I know this article is long, but it is definitely worth reading! Please forward to anyone that may need this info. It has some connection with Josh G
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In March of 2003, a flurry of emails circulated around the St. Johns University campus in Collegeville, Minnesota. A month earlier, a University student had brought allegations of misconduct against his professor, Father Bruce Wollmering. The student claimed that the misconduct began during a class that met during the Fall of 2002 and continued into 2003.
Background: At the time of the 2003 allegations, Wollmering was a professor at St. Johns University and had previously worked in multiple roles at St. Johns Preparatory School (beginning in 1967). Wollmering was also a monk (since 1961), priest (1967), counselor (1970) and chair of the Psychology Department at St. Johns University (1994). According to his obituary, Father Bruce Wollmering also conducted more than 50 workshops and seminars in psychology that dealt with subjects such as dream analysis, therapeutic hypnosis, human sexuality, and healthy spirituality.
In an email to Abbot John Klassen (St. Johns Abbey) and Brother Dietrich Reinhart (President of St. Johns University) dated March 13, 2003 regarding the latest allegations of misconduct against Father Bruce Wollmering, a university employee wrote:
We are looking for direction from you as to how you would like to proceed, especially considering the delicacy of this case. The student is very anxious to know whats going to happen as a result of his [Feb, 2003] complaint.
The delicate nature of the allegations included the students visibility on campus and a timeline of misconduct that overlapped the disappearance of Joshua Guimond.
By mid-March, the student was frustrated that there was already discussion of a resolution despite his repeated requests to share his story, and the scope of the problem, with the leadership at the Abbey and University.
In an email to Abbot John Klassen and Gar Kellom (Vice President for Student Development at Saint Johns) dated March 19, 2003, the student wrote:
I am starting to wonder why I havent met with you already if you guys are aware of this situation.
There is a severe problem at this University, this present day.
I want to deal with this as quickly as possible and graduate as quickly as possible so I can leave this place that is causing me these problems.
At 4am on March 21, 2003, the student sent another email:
It isnt right that although I should be meeting with you, I cant becuase [sic] the person that did these perverted things to me gets the chance to appeal, and delay this issue.
Within days, the matter was settled.
Consequences
Despite the severity of the students claim of misconduct, testimony from other witnesses and newly discovered allegations of misconduct, Wollmering was allowed to continue teaching until the end of the Spring, 2003 semester.
No announcements were made. Law enforcement was not contacted.
There were some consequences:
Wollmering was required to immediately resign as chair of the psychology department. (Note: Wollmering had been named to a fourth term as chair just months earlier. When he did announce that he was stepping down, no mention was made of any misconduct. Rather, Wollmering claimed that for health and personal reasons, he was taking a leave of absence for the 200304 academic year.)
Wollmering was required to make his students aware that a complaint had been filed against him, and offer an apology for crossing appropriate student/teacher boundaries. There is no evidence that he made such an announcement.
Wollmering was required to immediately stop counseling students. According to a former employee, however, Wollmering continued to counsel students for several months, despite a supervisors knowledge that Wollmering was prohibited from doing so.
Wollmering was required to get an evaluation at St. Lukes in Maryland. Following the evaluation, he spent six months at Torontos Southdown Institute.
Additional Findings:
Wollmering had been counseling his own students, in violation of American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines. This violation should have been reported to the APA but was not.
Wollmering exhibited a pattern of gender bias and male favoritism in the classroom. This bias had been documented on at least one other occasion.
According to the Minnesota Board, no one at St. Johns (including Wollmering and any mandatory reporters) ever reported his APA violations. Wollmerings counselor license expired in 2004.
Wollmering retired with dignity from St. Johns University in the spring of 2004. According to his obituary:
After his retirement from the university, Father Bruce was free to pursue many other interests.
The Profile of Joshua Guimonds Likely Abductor
On November 9, 2002, St. Johns University student Joshua Guimond disappeared from campus.
As the one-year anniversary of Joshuas disappearance approached, a profile of Joshuas likely abductor was being prepared for placement on the Find Joshua web site. Local media was reportedly also interested in publishing the profile.
The profiler, St. Johns University professor Dr. Aubrey Immelman, had published numerous articles on the subject of psychological profiling.
On the morning of October 17, 2003, St. Johns University and the Stearns County Sheriffs department learned about the profile. Later that same day, an officer called Immelman to discuss the profile. The two met later at the sheriffs department. The officer asked that the profile not be published on the web site or appear in any other media because doing so might tip off the person responsible for Guimonds disappearance. According to Immelman, the officer further explained that publishing the profile might cause the suspect to clam up, cover his tracks, or hire a lawyer.
