MADISON, Wis. -
A judge has ruled that field sobriety tests conducted on a former Lutheran bishop accused of driving drunk and killing a woman with his car are inadmissible.


Dane County Judge Nicholas McNamara ruled Friday field sobriety tests given to Bruce Burnside should be thrown out because of a lack of reasonable suspicion. He said the results of blood tests are admissible under implied consent.
The 60-year-old is facing multiple felonies in the April 2013 crash that killed Maureen Mengeldt, 52, of Sun Prairie on the northbound off-ramp of Highway 151 near Windsor Street in Sun Prairie. Police said they located Burnside with his heavily damaged vehicle at a Kelley's Mobil gas station a block away from the scene of the crash.
Burnside is charged with homicide by the intoxicated use of a vehicle, homicide by use of a vehicle with a prohibited alcohol concentration, hit-and-run, hit-and-run involving death and homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle.
Mengeldt's husband, Kevin Mengeldt, told News 3 the proceedings are difficult.
"I have to come up with a way to explain this to my three children," he said. "I understand there are legal challenges, but there are also moral correctness and being standup and he's chosen not to do so. I hope someday he does show some remorse for his actions."
A criminal complaint said Burnside's preliminary breath test results were .128 percent.
A trial is scheduled to begin May 12.

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Tuesday, April 9, 2013


Another Reason Why Alcoholic Ministers Need More Than Looking the Other Way.
Drunk ELCA Bishop Kills Jogger

ELCA Bishop Bruce Burnside, drunken hit-skip killer.
His victim's bio should bring tears to the eyes of anyone.


bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "From the Folks at The CORE - Who Gave You the Man ...":

ELCA Bishop of South-Central Wisconsin, Burnside, is drunk at 2:48 PM in the afternoon, and is on his way to a church meeting. He kills a jogger and then tries to flee the scene but then stops a ways away. The cops haven't said whether he stopped because he had second thoughts, or his car stopped working due to the accident. He likely went to the office and meetings drunk many times and never got called on it, since drunk drivers usually only get in accidents on their 100th or 500th episode of drunk driving, so the ELCA is likely partly responsible for this unnecessary death. The jogger was a mother of three, and was a former police detective and teacher:

Bishop Burnside was big into social justice, and in charge of the ELCA's Middle East policy, and recently led a 16-day trip to investigate the "occupation and oppression" in the West Bank, aka Palestine:

http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls/Travel/Trip-Reports-and-Advice/Synod-Trip.aspx

Map of ELCA South-Central Synod of WI:
http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Synodical-Relations/Regions/Region-5.aspx

Burnside at Yad Vashem, Israel:
http://photos.elca.org/ELCA-News-Service-1/2009-Conference-of-Bishops/7321845_YHf6R/2/471112053_LjFrX#!i=471112053&k=5S987Mb

Burnside was pastor once at Grace in Eau Claire, whose 70 ex-members are suing because the majority of the congregation decided to join the LCMC:

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/12/grace-lutheran-sued-by-estranged.html

As of March 2013, Grace Lutheran has been ordered by a judge to terminate its fellowship with LCMC and be a sole member of the ELCA. Finally, those members who would like to associate with the LCMC will have only associate member status, exactly the reverse of the status quo since 2011. I don't know if associate members have voting rights. Ironically, the church is right across the street from the courthouse:
http://www.grace-church.org/

http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/lutheran-bishop-accused-of-killing-pedestrian-in-sun-prairie-while-drunk-6t9fam1-201909101.html

http://www.thelutheran.org/blog/index.cfm?page_id=Breaking%20News&blog_id=1931

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/police-lutheran-bishop-was-intoxicated-behind-the-wheel-when-he/article_e949068a-a08f-11e2-baa0-0019bb2963f4.html

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/madison-man-arrested-after-woman-dies-in-car-crash/article_0fb85bfa-9ff9-11e2-a1cd-001a4bcf887a.html 

