Trial starts for Waukesha County school teacher charged with sexual assault

WAUKESHA (WI)
WISN 12 - ABC [Milwaukee WI]

October 10, 2022

By Courtney Sisk

49-year-old Kevin Buelow appeared in a Waukesha County courtroom Monday morning for one of two trials against him alleging sexual assault of former students

On Monday morning 49-year-old Kevin Buelow, his accusers, attorneys and jurors met in a small Waukesha County courtroom.

In Waukesha, Buelow faces five counts of sexual assault, four of them against a child.

The alleged assault happened at the Holy Apostles Catholic School in New Berlin.

Attorneys on both sides made their opening statements in front of jurors Monday. Buelow sat silent during the morning hours.

He also faces one count of child sexual assault in Milwaukee for a similar case at St. Matthias Parish School.

It was the St. Matthias case that prompted other students at Holy Apostles to step forward, alleging similar abuse.

Investigators said that while interviewing other former St. Matthias students, they said Buelow would pat their butt and put his hands up their skirts.

At Holy Apostles Buelow is accused of touching a 10-year-old girl’s breast over her uniform and putting stickers all over her body.

Defense attorneys said the stickers were a birthday ritual he did for more than 17 years, and claimed it was not intentionally inappropriate.

The state will need to prove to jurors Buelow had sexual contact with the accusers and that it happened while they were younger than 16 years old.

Sexual contact, by definition in court, must be the intentional touching of an intimate body part to create arousal.

“Ultimately, the state will show these contacts were sexual and intentional in nature in both Waukesha and Milwaukee County,” Waukesha District Attorney Charlie Hoffmann said in his opening statement Monday.

The defense used its opening statement to attempt to discredit the accusers’ past statements and spotty memory of the events.

“Why is it that they can’t remember? Why is it that this trauma has fallen out of their brain, disappeared into thin air,” defense attorney Nicole Masnica said during opening statements.

They plan to bring in psychology doctors to explain.

“He will testify about this process, and how this rumor mill can happen,” she told jurors.

Buelow will be in Milwaukee County Court for the other charges and trial in November.

https://www.wisn.com/article/trial-starts-for-waukesha-county-school-teacher-charged-with-sexual-assault/41574774