Walz alleges that Adam struck a child during mass and has nearly knocked elderly people over when he abruptly bolts from church. He also spits and sometimes urinates in church and fights efforts to restrain him, Walz wrote.
The pastor wrote that Adam’s parents often sit on him during mass to restrain him, and sometimes bind his hands and feet, pulling a rope under the pew so his father can control the line from behind.
Walz wrote that Adam once pulled an adolescent girl – an exchange student staying with the family – on top of him, grabbing her thighs and buttocks. And, at Easter, Walz alleged, Adam ran from the church, got into the family van and started it, then got into someone else’s car, started it and revved up the engine.
“There were people directly in front of the car who could have been injured or killed if he had put the car in gear” Walz wrote.
Carol offered a different perspective. She said her son once brushed against a parishioner who almost lost balance. Adam makes spitting faces but doesn’t actually spit, she said, and he has an occasional incontinence problem.
She and John sometimes sit on him because their weight is calming to him, she said. He pulled the exchange student onto his lap for that reason, she said, and wasn’t grabbing at her.
They also use soft fleece strips to sometimes bind Adam’s hands and occasionally his feet because it calms him, she said.
The Easter incident occurred when Adam got into the driver’s seat of a car that had already been started and revved the engine because he’s drawn to engines, she said.