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE
May 8, 2007


Bruce Burnside Elected Bishop of ELCA South-Central Wisconsin Synod
07-081-JB
[Click for larger image] The Rev. Bruce Burnside, St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Monona, Wis., was elected bishop of the ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin.
     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Bruce Burnside, St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Monona, Wis., was elected to a six-year term as bishop of the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) at the synod assembly in Madison, Wis.  Burnside, 53, was elected May 5 on the fifth ballot for bishop, 253-159 over the Rev. Michael C. Rehak, assistant to the bishop, ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin.
     Burnside will succeed the Rev. George G. Carlson, 65, who announced earlier he would not be available for re-election.  Carlson was elected bishop of the synod in 2001.
     Burnside led on the fourth ballot with 209 votes. Rehak had 117 votes, and the Rev. David J. Berggren, Our Savior Lutheran Church, Sun Prairie, Wis., received 75 votes.  There were 31 names on the first or nominating ballot.
     Burnside will assume his new role as synod bishop on July 1.  He will be installed on Sept. 16 at a location to be announced.
     Born in Ashland, Wis., Burnside earned a bachelor's degree in religious studies at Pacific
Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash., in 1984.  In 1988 he earned a master of divinity degree from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio.  Pacific Lutheran is one of 28 ELCA colleges and universities; Trinity is one of eight ELCA seminaries.
     Burnside served as pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Sharon, Wis., and St. John's Lutheran Church, Boscobel, Wis.  He became senior pastor at St. Stephen Lutheran Church in 1993.
     Burnside and his wife Cynthia are parents of an adult daughter.  They reside in Madison.
     The ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin has 110,668 baptized members in 150 congregations.  The synod office is in Madison.
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     Information about the ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin is at
http://www.scsw-ELCA.org/ on the Web.

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Sara YotterRev. Sara Yotter,
Assistant to the Bishop
Click here to contact Rev. Yotter

Sara grew up in Appleton, WI. She received a BA in Religion and Biblical Languages from Luther College in Decorah, IA and her MDiv from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. She has been on the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin staff as an Assistant to the Bishop and Synod Stewardship Specialist since 2008.
Her personal mission statement is to love Jesus and to help others love Jesus. Her passion in ministry is that the Church may be real and relevant in the world today to connect all people to Jesus. A recent trip to Haiti, with ELCA World Hunger, has reignited her fire for ELCA work around the world.
Blake Rohrer - another assistant.

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Nadia Botz-Weber. Photo courtesy of the author.
http://sojo.net/blogs/2011/12/07/matthew-25-how-i-met-my-husband

As many of you know I was at the funeral this Monday of Cythia Burnside, wiife of bishop Bruce Burnside. I met Bruce at the ELCA church-wide assembly and had preached about that the following Sunday. I preached about how he and I had sat next to each other at a worship service where I discovered that his wife had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer a month before. During a particularly un-sing-able hymn that I was distracted by hating…I realized he was crying. So, throwing my snotty opinions about church music aside I just had to sing that terrible hymn twice as loud because my grieving brother in Christ couldn’t sing. After the liturgy ended, even though I was a new pastor he had just met and he was a bishop I asked him if he would like for me to pray for him and anoint him with oil and his eyes teared up and he said thank you yes. I committed to pray for him every day since and checked in occasionally via text message and email. At his wife’s funeral Monday I asked him “Who pastors Bishops?” He whispered “no one.”   So, here’s the thing…I don’t really think I was the one who allowed Christ to be revealed in this encounter… it was Bruce. Because Bruce allowed himself to bear a need that someone else could, however imperfectly meet. And when the grief of our brother was cared about Jesus was cared about.

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ELCA Did Not Cover Up the Story But Reported It Through Its Normally Sluggish News Service

http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx?a=5285
ELCA offers prayers for family, friends of pedestrian killed in Wisconsin
     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are extending prayers for the family and friends of a pedestrian killed April 7 in Sun Prairie, Wis., and for the Rev. Bruce H. Burnside, bishop of the ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin. Reports indicate that Burnside’s vehicle hit the pedestrian. He was arrested and taken into custody.
      “We offer our prayers for the woman who lost her life in this tragedy. Nothing can undo this terrible accident. Our hope is for God’s comfort for the survivors,” said the Rev. Jessica R. Crist, chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops and bishop of the ELCA Montana Synod.
     “At a time of such deep sorrow for the family and friends of the woman who died, for the members of the ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin, for Bishop Burnside and his family and for the wider community, we are held in the promise that nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and we are joined in our prayers for all who suffer,” said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop.
     In a statement from the ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin, leaders and members expressed their sorrow “and dismay in sympathy for the victim and for her family. We ask for prayers for the victim's family and for everyone affected by this situation.
      “In this difficult time, when words are challenging to find, we trust in the presence of the Holy Spirit to be with us, and in God's abiding love to sustain us.”
      Prayer resources are available on the synod’s website at http://www.scsw-ELCA.org.
      The ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin comprises of 145 congregations in 13 counties in south-central Wisconsin.
"We assure them of their forgiveness, just before
they enter a NOT GUILTY plea."