Church Abuse: Massie Case Exposes OALC Cover-Up

Clint Massie's abuse in the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church (OALC) reveals a pattern of cover-ups. Victims faced pressure to forgive Massie, enabling years of unchecked abuse. ProPublica exposes the church's role.

Bruckelmyer also told cops his activities adhered to church method. An inner church paper, gotten by the Star Tribune and ProPublica, recommends that, when appropriate, church leaders and others help with “a conversation with both celebrations together”– an action that specialists who collaborate with misuse targets claim can include in a sufferer’s injury. While the document praises the justice and the cops system, it doesn’t mention obligatory coverage legislations and provides preachers vast latitude on whether to entail cops.

Massie’s Abuse and Church Forgiveness

Sgt. Jessica LaBore was the private investigator assigned to the instance. In a videotaped interview, the lady hesitantly told LaBore just how she used to rest with Massie and his better half, Sarah, at church, simply a couple of rows from the front. Massie would serpent his hands up her skirt and touch her genitals and upper legs. Afterward, at a celebration at the home of her parents’ close friends, she stated, Massie told her to get a blanket and began touching her below it, with her mother and father nearby.

In accordance with among the core tenets of their church, the matter was dealt with. It was forgiven. It must currently be failed to remember. She would certainly be guilty of having an unrelenting heart and the wrongs would come to be hers if she talked of it once again.

She informed her therapist exactly how Massie had abused her when she was 16 and in counseling. The therapist reported it to the police, which is just how the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office in Duluth first found out about Massie in summertime 2017.

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Kimberly Lowe, an attorney and situation supervisor for the church, said its preachers are overdue and for that reason might not be legally needed to report sexual abuse of youngsters. Asked if she thinks the preachers are mandated reporters under Minnesota legislation, Lowe would just claim that the language of the law is vague.

Police Investigation and Church’s Lack of Cooperation

Police there first became aware of the allegations versus Massie in 2017. They said that the church’s absence of cooperation– consisting of pushing prospective witnesses and sufferers to stay quiet about the misuse and preachers falling short to report it to authorities– was a significant factor in the hold-up in bringing charges.

The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church (OALC)

The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church is a conventional Christian rebirth activity that came to the U.S. with 19th-century settlers from Norway, Finland and Sweden, and it is not affiliated with any mainstream Lutheran denominations.Amanda Anderson/Star Tribune.

By forgiving males like Massie, cops and district attorneys stated, preachers created a situation where the alleged targets had to worship next to their alleged abusers– and permitted Massie to escape apprehension and prosecution for several years.

Bruckelmyer’s church, Woodland Park, is one of 2 OALC churchgoers north of Duluth, in the bluff area over Lake Superior. Some members live close by, in a rural, forest-lined neighborhood. Participants are not certainly recognizable by their clothes– they clothe modestly yet modernly, in low-key shades and long skirts. Ladies do not put on makeup, fashion jewelry or open-toed shoes and they keep their hair up in a bun, triggering the label “bunners.” According to church literature, members are to live basic, modest lives like Jesus did; songs, tv and dancing are viewed as sinful, according to former members.

She told LaBore that she would certainly reported the misuse to a preacher, Calvin Raisanen, and that her mother had spoken with Bruckelmyer about it, according to authorities papers and a recording of the meeting gotten via a public documents request. Raisanen did not respond to ask for comment. In her own conversation with LaBore, the woman’s mother validated that Massie had asked mercy from her partner and child years ago.

Bruckelmyer decreased to comment or to respond to a breakdown of inquiries. In a 2023 interview with a St. Louis County detective, he recognized recognizing regarding Massie’s sexual abuse and really did not dispute that he took part in mercy sessions including Massie and his sufferers.

She fought with her papa on the drive over, howling and weeping in his vehicle until they got to the office building for Bruckelmyer Brothers, a home construction business on the borders of Duluth, Minnesota. She was just entering her first years of grade school.

Massie did not reply to ask for comment yet has actually rejected abuse accusations connecting to some private sufferers in pending suits. In December 2024, he pleaded guilty to 4 counts of felony criminal sex-related conduct with sufferers under the age of 13. In March, a judge punished him to 7 1/2 years in prison. Church authorities, consisting of Bruckelmyer, were not charged in link with Massie’s crime, but prosecutors claimed they should have done a lot more to stop him.

One of them was Clint Massie, that the woman had actually just recently informed her parents had actually touched her genital areas and searched her under her shirt. Massie was a revered participant of the churchgoers.

