Dan Nienaber
MANKATO — A 71-year-old man who has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a boy over a six-year period and sexually assaulting a female from when she was 15 years old into her adult life will not serve prison time, according to a plea agreement reached last week.
The case that charged James Aloysious Wieseler of rural New Ulm with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual contact and another felony related to having sex with a minor has been sealed through a court order since it was filed on Aug. 18, 2006. That seal order was lifted Friday, a week after the plea agreement was reached.
The plea agreement reduced one of the first-degree charges to a charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and dismissed the second charge. Wieseler entered an Alford plea to that charge and pleaded guilty to the third felony charge, court records said. An Alford plea allows someone to acknowledge there’s enough evidence for a jury to convict him of a charge, but does not require him to admit guilt.
Another second-degree criminal sexual conduct charge from a separate case also was dismissed in a plea agreement. In that case a teenage girl reported in 2006 that Wieseler had been fondling her over her clothing since she was 12 years old. That charge was filed in September and was not ordered sealed.
“James Wieseler has taken full responsibility for his actions in the interest of protecting his family from further embarassment,” his attorney, Laura Valentine, said in a written statement.
A pre-sentence investigation was ordered by Blue Earth County District Court Judge Kurt Johnson and an Oct. 26 sentencing date was set for Wieseler, who was released on Aug. 23, 2006, after posting a $75,000 bond.
Little information about what led to the sexual assault charges against Wieseler in the first case was available when it was filed a year ago because everything about it, except for the charges, was sealed by District Court Judge Norbert Smith. Requests that were made by The Free Press to open the case were not responded to even though state law requires a hearing before a file is sealed.
Information in other court records show that one of Wieseler’s victims has faced civil commitment twice because health professionals found she was a potential harm to herself. The victim has had more than one child as a result of Wieseler’s crimes, court records said.
Court records show Wieseler has assaulted the boy numerous times since the age of 10, and that the assaults included penetration. Blue Earth County human services employees found out about both victims after a mandated reporter, such as a social worker or school teacher, reported the boy had told her about Wieseler’s assaults.
Court records also show that Wieseler violated the terms of his bail by trying to contact one of his victims and another child.
The plea agreement that was filed does not say if jail time is possible for Wieseler. Assistant County Attorney Pat McDermott is out of the office until the middle of next week so he could not be reached for comment about how the plea agreement was reached.
Wieseler could also could not be reached for comment.
Access to case file blocked
It’s not your typical case, even in the realm of sexual assault cases where the details, if reported, can cause more harm for victims.
But what happened with the James Aloysious Wieseler case that was filed a year ago is even more rare for this reason: Everything about it was kept from public view by a judge’s order, until Friday.
Immediately after the criminal sexual conduct case was filed on Aug. 18, 2006, Blue Earth County District Court Judge Norbert Smith ordered that the probable cause portion of the charges against Wieseler be kept secret. Smith also ordered that “all subsequent documents filed” remain sealed to the public. The only exceptions in Smith’s order were Wieseler’s attorneys and county prosecutors.
During his 24 years as a judge, Lyon County District Court Judge George Harrelson said he can “count on one hand” the times where he’s issued a similar order. Harrelson, who is the chief judge for Minnesota’s Fifth Judicial District (which includes Blue Earth County), said each order was made to protect child victims in sexual assault cases.
“I think it’s safe to say it happens very rarely,” Harrelson said.
What made Wieseler’s case even more rare was a decision by court administrators, based on Smith’s order, to remove a record of the case from the court’s public access computer system. So anyone searching Wieseler’s name on the public access computer wouldn’t have known he had been charged with, and pleaded guilty to, felony charges involving sex with children.
That’s something that should only be done in extreme cases, such as charges relating to national security, said Mark Anfinson, a media attorney.
“Then you don’t even know what’s going on with the case,” Anfinson said. “It destroys any possibility of public accountability and oversight and that just isn’t proper.”
Some questions were raised Friday about whether Smith’s order required court administrators to go that far, said Judy Besemer, Blue Earth County court administrator. Smith’s order was lifted Friday by District Court Judge Kurt Johnson, who had taken over the case, after a request was filed by Assistant Blue Earth County Attorney Pat McDermott.
The Free Press had requested the file be opened more than a year ago, and renewed that request this week in a letter to Johnson.
