Former St. Paul priest pleads guilty to assaulting man in Wisconsin

August 18, 2015 at 1:16AM
Curtis Wehmeyer, now defrocked, was a pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church in St. Paul.
Curtis Wehmeyer, now defrocked, was a pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church in St. Paul. (Susan Hogan/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A former priest serving prison time in Minnesota for molesting two young brothers pleaded guilty Friday in Wisconsin to sexually assaulting their older brother.

Curtis Wehmeyer, 50, pleaded guilty in Chippewa County Circuit Court to third-degree sexual assault in the 2011 abuse of an 18-year-old man. He initially had been charged with second-degree sexual assault.

Wehmeyer was sentenced the day of his plea to six years in prison, three to be served in custody and three under supervision, said Wade Newell, the Chippewa County assistant district attorney.

Wehmeyer's Wisconsin sentence will begin in 2016, after he completes his Minnesota sentence for sexually abusing two brothers, then 12 and 14, in a camper parked outside Blessed Sacrament Church in St. Paul.

Newell said that the victim in the Wisconsin case is the brother of the Minnesota victims, who were abused in 2010.

According to the criminal complaint in the Wisconsin case: Wehmeyer was on a camping trip at Brunet Island State Park with the 18-year-old in 2011. He gave the man alcohol and marijuana.

The man became intoxicated and vomited. Wehmeyer walked him to bed. The man later woke up to find Wehmeyer with his hand down his pants and groping him.

In the Minnesota case, Wehmeyer brought the two brothers to his camper in the summer of 2010. He showed them pornographic movies and gave them alcohol and marijuana. He molested one boy and exposed himself to the other.

He admitted to touching one boy's genitals more than once, masturbating in front of them, and possessing pornographic photos and movies showing nude prepubescent boys alone and engaged in sexual acts with each other.

The Vatican permanently removed him from the priesthood.

CHAO XIONG

The camper that the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer kept on church property was removed shortly before his arrest on child sex abuse charges last year, according to the St. Paul police. credit: St. Paul PD
The camper that the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer kept on church property was removed shortly before his arrest on child sex abuse charges last year, according to the St. Paul police. credit: St. Paul PD (Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
In a photo provided by Minnesota Department of Corrections, Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest in Minnesota convicted in 2013 of criminal sexual conduct and possession of child pornography. The Archidiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is facing criminal charges over how church leaders handled multiple complaints of sexual abuse, prosecutors announced on June 5, 2015. (Minnesota Department of Corrections via The New York Times) — FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY.
Wehmeyer (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
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