St. Paul Priest Accused of Molestation Also Charged with Child Porn

By Emily Gurnon
Pioneer Press
October 9, 2012

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_21732263/st-paul-prosecutors-add-child-porn-charges-against

Curtis Carl Wehmeyer, 48, was charged with 17 counts of possession of child pornography by the Ramsey County attorney's office on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012. He had been previously charged with three counts of criminal sexual conduct. Wehmeyer was the pastor at the Parish of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has removed him from his position. Photo received Monday, June 25, 2012. (Pioneer Press: Courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff)

Prosecutors who charged a local priest with child sex abuse now allege he also possessed child pornography.

The Ramsey County attorney's office charged Curtis Carl Wehmeyer, a priest formerly assigned to Blessed Sacrament Church on the East Side of St. Paul, with 17 counts of possession of child porn.

Wehmeyer, 48, of Oakdale, will make his first court appearance on both sets of charges Wednesday, Oct. 10.

In the criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court, prosecutors alleged the following:

During the investigation of the alleged sexual abuse, two boys reported that Wehmeyer showed them pornography on a laptop computer. This would happen before and during the molestation, they said.

On July 7, a St. Paul investigator with a search warrant went to the rectory at Blessed Sacrament, 1801 Lacrosse Ave., and confiscated an IBM ThinkPad laptop from an upper shelf of Wehmeyer's bedroom closet.

A St. Paul police sergeant who examined the laptop found "several still images and video files depicting sex acts involving prepubescent males," the complaint said. Fourteen still images and three videos make up the basis for the charges.

Wehmeyer was charged Sept. 20 with three counts of criminal sexual conduct. He molested two boys, starting when one victim was 12, the complaint said. The other boy was listed in the criminal complaint as being younger than 16.

The abuse of the younger boy took place in a camper trailer owned by the

priest that was parked in the church parking lot, according to the complaint.

The other boy said that on a camping trip, he and Wehmeyer shared a bed. He tried to "put up a barricade of pillows and blankets to separate himself from the defendant while they slept," but would awaken to Wehmeyer touching his private parts, the complaint said.

"As the parish priest for this family, the defendant betrayed a sacred trust and forever marred the innocence of two young victims," Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a statement. "We will pursue justice for the family as well as the community."

Wehmeyer was ordered to have no contact with juveniles.

His attorney, Thomas Plunkett, declined to comment.

Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522. Follow her at twitter.com/emilygurnon.

Contact: egurnon@pioneerpress.comtwincities.com