PUEBLO (CO)
The Pueblo Chieftain
By PATRICK MALONE
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
A group that advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse issued a statement Thursday criticizing Pueblo District Attorney Bill Thiebaut for closing a criminal investigation into a former Marianist brother accused of molesting students at a school here about 35 years ago.
Prosecutors and police announced two weeks ago that they were closing the criminal investigation into allegations that Brother William Mueller had subdued students with ether and molested them during his time as a teacher at Roncalli High School in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The district attorney's office announced that the statute of limitations on possible crimes committed by Mueller expired 10 years after the 18th birthdays of his accusers. Three men in their 40s and 50s have filed lawsuits against the Pueblo Catholic Diocese and the Marianist religious order over the allegations of abuse by Mueller.
On Thursday, the director of a national support organization for victims of sexual abuse by clergy called for Thiebaut to review all possible options for charging the former brother before closing the criminal investigation.