A longtime member of the performing arts community has resigned from the board of managers at Springfield Municipal Opera after parents called for his ouster.
Efforts to kick Bill Bauser Jr. off the board of The Muni after his appointment by Muni officials in December arose because of allegations that Bauser, while on the board of another nonprofit, Springfield Theatre Centre, failed to do enough in 2018 and 2019 to protect children from inappropriate online and text messages from Adam Power of Petersburg.
The Muni announced Bauser's resignation in a Facebook post April 5, saying he no longer is a member of the board of managers.
Power, 29, faces eight felony child pornography charges in Menard County and is being held in the Menard County Jail on $300,000 bond after being arrested March 22.
It's not clear whether any of the children depicted in the images live in central Illinois.
His attorney, Daniel Fultz, said Power plans to plead not guilty when he is arraigned April 18.
Bauser, 56, also of Petersburg, has not been charged with any crimes and works as the auditorium and fine arts coordinator for the Rochester school district.
Bauser declined comment when reached April 3, telling an Illinois Times reporter by phone before hanging up: "I'm sorry. My lawyers advised me not to talk to anyone. Thank you."
Muni President Mac Warren said the board of managers wasn't aware of any claim that Bauser didn't take seriously complaints about Power's conduct when Bauser was on the executive board of Springfield Theatre Centre, a resident organization at Springfield's Hoogland Center for the Arts.
Warren previously said The Muni hired former federal prosecutor John Milhiser to conduct an investigation to help Muni officials decide whether Bauser should remain on the board and continue to volunteer running concessions and performing other tasks at the outdoor venue at 815 E. Lake Shore Drive.
Bauser was suspended from the Muni's board and involvement in the organization, Warren said.
Former Muni actor Johnny Molson, 52, said he was told by a Muni board member that the member's efforts to bring up Bauser's past were rebuffed in discussions with other board members prior to Bauser's appointment.
Warren disagreed, saying some board members might have known about Bauser's background but didn't say anything.
Molson, a former local radio personality who currently works as an advertising consultant, and his ex-wife, Kari Bedford, a professional photographer, are encouraging people to sign an online petition at Change.org calling for Bauser's removal by The Muni. The petition had 789 signatures as of April 5.
Bauser has served for years in both volunteer and paid off-stage roles for community theater groups in the Springfield area.
Rochester Superintendent Dan Cox told the newspaper in an email April 4 that Bauser was put on paid administrative leave March 29 and remains on leave. Cox wouldn't say why Bauser was put on leave.
Springfield police and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services interviewed Springfield parents and their children in 2018 about allegations that Power, a piano accompanist and volunteer director of community theater productions, made comments of a sexual nature to minors through the Snapchat mobile app and on other online platforms after he met them in theater productions.
The 2018 investigation did not lead to any criminal charges, and DCFS determined the allegations to be "unfounded," according to DCFS spokesperson Heather Tarczan.
When Power was charged with eight counts of possession of child pornography, Menard County State's Attorney Gabriel Grosboll said Power had no prior criminal history.
"If more illegal activity is found, I anticipate additional charges," Grosboll said.
Sangamon County State's Attorney Dan Wright decided not to charge Power after the 2018 investigation. He told the newspaper: "Based on the investigation provided, there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt, under the Illinois Criminal Code as written."
Power declined to speak with police in 2018 upon the advice of Fultz, his attorney at the time, according to police reports.
Parents told police they believed Power was grooming their children, police reports said.
Illinois law says a person commits the criminal offense of grooming when he or she knowingly uses an online service or uses written or in-person communication to "seduce, solicit, lure or entice, or attempt to seduce, solicit, lure or entice" a person younger than 17 to commit any sexual offense, to distribute nude photographs or "otherwise engage in unlawful sexual conduct with a child."
The law also requires prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant personally authored any electronic communication that would qualify under the statute.
The newspaper used the Illinois Freedom of Information Act to obtain Springfield police reports detailing a variety of allegations surrounding Power in 2018 and more recently.
In one report, a 16-year-old told police that Power asked the boy two years earlier, when Power was in his early 20s, whether the boy thought about his juvenile friends while masturbating.
A juvenile female said in a report that Power would ask her personal questions "about if she has had sex and what she and her 'significant other' would do."
The reports said Power has asked juvenile females "inappropriate questions concerning their sex lives and also asked one of the girls to come to his house." He allegedly asked one girl to "cuddle" with him at his home. The reports didn't mention any touching occurring other than Power placing his hand on a child's thigh on a bus.
