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	Prosecutors Want to Use Previous Evidence against Priest Associated Press, carried in Duluth News Tribune [Green Bay WI] February 21, 2005 GREEN BAY, Wis. - Prosecutors asked the court Monday to use evidence of other molestations and a previous conviction of child pornography possession against a priest charged with molesting a 10-year-old boy. Prosecutors filed the motion as police put out a request to hear from anyone who might have had an encounter with Donald Buzanowski. Buzanowski, 62, faces two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child for allegedly fondling a 10-year-old boy while serving as a counselor at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic School in Green Bay. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison. In the court documents, special prosecutor Vince Biskupic said he wants to use evidence from Buzanowski's November 2000 conviction for possession of child pornography and an unprosecuted allegation made by a 39-year-old man. The man said Buzanowski molested him "20 times or more" during visits to a Door County cottage beginning in the summer of 1978. Prosecutors also want jurors to hear that Buzanowski admitted in a letter to a friend that he molested 14 boys, ages 14 to 17, from 1969 to 1988. Prosecutors would like to hear from those boys, too. Biskupic said it is not uncommon for adult victims of abuse to remain quiet. In the case pending against Buzanowski, David Schauer, at age 12, told his therapist about the incidents in 1990, and the therapists in turn notified the authorities. Prosecutors did not file charges in the case because they felt they did not have enough evidence. When Schauer was able to provide more details of the alleged assaults and Buzanowski was implicated by his own words, the face of the case changed, and charges were filed in October 2004. Schauer, now 26, lives in Marshfield and has agreed to have his name used publicly. Schauer has also filed a civil lawsuit against Buzanowski. That matter is still pending. Buzanowski's lawyer, Owen Monfils, said Monday he would be filing a reply brief in a few days. The motion is scheduled for a hearing March 18. Renae Bauer, spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, said the diocese has filed paperwork with the Vatican to have Buzanowski laicized, but no action has not yet been taken in Rome. Buzanowski remains in the Brown County Jail on $100,000 bail.
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