throat, pressed his body against the student's and simulated sexual intercourse.

The Diocese of Pueblo and the Archdiocese of St. Louis are co-defendants in the suits, but Mueller, who left the religious order in 1986, is not.

Posted by kshaw at September 24, 2005 08:55 AM