Roncalli, The Pueblo Chieftain [Pueblo CO], June 19, 2007

Roncalli
Ex-Students Claim That Brother Mueller's Behavior Became More Bizarre in Pueblo

The Pueblo Chieftain [Pueblo CO]
June 19, 2007

http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1182233108/1

Maybe it was the miles between the Marianist headquarters in St. Louis and 30-year-old William Mueller's new assignment at Roncalli High School in Pueblo.

Whatever the reason, it has been alleged in two dozen lawsuits that Mueller's behavior shifted gears in the fall of 1966 from the unusual to the bizarre.

Leaders in the Society of Mary religious order already were aware of at least one indiscretion involving Mueller and a student while he was in training to join the order in 1958 in St. Louis.

And a principal allegedly had learned that Mueller was conducting experiments involving ether on at least one student at St. John Vianney High School in St. Louis during the spring of 1966. The student involved has testified in a deposition that he believes the report precipitated Mueller's move to Pueblo.

So Marianist leaders knew there was cause for concern before Mueller was assigned to Pueblo's new all-boys Catholic school.

Pueblo City Schools decided to keep the name Roncalli when it purchased the former Catholic boys high school in the 1970s.
Photo by Chris McLean

In the ensuing five years, the lawsuits allege, Mueller continued to use ether to incapacitate students. But some of the former students claim he took even more liberties at Roncalli by committing sexual abuse that ranged from fondling to sodomy against the boys in his care.

To date, 24 former Roncalli students have filed lawsuits alleging that Mueller subjected them to pseudo-scientific experiments, sexual abuse or both. The plaintiffs accuse church officials of ignoring Mueller's known propensity to abuse boys, thereby enabling him to molest them and others.

The Roncalli alumni who are suing the Marianists and the Catholic Diocese of Pueblo constitute more than half of Mueller's known accusers to date. Four students from two different St. Louis schools where Mueller taught during the 1980s also have filed lawsuits alleging Mueller abused them.

Nine more former students who attended St. Louis high school during the 1960s and 1980s are identified in police reports or court testimony as Mueller victims.

Roncalli closed in the spring of 1971. Mueller was assigned to Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, where the experiments continued. Deposition testimony and one police report have identified four possible victims there.

Marianist Provincial Brother Stephen Glodek, the present chief of the order in the U.S., has testified that he has heard from 52 former students who said Mueller subjected them to experiments under the guise of conducting a study on his way to earning a master's degree. Glodek said just two of those students claimed they were sexually abused. In a 2005 phone conversation with Glodek, Mueller denied he had ever sexually abused students.

More than half of Mueller's 40 known accusers have said the abuse occurred while they were students at Roncalli in Pueblo. And of the 24 Pueblo accusers who've filed lawsuits, all but a few allege, or at least suspect, that Mueller sexually abused them. The lawsuits accuse Mueller of sexually abusing students during each of the five years he taught at Roncalli.

All of the Roncalli allegations began the same way. According to the lawsuits, boys in Mueller's band and religion classes were approached by him, sometimes in empty hallways or in notes left in their school books. The former students claim that Mueller asked them to participate in experiments. They were flattered, even honored, to help a brother out, they have said, adding that they never would have considered saying no to a man of God.

Two-dozen former Roncalli High School students have claimed in lawsuits that they were mistreated by Brother William Mueller, sometimes in this small practice/storage room in the school's band area.
Photo by Chris McLean

Among the claims in the lawsuits:

One student said he awoke from an experiment with nausea and soreness that suggested Mueller had raped him.

One claimed he awoke while Mueller was sodomizing him, leaving the brother "speechless." The former student alleged in his lawsuit that Mueller avoided him from that day forward.

One said he got home after being knocked out during an experiment and found his underwear inside-out.

One said he was approached as he cleaned the school to work off his tuition, then allegedly was overpowered by Mueller and raped after he told Mueller that his family planned to move out of state soon.

One said he awoke from an experiment with abrasions on his anus and genitals.

One claimed Mueller fondled him almost every day for two years under the guise of monitoring his compliance with the school dress code.

One said Mueller held a knife to his throat and fondled his genitals.

A number of the Roncalli students reported Mueller simulated intercourse with them through their clothes. These particular allegations also appear repeatedly in police reports and lawsuits filed by students who attended the St. Louis schools where Mueller later taught.

Three of Mueller's accusers from Roncalli have claimed in their lawsuits that they notified school officials about what Mueller was doing to them. Two said they went to the school counselor, the Rev. Jose Montoya (now deceased), to complain about Mueller's experiments. Montoya, a priest employed by the Catholic Diocese of Pueblo, allegedly told one of the boys to tell no one about the experiments, and to stop participating in them.

Yet another student claimed he told an English teacher, the Rev. Richard O'Shaughnessy, a Marianist priest, in the spring of 1971, the final semester that Roncalli was open, that Mueller had used ether to subdue him and molested him. Again, no action was taken against Mueller. O'Shaughnessy, who lives in St. Louis, did not respond to a request to be interviewed.

The credibility of one of the boys who allegedly reported molestation by Mueller to Montoya has been called into question. Puebloan Tom Monroe, 54, is one of just three Roncalli accusers to attach their names to their lawsuits. The others have filed as John Does.

In a recorded conversation with his ex-wife, Monroe spoke frivolously about the suit and denied he was a victim. Monroe said on the recording that he felt badly for "real victims who are not getting help," because "I may get a million bucks, and these real victims are getting nothing but more shame."

Following news reports about Monroe's recorded remarks, the Miami law firm of Herman & Mermelstein, which represents all of the Roncalli accusers, dropped Monroe as a client.

Court records show Monroe continues to press his suit, and still he contends he was abused by Mueller. Monroe has said that when the recording was made, he was still in denial.

Monroe's remarks aside, the accusers from Roncalli have played a critical role in bringing Mueller's past into the open. Along with Bryan Bacon, an alumnus of Vianney who alleges Mueller abused him there during the 1980s, a handful of Roncalli alumni were the first to file lawsuits in September 2005.

Since those suits were filed, numerous accusers in St. Louis and San Antonio have come forward, and even the contemporary Marianist leaders have admitted that they learned facts about Mueller's time in their order that previously had been unknown to them.

A gag order in the Pueblo suits prevented either side from commenting about them for this series.

When the Pueblo diocese closed Roncalli after the spring semester in 1971, Mueller went home to Texas. The Marianists transferred him to Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, where Mueller had graduated 15 years earlier.

There, more allegations would arise against Mueller.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third in a six-part investigative series focusing on former Marianist Brother William Mueller. Mueller arrived in Pueblo in 1966 to teach music and religion classes at Roncalli High School. The five years he spent there have resulted in 24 lawsuits accusing him of abusing students. When Roncalli High School in Pueblo closed in 1971, Mueller was transferred to his alma mater, Central Catholic High School in San Antonio. He spent the next decade there.