According to information on Immelmans web site, and in voter guides published in various media when Immelman ran for Congress against Rep. Michele Bachmann in 2008 and 2010, Immelman has been a consultant to the U.S. military on threat assessment and psychological profiling; advised U.S. Customs and Border protection on terrorist profiling; trained intelligence officers from NATO allies in Europe; conducted profiling workshops attended by Central Intelligence Agency officers; and wrote the section on psychological profiling for the authoritative Handbook of Psychology.
When reached for comment for this story, Immelman explained that the profile, which was first drafted in January of 2003, was a boilerplate description from the FBI Crime Classification Manual of the kind of sex offender that would abduct a student without leaving any evidence of a crime.
St. Johns Abbey, however, recognized the profile
as Father Bruce Wollmering. Wollmering had a long history of misconduct. [ View ]
Delayed Public Disclosure
By 2006, the leadership at St. Johns University (Reinhart) and St. Johns Abbey (Klassen) had yet to make Wollmerings name, or any of his misconduct or crimes, public.
Internally, reasons for keeping his name from the public were being discussed.
Around 2005, Abbot John Klassen provided two:
1. The effect that such an announcement would have on the capital campaign.
2. The effect that such an announcement would have on University recruitment.
Early in 2006, a third reason was discussed:
3. Releasing details of Wollmerings crimes could tie him to the disappearance of Joshua Guimond
A paranoid Abbot John Klassen worried that claims against Wollmering, combined with Immelmans profile, would be used against the monastic community. Klassen questioned his ability to lead the monastery if that happened.
Had Wollmerings name been cleared when Joshua Guimond disappeared in 2002, it is unlikely that Abbot John Klassen have been so defensive when a profile of Guimonds likely abductor first circulated in 2003 and was publicly released in 2006.
Officials at St. Johns Abbey and St. Johns University had known about Wollmerings relationships with students for years. A link to Guimond or a prized target like a member of the Johnnie football team, for example, would be devastating.
When an institutions leadership put money ahead of integrity, and deception ahead of disclosure, that institution is in trouble.
But both leaders, Reinhart and Klassen, who were also looked up to as the institutions spiritual leaders, did just that.
On May 12, 2006, lawyers for the abbey were served with a complaint.
In a July 28, 2006 press release that reportedly went to only one news outlet, St. Johns finally announced that Wollmering was on restriction. It made no reference to the allegations that led to Wollmerings forced leave of absence in 2003. The release minimized Wollmerings behavior, claiming sexual misconduct early in the 1980′s. The statement said that there had been no subsequent allegations against Wollmering and, or course, left out all prior allegations. [ View ]
In an interview, Father William Skudlarek, the spokesperson for St. Johns at the time, did let it slip that St. Johns first learned about the specific allegations against Wollmering two years earlier, in 2004. [ View ]
On July 29, 2006 at 9:59 PM, Aubrey Immelmans profile was published for the first time on the message boards of the St. Cloud Times web site. It was subsequently published on this web site. [ View ]
An Unattended Death
On February 4, 2009, Father Bruce Wollmering died in the basement of the monastery. When Shawn Vierzba from St. Johns Life Safety at St. Johns called the sheriffs department, he reported that, theres some trauma. [ More ]
A great deal of wordsmithing went into the abbeys unofficial version of events, offered recently by Br. David Klingeman:
He went to the locker room and to the sink to contain the bleeding. Next he probably turned to perhaps go to the health center before it closed and tripped over the bench directly behind the sinks and hit his head on a locker. It is believed that he got up several times and fell again on the concrete floor since there was now a great deal of blood lost. Bruce was found about 10 minutes after the fall unconscious. The EMT and ambulance were called and CPR was performed. I believe from the fall he had cracked his skull and a rib punctured his lung thus causing the massive blood loss.
The sheriffs department has yet to release the findings of their investigation into the unattended death of Father Bruce Wollmering. Until they do, the public wont know how he died, what they found in Wollmering room or on his computers, if they found evidence of any misconduct or crimes, what the leadership of St. Johns Abbey and St. Johns University may have know about Wollmerings crimes or the effort that went into covering up those crimes.
There is speculation that the sheriffs file on Wollmering is sealed because it contains information related to the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling or the disappearance of Joshua Guimond, or to both.
Regardless of Wollmerings involvement (or non-involvement) in those crimes, the Abbey and University should have done more to protect its community.
Wollmering had access to thousands of potential victims.
According to Wollmerings obituary [ View ] :
The bulk of Father Bruces professional life was devoted to teaching psychology and working as a counselor.
Father Bruce conducted more than 50 workshops and seminars in psychology that dealt with subjects such as dream analysis, therapeutic hypnosis, human sexuality, and healthy spirituality.
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