A former Christian youth minister from Wisconsin who served at a Madison church in the late 1980s and early 1990s has been convicted on more than one account of child sexual assault, NBC15 reports.
Glen A. Uselmann, 63, was founf guilty on five counts of second-degree sexual assault this Thursday. His conviction comes almost two years to the day he was initially charged.
According to the criminal complaint, a culture of older men going after younger women was prevalent at Calvary Gospel, and wasn’t only overlooked by some elements within the church, but encouraged.
From NBC15:
Rebecca Byrd, whom Uselmann eventually married and had two kids with prior to their divorce, recounted meeting Uselmann soon after starting school at the church, when she was in the third grade.
In the complaint, Byrd described the church as a place where women were “very dominated” by men there, and where older men often preyed upon young girls. “If you could catch the eye of an older man, it was seen as a status symbol within the church,” according to the complaint.
The complaint states that Uselmann, who was then in his 30s, first started sexual behaviors with Byrd when she was 12 years old and continued for more than four years.
“It was allowed; if anything, it was encouraged. Their behavior progressed and progressed, and I ended up marrying him when I was 18 years old,” Byrd said.
“My parents found out. My pastor found out. My father was a city of Madison cop. I told everyone I thought I needed to tell,” Byrd said. “Instead of anyone doing anything to help me, they all told me to be quiet because it would make the church look bad.”
