Some of you may remember the Gutenberger abuse case that broke last year. Gabriel and Lisa Gutenberger and Lisa’s adult son Dade Marthaler were “charged with repeated physical abuse of a child and chronic neglect of a child causing great bodily harm” related to their treatment of Gabriel Gutenberger’s two children from a previous marriage. The CPS worker who interviewed the children described the boy as “skin and bones”, and the girl was too frightened of being punished to even answer any questions.
Gabriel and Lisa have been charged with 4 felony counts each, and Dade has been charged with a felony and a misdemeanor.
Although the Gutenbergers live in Shawano, there is a strong Appleton connection. Apparently, the Gutenbergers left their church in Shawano because people in that church had caught on that abuse was happening. They started attending Cross Walk Church in Appleton instead.
While at Cross Walk, Lisa Gutenberger received counseling services through the church from Julie Zepnick, a newly minted counselor who had only recently undergone training and been certified by the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors.
Prior to becoming a counselor, Julie herself had received counseling from the pastors at Crosswalk. Julie alleges that both Pastor Patrick Ryan and his son Pastor Tim Ryan advised her to not go to the police regarding the physical abuse she was experiencing at the hands of her then husband but instead to handle it within the church
To quote from Part 1 of the Wartburg Watch’s series on this story: “Pastor Pat also told Julie something to the effect of ‘Even if he hits you upside the head, don’t go to the police, come to us.’ Julie asked, ‘What if my conscience doesn’t allow me to not report it?’ Pastor Pat said, ‘Then you need to submit your conscience to us.'”
And later: “Pastor Tim told her that there is no need to go to authorities to report such incidents. Instead, he said all sin was to be dealt with within the church.”
With that history, Julie then became a counselor at the church herself and provided counseling to Lisa Gutenberger.
When she started to see that Lisa was not just an overly strict disciplinarian but was actually abusing her daughter, she reported this to Pastor Patrick Ryan.
To quote from Part 2 of the Wartburg Watch’s series on this story: “He said ‘we will keep our ear to the ground’ but he said not to call CPS because we don’t want to scare them away and have them leave the church. He said they were skittish because of their experience at their previous church.”
Julie also claims that Pastor Patrick Ryan explicitly told her “I know they are mistreating her” but then went on to specifically state that the church would not report it because they didn’t want the Gutenbergers to leave the church.
The professional standards of the Association of Biblical Counselors explicitly state:
“If there is a claim of, the observance of, or clear reasonable cause to suspect the emotional, physical or sexual abuse of a child with whom Counselor comes into contact or who is associated with someone to whom Counselor is in contact with, reasonable measures may be taken to ensure the child’s protection and to fulfill the legal mandate to report such harm to the appropriate governmental protection agencies.”
Additionally, as counselors, both Julie and Pastor Patrick Ryan would appear to be mandated reporters under state statute 48.981.
Essentially, we have a situation where a religious counselor and pastor in Appleton was able to say about a child “I know they are mistreating her” but then (a) did not report it himself and (b) specifically advised the new and inexperienced counselor he was supervising to not report her concerns to the authorities. And, if Julie’s personal experience receiving counseling at Cross Walk Church is any indication, this situation with the Gutenberger children comes on top of what appears to be a pattern of actively choosing to not go to the authorities even when physical abuse is known to be taking place.
Julie did eventually leave Cross Walk and fulfilled her responsibility to report the abuse to the authorities but only after 10 months during which the abuse of the Gutenberger children was ongoing.
I did reach out directly to Pastors Patrick Ryan and Tim Ryan for comment last week, but, to date they have not responded.
Absolutely disgusting. These so called “men of god” should be prosecuted.