The much less formal nature of OALC structure– a spokesperson stated there’s no headquarters in the U.S.– indicates that, unlike sexual abuse detractions in the Catholic Church or Southern Baptist Convention, there’s no central authority to hold accountable. Still, news of the criminal case versus Massie spread out widely in the insular OALC, motivating a lot more sufferers to come ahead in Minnesota and various other states.

Like some sufferers in the documents from Massie’s instance, she decreased to speak to reporters for this story and is not being identified since the wire service normally don’t call targets of sex criminal activities without their approval.

In front of the girl, her daddy and Bruckelmyer, Massie asked her for forgiveness. Looming over her, the 3 guys cried. The lady’s daddy and preacher permitted the guy who had been sexually abusing her because kindergarten to hug her.

St. Louis Area detectives say they have been called by previous and current church participants in South Dakota and Washington that affirm they were victims of sexual assault that was never reported to police. The Celebrity Tribune and ProPublica have talked to greater than a lots declared sufferers of Massie and of other church members in Wyoming, Maryland and Michigan.

LaBore did not reply to ask for comment, but authorities records show that the lady’s family stopped accepting the examination. The mother told her that preachers at the church had spoken with Massie which he ‘d “learned his lesson,” though the mother believed that Massie had actually “continued to sexually assault youngsters hereafter factor,” according to LaBore’s notes.

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At the close of the sermon, the preacher asked the whole parish for forgiveness, which started “motions”– a section of the service when congregants embraced and begged each other for mercy for numerous transgressions, regularly in rips.

But they never ever reported Massie’s crimes to cops, as required by the regulation. Rather, Bruckelmyer and other leaders in the church encouraged the targets to take part in forgiveness sessions– which permitted Massie, currently 50, to proceed abusing kids, according to an investigation by the Minnesota Star Tribune and ProPublica.

Some previous victims, as grownups, faced preachers, consisting of Bruckelmyer, about what Massie had done to them. Church leaders informed Massie to stay away from the churchgoers’s children, and they sent him to a specialist who concentrated on sex culprit treatment.

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Over the course of around 20 years in two states, Massie had, according to court records and by his very own admission, sexually mistreated kids within the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church, or OALC, area. He touched ladies under blankets when their moms and dads existed, in the backseat of an automobile with other travelers– also in the church benches at church. His misuse was such an open secret among the tight-knit churchgoers that mommies warned their little girls to stay away from him.

“It offers the look of a team of individuals who are not just trying to shield a person– however something,” Mike Ryan, the aide St. Louis County lawyer who prosecuted Massie, claimed at his sentencing. “And they have actually made it possible for something dreadful here.”.

OALC is a conservative Christian revival activity that pertained to the united state with 19th-century inhabitants from Norway, Finland and Sweden, and it is not affiliated with any mainstream Lutheran religions. There is no official matter, yet one academic study approximated 31,000 participants worldwide as of 2016, with a lot of in the United States. The church is rapidly growing, professionals claim, and the member count today is likely much higher. OALC’s focus on large family members has created booms in places like Washington state and Duluth.

When LaBore talked to Massie, he validated some crucial details concerning the claims: Bruckelmyer knew that numerous women had implicated Massie of sexual abuse. And he remembered asking for mercy at his preacher’s business office.

LaBore referred the instance for fees to Deputy St. Louis Region Lawyer Jon Holets. In a statement to the Star Tribune and ProPublica, Holets stated he additionally spoke with the victim’s mom, who informed him “that there had actually been healing intervention, that ‘they were good'” and that her daughter did not want anything even more to be done. Without the lady’s collaboration, Holets claimed he chose he might not bring charges versus Massie, an end result he stated provides him “heartache” to today.

On a current Sunday, the modern, unadorned haven of the Forest Park church, which seats 1,000, was full of family members, parents comforting squealing and weeping babies, older children grasping baggies of candy or toy cars and trucks.

For the woman that stated she was pressured to forgive Massie at Bruckelmyer’s workplace, the silence that followed just worsened her trauma. She reported having problem with debilitating stress and anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder in her teens. She expanded stressful each time she strolled into the church, particularly when she saw Massie holding an additional little girl.

Clint Massie in a March scheduling photo. Throughout about two decades in two states, Massie had, according to court papers and by his very own admission, sexually abused youngsters within the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church community.St. Louis County.

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3 years later, Massie again concerned the focus of the constable’s workplace. Two crime-reporting hotlines received anonymous pointers claiming Massie had sexually attacked “little girls” over the course of 3 years. “Church understands but no activity,” reviews a cops summary of among the tips.

Bruckelmyer and Raisanen declared lack of knowledge of the lawful difference and thanked the police officers for the “information.” Bruckelmyer asked what became of the 2017 investigation into Massie. “I imply, it should have been dealt with after that, you understand?” the preacher claimed. “It’s like, what took place?”.

