Teacher who was charged with sex assault of girl arrested again

By Mike Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Waukesha - A schoolteacher charged in May with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl was arrested Thursday night as he attempted to meet with the girl in North Prairie, Waukesha police said Friday.

Waukesha police got a tip that the man, Bryan F. Wendt, 27, planned a rendezvous with the teenager and followed her.

The girl was not aware that police were monitoring her and officers arrested Wendt at 6:55 p.m. Thursday as soon as he approached her along a road in North Prairie, Waukesha police Lt. Ron Oremus said.

Oremus declined to say who tipped authorities but said it was not a parent.

Because the investigation is continuing, Oremus also said he could not say how Wendt contacted the girl to arrange the meeting. "He wanted to have physical contact with her," Oremus said.

Wendt was charged May 24 with two counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child and two counts of child enticement-sexual contact in connection with having sex with the teen, whom he met and taught while he was a student teacher in the Waukesha district.

During his initial appearance in Waukesha County Circuit Court, Wendt was ordered as a condition of his bail to have no contact with the girl, her family, her residence and no unsupervised contact with girls under 18.

Police will ask the district attorney to file a bail-jumping charge against Wendt.

Wendt taught at Waukesha's Central Middle School in the spring of 2008 and developed a friendship with the girl when she was an eighth-grader, according to the criminal complaint filed in the initial case.

The friendship turned sexual in summer 2009, and Wendt admitted to investigators that he had sex with the girl numerous times between Aug. 17, 2009, and May 14, 2010, according to the complaint.

The first incident occurred when the girl was 14, authorities have said.

Most of the assaults occurred at a park near the girl's home, but one or two times sexual contact occurred at Waukesha South High School, Detective Richard Haines testified in June during Wendt's preliminary hearing.

Waukesha police began investigating Wendt on May 17 after two students reported their suspicions about a possible sexual relationship between a student and teacher to a Waukesha school social worker. School officials then contacted police.

At the time of his arrest in May, Wendt was a teacher at Summit Elementary and Park Lawn Elementary in the Oconomowoc School District.

Wendt was placed on unpaid leave, and the district is seeking to terminate his employment, Superintendent Pat Neudecker said. She said the district could act on Wendt's employment status on Tuesday.