The reports also detailed secondhand accounts by people who wanted to remain anonymous, situations in which Power's messages were automatically deleted by Snapchat, and cases in which juveniles were embarrassed by Power's messages and had deleted them.
Power was employed in 2018 at Our Savior Catholic School and Routt Catholic School, both in Jacksonville, according to police reports. Officials from both of those schools didn't return phone calls from Illinois Times.
Power graduated from Petersburg PORTA High School in 2012 and occasionally worked as a substitute teacher at the school from November 2019 to April 2021, PORTA Superintendent Matt Brue said.
Power reportedly was in the band at PORTA when he attended there. Bauser worked as a band assistant in 2011 and 2012, Brue said.
Power's website, powermusiclessons.com, says he has provided choir and band clinics to middle and high school students and provides music lessons out of his home.
Molson and Bedford said their daughter, Annelise, 20, told police about inappropriate messages she received from Power when she was a minor.
Molson and Bedford said they were frustrated when Power's supporters defended him online after the 2018 investigation ended without charges being filed.
Molson said it is "heartbreaking" that the investigation in 2018 into Power's conduct "didn't go further, because a lot of kids followed."
Bedford said Power has "had five more years to do what he's done. ... We know that this stuff thrives in secrecy. It thrives in silence."
The pair said they and other parents of children who received communications from Power sent their written complaints to a Springfield Theatre Centre email in 2018.
Jennifer Gronewold, a former president of the organization, said two families sent email complaints regarding Power's actions at a 2018 summer theater camp for children. Power was a paid staff member at that camp, Gronewold said.
The complaints went to the STC executive board, which included Gronewold and Bauser, she said.
Parents' concerns resulted in Power being removed from directing STC's November 2018 production of 13, the Musical, and the STC board decided not to rehire Power for the summer camp in 2019 and beyond, Gronewold said.
If Power was to be considered to be on the volunteer staff for a show, the executive board planned to discuss that situation when it arose, Gronewold said.
The full STC board knew there were complaints about Power but wasn't aware of the details filed by parents in December 2018 until 2019.
When asked why the STC executive board didn't inform the full board in 2018, Gronewold said the executive board did not convey details of the complaints to other board members "in an attempt to keep the privacy of the minors and families of those involved and because action had already been taken against Mr. Power.
"The full board knew that complaints of inappropriate behavior had been made against Mr. Power, and as a result, upheld the executive board's decisions addressing those complaints," Gronewold said.
Power was removed from the all-volunteer board of Theatre in the Park in New Salem for alleged sexual harassment against a contractual adult employee on the nonprofit's technical staff, according to Mark Wheeler, the organization's part-time executive director.
After Power's removal, Wheeler said he and his wife began to hear complaints from children who were directed by Power in productions at Theatre in the Park and at Springfield Theatre Centre. Wheeler said the text messages he heard about from Power to the children were "really creepy."
Wheeler said Power was "just kind of unassuming" and "always functioned at a lower level of maturity in terms of how he talked. He was always really charming with the kids."
Gronewold said the STC's full board of directors learned specifics of Power's alleged behavior after Bauser asked Power to be vocal director of an STC musical, Annie Get Your Gun, in late 2019, without consulting board members. Bauser was the volunteer executive director and treasurer of STC at the time.
Complaints from parents, who spotted Power at tryouts for the musical in late 2019 at the Hoogland, where the musical would be performed in January 2020, prompted Hoogland Executive Director Gus Gordon to immediately notify the Hoogland board. Gordon said his board banned Power from the building.
STC board members met with parents, including Molson and Bedford, who were upset about the lack of communication between 2018 and 2019, and removed Power from Annie Get Your Gun, Gronewold said.
Board members asked for, and received, Bauser's resignation from the STC board in December 2019 and stripped him of his vote. They also recently voted to revoke Bauser's emeritus status and banned him from participating in any STC event or production, Gronewold said.
She said STC also changed its board structure, updated its sexual harassment and anti-bullying policy, created its first-ever diversity and inclusion statement and made commitments to continue updating its bylaws, policies and procedures "to ensure we are keeping all of our show staffs, casts, audiences and volunteers safe."
Gordon and Warren said the situation has led to discussions about creating better systems that arts organizations could use to ensure children and others are safeguarded when concerns about conduct are raised.
"We need, as a local theater community, more communication with each other," Gordon said. "We need more training. People need to be more aware."
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at [email protected], 217-679-7810 or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.
