MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTMJ-TV [Milwaukee WI]
July 21, 2026
By Elizabeth Lintonen
A young woman is suing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and St. Matthias Parish School for covering up extensive sexual abuse she suffered as a child.
The Original Case
The original criminal case centered on now 52-year-old Kevin Buelow, a former fourth grade teacher at St. Matthias Parish School in Milwaukee and Holy Apostles School in New Berlin.
Buelow was convicted of sexually assaulting five young girls across the two schools. In 2023, he was sentenced to six years in prison in Waukesha County, and in 2024, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Milwaukee County.
The complainant in the civil lawsuit obtained by 620 WTMJ is not identified by name, but was confirmed to be the first victim of Buelow’s crimes to report the sexual abuse.
She was 11-years-old at the time of the abuse in 2013.
“My emotional health continued to decline, but was only truly worsened when I was informed there were other victims in this case. It was a feeling of pure agony, like a white hot knife being twisted in my stomach. There were other girls out there who have been suffering the same way I’m suffering now,” the unidentified complainant said in her victim impact statement to the court.
The civil lawsuit details how Susan Booth, the principal of St. Matthias in 2013, was told by multiple sources about the abuse, but did not report it to law enforcement or to leadership at Holy Apostles.
It also details how neither Booth nor school officials told the complainant’s parents about the abuse.
The Complaint
According to the complaint, the first report of Buelow’s abuse was not from either of the main victims cited in the criminal case.
An unidentified female student in Buelow’s fourth grade class had reportedly asked her mother in Spring of 2013: “is it weird if a teacher touches your leg underneath your uniform skirt?”
Her mother went to the former Principal Booth the next day. Booth asked Buelow about the allegation, who denied the report.
Booth did not investigate the report further nor did she take any other action, causing the family to switch schools.
Additionally, the complaint details how Buelow had a reputation among students for being “handsy” towards young girls, frequently touching their knees, the backs of their legs, or their lower backs and buttocks.
The first time the complainant’s abuse was noticed was by the St. Matthias parish director Jeff Van Dalen.
Buelow was assigned the bridal ready room to tutor students, which was a private room in the basement of the church with a lock. It’s noted that other students were tutored in rooms in the Parish Center.
Van Dalen allegedly caught Buelow “tutoring” the victim in the bridal ready room with the door closed, which upset him.
He reported what he observed to Booth, who once again did nothing with the information.
Buelow was allowed to continue to tutor the victim after both the original complaint and the incident observed by the parish director. He was regularly sexually assaulting her during the “tutoring sessions”, then making small talk with her parents when they picked her up.
The victim in this complaint was not the only underage victim at St. Matthias. Buelow also frequently sexually abused a second young girl during private tutoring sessions, according to court documents.
Booth did not report any allegations of abuse or misconduct at the time to the authorities, the school administrators, or the girl’s parents. It was announced Buelow would leave St. Matthias in 2013, for a new job at Holy Apostles School in New Berlin.
Booth also allegedly did not report the abuse she was aware of to the administrators at Holy Apostles. Buelow was later convicted of abusing three more young girls at that location.
The responsibility to report abuse fell directly under school policies after the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s highly publicized sexual abuse scandal in the early 2000s, which lead to a bankruptcy filing in 2011.
The complaint also details not only how Booth, the staff, the administrators at St. Matthias, and the archdiocese failed to report the abuse, but also failed to take any steps to prevent Buelow from taking young children into the “bridal ready room” and closing the door.
Buelow was never reprimanded or suspended at any point.
The Aftermath
The complaint shares how the victim was “barely 11-years-old, [and] suffered for years”. She suffered alone, and “without the benefit of her parents knowing of the allegations”.
It details how her parents could have been compelled to speak with their daughter and get professional care much sooner than five years later, when she disclosed the abuse to law enforcement at the age of 16.
Multiple young girls came forward after this initial report.
“I barely slept at night weeping for the little girls who were brutally taken advantage of that could have been protected had I been brave enough to say something sooner,” the victim said in court in 2024. “It is a cross I still bear today.”
The victim attended high school but with the Waukesha criminal trial for Buelow underway, she was forced to relive the sexual abuse constantly. She dropped out of college over the psychological trauma, and does not plan to return.
In addition to extensive therapy and medication, court documents show she has been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and OCD. Additionally, she “no longer attends church and has lost her faith, which has further isolated her from her close-knit family”.
She says in the complaint that “her life has become a shell of what she worked so hard to achieve”.
The Charges
The victim is asking unspecified compensation based on the cost of medical expenses, mental health therapy, and psychological damage and trauma. The complaint requests a jury trial to determine the extent of the damages owed.
Court records show that Buelow has filed multiple extensions to file an appeal, which is an indicator Buelow could be planning to appeal the conviction. The next deadline is July 27, 2026.
Both St. Matthias and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee have stated to 620 WTMJ that they cannot comment on the pending litigation. The current position of former principal Susan Booth is unknown.