MADISON (WI)
Wausau Pilot [Wausau, WI]
August 24, 2026
A Marathon County judge set at $15,000 cash bail Aug. 24 for a former priest charged with trying to groom a child for sexual activity.
Andrew J. Showers, 38, of Madison, also faces two counts of felony bail jumping for two Waupaca County cases. The open Waupaca County cases are for two counts of child pornography possession in one and attempting to use a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, attempting to expose genitals to a child and attempted second-degree sexual assault in the other.
Showers has a Sept. 16 court appearance in the Waupaca County cases. Marathon County Circuit Judge Suzanne O’Neill set his next appearance on the Marathon County cases for Oct. 8.
Showers was a Catholic priest in Madison when he was arrested for the Waupaca County charges of attempting to use a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, attempting to expose genitals to a child and attempted second-degree sexual assault, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article. Pope Leo XIV removed Showers from his duties after Showers requested the removal himself, according to a June 25 letter from the Diocese of Madison. Showers is no longer a member of the clergy, according to the Journal Sentinel article.
According to the Marathon County criminal complaint, Showers began contacting an undercover online investigator with the Wausau Police Department in early 2026. The officer pretended to be a 15-year-old girl on two social media apps, Kik and Telegram.
After talking online with Showers, the investigator saw articles about his Waupaca County charges on Facebook, according to the complaint. He was able to verify through online records, article photos and a driver’s license photo that it was the same person. Showers was free on a $10,000 cash bail, according to the complaint.
At one point, Showers and the investigator got into an argument because Showers became angry with the investigator he thought was a 15-year-old girl, because “she” could get men into trouble talking to them and the potential penalties had gotten more severe, he said.
After a break, Showers reached out to the investigator again and began having regular social media chats with him, according to the complaint. Showers sent the investigator pictures of his genitals on Telegram, but they would disappear after a few seconds. The investigator said he tried recording the pictures but the app is set up so that all he got was a black screen over the picture.
Showers began asking the investigator, who he thought was the teenage girl, about her sexual experiences. He asked her to describe her encounters with other men. He also asked her to describe her breasts to him, according to the complaint.
Showers asked the girl how she’d like it if he picked her up early for a ride to school and they could have sexual intercourse in the vehicle before he took her there, according to the complaint. As time when on, the messages became more and more graphic
If convicted, Showers faces a maximum prison sentence of 11 years on the Marathon County case and a total of 95 years in prison on the Waupaca County cases.