MN MN - Joshua Guimond, 20, Collegeville, 9 Nov 2002

[Jbrown324320]

Bumping for Josh and his family. May St John's find compassion to provide any info to the family about his disappearance.

 

[human]

May St. John's realize that God is not smiling upon their actions. You can't make your sins go away just because some man says that they are gone.

 

[Jbrown324320]

In my opinion, the next step for the family should be to SUE St John's Abbey and the college. Then they may have money for their search or a private detective who may have access to more info than we have.

 

[human]

In my opinion, the next step for the family should be to SUE St John's Abbey and the college. Then they may have money for their search or a private detective who may have access to more info than we have.

what could they sue them for? I wish they could, but what would the charge be?

 

[Jbrown324320]

negligence on the part the college- they have a responsibility to keep their students safe while on campus.
withholding possible information about a missing person case on the part of the Abbey. Records prove that priests living on campus and former priests have had inappropriate relationships with students. St John's may have key information about Josh in their "secret" files.

 

[Jbrown324320]

also- I believe negligence for not keeping students safe due to the faulty "safety plans" for sexual offenders living on campus being able to come in close proximity to students. It could be a voilation of the University's human rights policy.

 

[concentric]

Read that there is something here worth studying:

http://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/criminal-law/rico-cases.htm

 

[human]

sounds like RICO could be a way to go

 

[human]

I copied this from Concentric's post in the Johnny Gosch thread.

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/03/14/secretive-catholic-order-founded-by-accused-pedophile-under-fire/

 

[Jbrown324320]

TO EVERYONE WITH MISSING LOVED ONES, PLEASE READ! SOMEONE IS TRYING TO SCAM RELATIVES OF MISSING CHILDREN! THIS WAS POSTED ON JOSH GUIMOND'S FAMILY WEBSITE (findjosh.com):

Carrie,

After repeated requests for you to send the money,and now, you will not even answer my e-mails,this is what you have forced me to do.

Carrie Henson and Justice Hunters: Joshua's family is requesting that you immediately send (via certified mail) the $3000+ that you raised in Joshua's name last summer through your fundraising events in the state of Oregon. Please also send the money you raised via donation jars placed around Eugene, Oregon as well as a photo and documentation for the boat -- and documentation for the motorcycle -- that were donated to the Find Joshua effort. We would like to sell these items ASAP. You asked for Joshua's photo and permission to use his name and image for fundraising purposes. That permission is revoked until you follow through on all of your promises to our family.

Bob Guimond Grandpa

Replies to this Post

 

[shergal]

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
--------------

In March of 2003, a flurry of emails circulated around the St. John’s 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. John’s University and had previously worked in multiple roles at St. John’s Preparatory School (beginning in 1967). Wollmering was also a monk (since 1961), priest (1967), counselor (1970) and chair of the Psychology Department at St. John’s 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. John’s Abbey) and Brother Dietrich Reinhart (President of St. John’s 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 what’s going to happen as a result of his [Feb, 2003] complaint.”

The “delicate” nature of the allegations included the student’s 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 John’s) dated March 19, 2003, the student wrote:

“I am starting to wonder why I haven’t 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 isn’t right that although I should be meeting with you, I can’t 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 student’s 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 2003–04 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 supervisor’s knowledge that Wollmering was prohibited from doing so.

Wollmering was required to get an evaluation at St. Luke’s in Maryland. Following the evaluation, he spent six months at Toronto’s 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. John’s (including Wollmering and any mandatory reporters) ever reported his APA violations. Wollmering’s counselor license expired in 2004.

Wollmering retired with dignity from St. John’s 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 Guimond’s Likely Abductor

On November 9, 2002, St. John’s University student Joshua Guimond disappeared from campus.

As the one-year anniversary of Joshua’s disappearance approached, a profile of Joshua’s 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. John’s University professor Dr. Aubrey Immelman, had published numerous articles on the subject of psychological profiling.

On the morning of October 17, 2003, St. John’s University and the Stearns County Sheriff’s department learned about the profile. Later that same day, an officer called Immelman to discuss the profile. The two met later at the sheriff’s 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 Guimond’s 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 Immelman’s 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. John’s 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. John’s University (Reinhart) and St. John’s Abbey (Klassen) had yet to make Wollmering’s 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 Wollmering’s crimes could tie him to the disappearance of Joshua Guimond

A paranoid Abbot John Klassen worried that claims against Wollmering, combined with Immelman’s profile, would be used against the monastic community. Klassen questioned his ability to lead the monastery if that happened.