The female had tried to place time and distance in between herself and Massie, Massie’s better half, Sarah, had actually asked for a conference regarding a year earlier when the lady returned to Duluth for a go to. At a Starbucks, she claimed, Sarah Massie told her that the abuse was immaterial and she needed to forget about what took place. The conversation, the woman said, was “dreadful.”.

Victims’ Trauma and Church’s Silence

After the Massies moved to Duluth in the very early 2000s, Chamberlin’s parents state she went from meek and wonderful to being filled up with a mysterious temper. She and one of her older sis, Kristi Bertolotto, quit speaking to each other.

“And he’s like: ‘I don’t understand. Like, we’ve informed him that he’s not intended to, but he still does.'”.

A previous EMT and mom of three, Chamberlin had grown up in the Black Hills of South Dakota in the 1990s. Clint and Sarah Massie lived nearby and opened their home to Chamberlin and her four siblings. Her parents occasionally asked Clint, starting in his late teens, to babysit.

The situation arrived at the workdesk of Sgt. Adam Kleffman of the St. Louis Region Constable’s Workplace. He spoke with the target and paid attention to the different means the lady said Massie sexually abused her: the nights when she rested over after aiding often tend to his equines, the day when she rode a tractor with him, or swam with him and other members of her family at the lake.

LaBore discussed the state’s mandated coverage regulation to Bruckelmyer and informed him that he and others at the church can be charged criminally if “somebody that they currently know about” were to maintain abusing youngsters and they stopped working to report it.

Bruckelmyer and Raisanen left the St. Louis County Constable’s Division workplace without dealing with any kind of consequences. John Hiivala, an agent for the Forest Park Old Apostolic Lutheran Church, said that the church “has totally complied with the regulation in the referenced case, and it refers legal document.” Hiivala decreased to comment better.

Kleffman and Sathers described that if someone like Massie confessed to Bruckelmyer individually, that would certainly constitute a protected conversation with clergy. Hearing straight from the victims, from moms and dads of targets or regarding abuse allegations in a team setup was another matter entirely.

However, six of the affirmed targets whose instances didn’t lead to charges were still component of the situation, and some of the ladies traveled to Duluth in December 2024 to affirm at Massie’s trial. Just after jury choice, Massie agreed to beg guilty to four felony matters. One cost was dropped.

Confronting Church Leaders About Abuse

As a grown-up, she was alarmed to see Massie in church, hugging and kissing youngsters regarding the very same age she was when the abuse started, which is why she ‘d really felt a responsibility to report everything these years later on, she said.

Her mother had actually reported Massie to a preacher when she was a youngster, she told Kleffman. At the time, the preacher guaranteed to handle it, she said, and told her mommy never ever to speak of it once more, not also to her partner. Later on, she experienced a session with Bruckelmyer, comparable to the various other woman, where she was pressed to forgive Massie and neglect the misuse.

Private investigators with the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Workplace meeting Daryl Bruckelmyer and Calvin Raisanen, preachers with the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church in Duluth.Video given by St. Louis Area Constable’s Office.

She really did not desire to look back, particularly at Sarah Massie, whom she ‘d adored as a youngster. She said she can really feel the eyes of her previous church area on her, individuals she would certainly once relied on and loved.

For the second time, Holets decided not to bring charges, though this time around it was about church preachers as opposed to Massie. In a declaration to press reporters, Holets said police determined to try to “inform” church leaders regarding their legal obligation to report the sexual abuse of children.

Court filings noted nine alleged sufferers, however only three of the instances resulted in fees of felony sex-related conduct with a victim under the age of 13. The law of limitations under South Dakota legislation had run out for Bertolotto and Chamberlin. And the woman who had actually been pressured to forgive Massie in Bruckelmyer’s office hadn’t had her case billed either; under Minnesota law, excessive time had passed in between her initial report in 2017 and the prosecution.

“We are figuring out from our examinations that these Mandated Reports are not being made, and instead, these incidents are being managed within the church,” she wrote in a departmental memo to update various other investigatives. “In some cases the preachers are promoting in the requesting for mercy.”.

They provided him the names of others they believed had actually likewise been abused by Massie. One female informed Kleffman that Massie had actually asked for forgiveness.

Massie informed Kleffman and McTavish that Bruckelmyer had spoken with him “at the very least” three times about improper behavior with youngsters. The detectives asked how many even more girls may step forward with stories concerning him touching or kissing them.

Kleffman got where LaBore left off and called the girl who spoke to their workplace in 2017. She was now in her early 20s, married, a brand-new mother living in Washington state. In a tape-recorded discussion, she informed Kleffman that the trauma– and particularly, the required that she remain quiet concerning it– still haunted her.

