Waukesha County News Summaries

WAUKESHA

Child psychiatrist charged with sex abuse

A psychiatrist serving four years of probation for having a large collection of child pornography in his downtown Milwaukee apartment has been charged with sexually assaulting an adolescent patient in a Brookfield counseling center where he formerly practiced.

Eric B. Schwietering was charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court with sexual assault of a child under 16, a felony, in a criminal complaint that says the assault occurred between September 2005 and November 2006 when Schwietering was still associated with Cornerstone Counseling, 16535 W. Blue Mound Road.

The complaint says that the matter came to light recently when the boy, now 14 and living in Iowa, told his mother and a school official that he was assaulted by Schwietering, who specialized in treating children and adolescents. The complaint does not indicate why the boy was seeing Schwietering but does say that he saw the psychiatrist regularly for several months.

During one of the appointments, according to the boy, Schwietering questioned him about his sexual habits and asked him to disrobe, the complaint says. When the boy declined, according to the complaint, Schwietering climbed on top of him, partially disrobed him, then sexually assaulted him.

In May, Schwietering was placed on four years of probation in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on two felony counts of possession of child pornography. As part of his sentence, Schwietering, who pleaded guilty to the charges in February, was ordered to serve 45 days in jail.

NEW BERLIN

Fire officials seek more paramedics

In one fell swoop, by juggling city funds this year – and counting on voters to approve future tax increases – the city is about to upgrade its rescue services to rival those of larger urban areas.

If the 2008 municipal budget, tentatively adopted by city officials, is finalized, the city will increase dramatically the number of full-time paramedics in its Fire Department.

Fire officials believe this reflects the public’s expectation to have top-level emergency responders with paramedic certification. Six years ago, the department was a rural-type, privately run force.

The department began phasing in paramedic service in 2006.

Outspoken enthusiasm for paramedics has offended other rescue personnel, such as emergency medical technicians, who bristle at suggestions that EMTs offer “substandard” care that is little more than “a fast ride to a hospital.”

The Fire Department persuaded aldermen to include about $664,000 in next year’s budget to hire 19 full-time paramedics by the end of 2008.

The department currently has eight full-time paramedics who also work as fire inspectors.

In addition, two of the department’s four assistant chiefs are certified as paramedics, as are a handful of its roughly 80 part- time, paid-on-call firefighters.

A public hearing on the budget is set for Nov. 20.

Voters will likely be asked as soon as February to approve further tax levy increases to continue to fund the paramedic program.

WAUKESHA SCHOOLS

Board asks state for help with contract

Citing differences over salaries and benefits that would be given to teachers in the next two years, the Waukesha School District announced Monday it has asked for negotiating help from the state with the possibility of having its teachers contract settled by an arbitrator.

Such a move would be rare, according to Peter Davis, general counsel for the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, which would help the two sides mediate their disagreements before the case could be sent to arbitration.

But district leaders said they were prepared to take that step if it could save some money and help avoid service reductions.

Arbitration is viewed as risky because the arbitrator only has the choice of selecting the entire package offered by one of the sides in the dispute.

“We need to look at every possible way to try to minimize our program and service reductions,” said School Board member Joseph Como, who also serves on the district’s bargaining team. “We’re looking at all facets of operations for our business, and that includes looking at teacher salary and benefits.”

District officials wouldn’t discuss the specifics of their dispute with the Education Association of Waukesha, which represents the school system’s roughly 900 teachers.

They only said the two sides had differences over the teacher salary schedule, health benefits and overall compensation for 2007- ’09 after 17 months of negotiations.

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