Had Wollmering’s name been cleared when Joshua Guimond disappeared in 2002, it is unlikely that Abbot John Klassen have been so defensive when a profile of Guimond’s likely abductor first circulated in 2003 and was publicly released in 2006.

Officials at St. John’s Abbey and St. John’s University had known about Wollmering’s “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 institution’s 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 institution’s 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. John’s finally announced that Wollmering was on restriction. It made no reference to the allegations that led to Wollmering’s forced leave of absence in 2003. The release minimized Wollmering’s 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. John’s at the time, did let it slip that St. John’s first learned about the specific allegations against Wollmering two years earlier, in 2004. [ View ]

On July 29, 2006 at 9:59 PM, Aubrey Immelman’s 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. John’s Life Safety at St. John’s called the sheriff’s department, he reported that, “there’s some trauma”. [ More ]

A great deal of wordsmithing went into the abbey’s 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 sheriff’s department has yet to release the findings of their investigation into the unattended death of Father Bruce Wollmering. Until they do, the public won’t 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. John’s Abbey and St. John’s University may have know about Wollmering’s crimes or the effort that went into covering up those crimes.

There is speculation that the sheriff’s 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 Wollmering’s 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 Wollmering’s obituary [ View ] :

The bulk of Father Bruce’s 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.

http://www.behindthepinecurtain.com/wordpress/?p=2502

Bringing this forward to ask if anyone has a photo of Wollmering that we could compare to artist sketches done in the Jared and Jacob Wetterling cases. I've never seen a picture of him and am curious if he resembles the sketch of the man in the cap or the older man. Thanks.

 

[shergal]

I found an online magazine publication from St. John's (from 2001 to current) which has some interesting articles and I found a tiny picture of Wollmering. This issue from Fall of 2006 has a group picture of all the monks at St. John's and Bruce Wollmering is in it. (#47)
http://www.saintjohnsabbey.org/banner/0602fall.pdf
He looks nothing like the perp sketches from Jared or Jacob. (However, it's interesting looking through all the archived magazines at the various monks - some who we know now are on restriction.) You can peruse magazines from 2001 through 2010 here:
http://www.saintjohnsabbey.org/banner/

 

[Jbrown324320]

Shergal, there is a good pic of BW at Behindthepinecurtain.com. Go to "meet the Monks", he is under the "W" section.

I have a gut feeling that BW went after young men 18-20s and not boys. He admitted to another person on campus that he had fallen in love with a student. This was very close to the time that Josh G disappeared. In my opinion, he does not look like any of the sketches for JW disappearance, but you can determine that for yourself.
It just makes me mad that The Abbey continues to get away with covering up unspeakable crimes.

 

[concentric]

Will Nancy Grace be doing a program on America's Missing about Josh?

 

[concentric]

Several threads back I posted about a root cellar there on campus, and how it has been and is maintained by a monk on restriction. It just seemed a logical place to me for someone to "hide" victims.

Law and Order did a show aired last evening about people who kept children they held captive in a root cellar, in order to hide them.

 

[shergal]

This article on the priests at St. John's is online now and will be in tomorrow's St. Cloud Times:
http://www.sctimes.com/article/2011...St-John-s-abuse-suits-settled-17-monks-named?

 

[concentric]

ThePhantom had a good comment following the article you posted, shergal. Also, some encouraging news on Josh's site.

So, when will the walls tumble down and the truth be told about what happened to Joshua?

 

[GreenTeam]

I was looking for the profile that Immelman did, and finally found it here:

http://www.immelman.us/news/missing-person-joshua-guimond/

You have to scroll down about halfway.

Something else very interesting...note the similarity between the sketch of a person of interest in the Wetterling case, and the photo of Acker below it. Wow!

 

[Jbrown324320]

Hi Everyone,

Josh's family has posted a paypal account on their website, http://www.findjoshua.com/ for donations to help find Josh. Every little bit helps and please pass it on!

Jennifer

 

[Jbrown324320]

bumping for Josh! someone at the Abbey knows something about what happened to Josh! If they do not come forward in this life, may they pay eternally in the afterlife. Please someone at St John's Abbey-- come forward!