On the day of Massie’s sentencing in March 2025, Kleffman strolled Kyla Chamberlin to the front row of the high-ceilinged court room. The opposite side of the courtroom rapidly filled with a minimum of a dozen Massie supporters, including his wife, Sarah.

Kleffman claimed he knew that had not been true and brought up the 2020 phone call with LaBore. “I simply listened to the audio recording, and it was line-for-line. You said you understood what they were,” Kleffman said.

She quit attending church in 2010 and, in action, her moms and dads made it clear that she was no longer invite at family and holiday features, a excruciating and typical experience described by several previous church members.

“I believed it was a lot more effective to collaborate with existing leadership to influence mindsets and methods pertaining to kid misuse coverage, rather than to seek criminal enforcement at that stage,” Holets wrote. “That said, criminal charges for failing to report stay an opportunity in such instances.”.

Unlike in other branches of Christianity, OALC preachers like Bruckelmyer do not go to traditional academies or obtain official training before assuming their leadership functions. Rather, according to a church agent, they are chosen by the churchgoers.

Both Bruckelmyer and Raisanen confirmed they would certainly known about the woman from the 2017 record, and Bruckelmyer said he understood of 2 others too. He revealed his eagerness to accept law enforcement moving on but denied expertise of any various other victims beyond the 3.

After St. Louis Region introduced fees versus Massie, Kleffman began receiving calls from declared targets throughout the country. Among those was from Chamberlin. Months later, Kleffman realized that one of the other sufferers he interviewed was Chamberlin’s older sibling, Bertolotto.

On Feb. 10, 2023, Massie sat opposite Kleffman and Private investigator Tony McTavish in an off-white, windowless area at the sheriff’s workplace in Duluth. In a video clip of the examination, Massie downplayed the accusations as a series of mishaps and misunderstandings. Yet as the 90-minute investigation progressed, his temperament changed. He confessed he ‘d really felt a “tint” of a “sick, perverted point” when, he declared, one very young girl had drawn his hand to her vagina prior to he recognized what was happening.

4 months later, at his sentencing, Massie looked light and paunchy in an orange jumpsuit, his feet and hands bound. His attorney, pointing out Massie’s lack of a rap sheet, asked that he receive no prison time and be enabled to seek treatment and receive probation that he might serve in your home. Massie asked forgiveness to his victims and their families.

Over the program of about 20 years in two states, Massie had, according to court files and by his own admission, sexually mistreated kids within the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church, or OALC, area. Church authorities, including Bruckelmyer, were not charged in connection with Massie’s criminal offense, yet prosecutors stated they must have done a lot more to quit him.

Massie’s Sentencing and Church’s Response

She grew tense every time she walked into the church, particularly when she saw Massie holding an additional little woman.

In a tape-recorded meeting, the woman hesitantly informed LaBore exactly how she used to sit with Massie and his other half, Sarah, at church, simply a few rows from the front. The woman had actually attempted to put time and range in between herself and Massie, Massie’s wife, Sarah, had actually asked for a meeting concerning a year earlier when the woman returned to Duluth for a visit.

Judge Eric Hylden noted that because Massie had pleaded guilty, he would certainly never attempted to enlist in sex-offender therapy or created apology letters to his sufferers. Hylden also priced estimate out loud from among 17 letters of support for Massie, several from OALC participants, which he stated demonstrated that some in Massie’s area still did not believe he would certainly done anything incorrect: “I desire you discover ones that have really done these points and get them do away with rather than putting your energy into existing and seeking evil where there is none to be found.”.

Chamberlin and her sibling have actually preserved the very same attorney that stood for several of the targets in the Jeffrey Epstein situation. He has actually submitted claims on their behalf versus Massie, their church in South Dakota and the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church of America.

In a letter written from jail that was submitted in court, Massie rejected both siblings’ allegations. The OALC, in a motion to reject both suits, created that “while OALC-America is mindful and considerate to Plaintiff for the abuse Complainant affirms happened by Massie, such compassion does not remove from the plain reality that this Court does not have personal jurisdiction over OALC-America.”.

Later, in the witness room a floor higher in the court house, Chamberlin fulfilled Ryan, the aide region lawyer, and Kleffman– the two males she credited with placing Massie in prison thirty years after he would certainly abused her. The 3 exchanged hugs.

Ryan said that he would certainly had a hard time as he prepared to head to test with keeping several of the ladies from catching what he called “a consistent initiative” by members of the church to “attempt to obtain these girls to either soften their position on it or just to not coordinate.” One claimed sufferer, he said, had actually quit weeks prior to test.

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