St. Paul Sex-sting Suspect Says Memory of Priest's Abuse Caused Him to Contact "Boy"
By Emily Gurnon
A Golden Valley man charged with soliciting someone he thought was a 15-year-old boy for sex broke down on the witness stand Tuesday as he described molestation he said he suffered at the hands of a priest. Stephen Joseph Schulz, 56, testified at his trial that he drove to meet the boy -- who turned out to be an undercover St. Paul police sergeant -- to warn him away from the fate he had suffered. He has been charged with felony online solicitation of a minor for sex. Testimony in the Ramsey County District Court trial began Monday. Schulz was 13 when the Rev. Franklyn Becker became pastor at Holy Family Church in Whitefish Bay, Wis., where Schulz lived with his mother and two younger siblings. His father "walked out" on the family when he was 7, Schulz testified. His mother, a devout Catholic, felt the new priest was the kind of father figure her children needed, he said. So when Becker proposed an overnight trip to Lake Geneva, Wis., in the summer of 1972 for Schulz and another teenage boy, Schulz's mother readily consented. They shared a room at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club Hotel, pushing two double beds together. Becker slept in the middle, Schulz said. After they went to bed, Schulz said, "my childhood ended." Becker forced Schulz, then 14, to touch the priest's genitals, and Becker did the same to the boy, Schulz testified. The priest also accompanied the family on a trip the following spring to New Orleans. Advertisement Schulz's mother slept in one room with the two younger children. Schulz was forced to spend another night with Becker, who abused him again. This time, the priest attempted to anally rape him, Schulz said. He told no one at the time, he said. "I was wondering, What did I do? How did I look, how did I act, that he would think I would be interested in something like that?" It was years before he came out as gay, Schulz said. He earned a master's degree in health care administration and moved to the Twin Cities about 20 years ago, he said. The Jesuits at his high school had taught him to "be a man for others," so he volunteered over the years for Big Brothers/Big Sisters, tutored at Nellie Stone Johnson Community School in Minneapolis and helped found and mentor students at Christo Rey High School in Minneapolis, he said. Under questioning by his attorney, Paul Engh, Schulz insisted he had never had sexual contact with a minor, never solicited a child for sex and had never even been interested in sex with a minor. But Sgt. Jeffrey Keller testified earlier Tuesday that the email exchange between him and Schulz confirmed Schulz's intent: to meet the "boy" for oral sex and mutual masturbation. Keller had gone on Craigslist to look for people who appeared to be soliciting children. He went to the "casual encounters" section and typed in search terms like "high school" and "young" and "taboo." Schulz had been posting 10 to 15 ads each week, he said, describing most of them as "fantasy." The first one Keller found read, "I just traveled with my son's high school baseball team to Florida. It made me very horny ... Oh to see them swimming ...." Schulz has no children. Keller responded as a boy named "Michael." When he described himself as 15, Schulz said he was too young. Keller backed off. But Schulz connected again about a week later. During that week, Schulz had been reading his deposition in a court case he joined against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee involving Becker. It made him relive the sexual abuse, he said. He wrote back to "Michael," and they corresponded for several more days. It progressed to the point where "Michael" asked for Schulz to meet him at his St. Paul apartment with Red Bull and vodka. Schulz asked, "How do I know this is not a police sting, lol?" He asked for a picture of the boy in a jock strap "and I will head over." "Michael" did not comply with the request. Schulz showed up anyway. Police stopped his car in the parking lot of the apartment building where the meeting was to take place. He was arrested. In a jail interview with Keller, Schulz admitted that his intent was "perhaps have some sexual relations." Schulz maintained on the stand, however, that he had no intention of touching the boy. He was alarmed, he said, by what the teen seemed willing to do. And yet, prosecutor Yasmin Mullings said, "You were going to bring the Red Bull and vodka as a sign of good faith?" Yes, Schulz said. Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522. Follow her at twitter.com/emilygurnon. Contact: egurnon@pioneerpress.com
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