Former Cincy Parish employee faces child manipulation, sexual abuse allegations in Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A former Cincinnati parish staffer faces charges in Wisconsin related to allegations he groomed and sexually assaulted a member of the Milwaukee children's choir he directed, records show court filings Tuesday.

Marco Melendez is charged with two counts of child enticement and one count of third-degree sexual assault for alleged actions that took place between 2016 and 2019 in Milwaukee.

A warrant for his arrest was filed on Tuesday, June 25, but records do not indicate if he has been arrested yet. He is not on the Milwaukee County Jail inmate list.

Father Alex McCullough, pastor of the Queen of the Apostles Parish Family, said in a letter to parishioners that Melendez was hired as music director of the Queen of the Apostles Parish Family in February. McCullough said that since June 25, when the warrant for his arrest in Milwaukee was filed, he has no longer been employed by the parish.

The Queen of the Apostles parish family includes Our Lady of the Valley, Our Lady of the Rosary and St. James of the Valley, according to the parish website.

According to McCullough's letter, Melendez met child welfare requirements imposed by the archdiocese, including a criminal background check, and no prior charges or convictions were revealed at the time of his hiring in February.

“However, we were informed yesterday of criminal charges filed against Mr. Melendez in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for alleged criminal activities between 2016 and 2019,” the letter to parishioners read. “Because the complaint detailing the charges was just filed on June 25, 2024, the allegations against Mr. Melendez did not appear in the background check we obtained prior to his hiring in February 2024.”

McCullough wrote that he was not aware of any allegations of criminal activity made against Melendez while he was with the Queen of Apostles Parish Family.

According to court documents filed in Wisconsin, the alleged victim spoke with police in May.

The victim told police that when he was a minor, his parents put him in the Milwaukee children's choir, directed by Marco Melendez, according to court documents. The alleged victim said Melendez would make inappropriate comments to boys in choir, including that he was “dating guys” and questioning the boys about their sex lives, according to court documents.

In 2016, Melendez took the alleged victims and other choir boys to the movies; in another case, Melendez texted the alleged victim inviting him to a movie, including picking him up from his home, according to the court document.

“During the ride, the defendant dropped the back of his hand against (the alleged victim’s) crotch, pretending to have a drink,” the document reads in part. The alleged victim “estimated that the defendant picked him up and took him to his residence approximately 100 times, and 80 of those times involved the defendant touching his crotch during the ride.”

From there, Melendez began inviting the alleged victim to his home to watch movies, where he served the boy “numerous cocktails, including Manhattans, Old Fashioneds and Kamikazes. The crotch seizures continued here also,” the court document states. .

In 2017, when the alleged victim was still a minor, he told police that Melendez offered to perform a sex act on him, according to the documents. The document goes on to say that Melendez would grab the alleged victim's crotch over and under his pants. He told police he would wear “a very tight belt and wiggle around,” but that Melendez just laughed and told him to stop moving, according to the court document.

In another case, in 2017, the document describes other sexual allegations against Melendez, in which he allegedly touched the alleged victim while she was partially naked.

The alleged victim “stated that he did not want to participate and then sent a text message to his mother to come pick him up from the accused's home,” the document reads.

The alleged victim left the choir at some point in 2017, but told police Melendez would pick him up until June 2018, when Melendez left the state, according to the document. However, Melendez returned to the same neighborhood in Milwaukee in April 2019, the document states.

In another case in 2019, when the alleged victim was legally an adult, he claims Melendez sexually assaulted him after serving alcohol to him and a friend at Melendez's home.

Court documents state that on May 9, the alleged victim participated in a one-person consent call facilitated by police, during which he called Melendez and asked him to apologize for many of the accusations made in the court document. Melendez admitted during the phone call to providing alcohol to the alleged victim and “other people,” but said he did not recall any of the specific allegations of sexual assault.

“Ahhh, I don’t remember any of that to be perfectly honest,” Melendez said, according to the document. “The defendant then stated that he wasn’t saying (the alleged victim) was lying, but the defendant just doesn’t remember.”

Police spoke to another person who was a member of the Milwaukee children's choir at the same time as the allegations, the document states. That person told police that Melendez often talked about sex with members of the choir, including at his home where he served alcohol to several underage members, according to the document.

“(He) believes the defendant was trying to normalize talking about sex in regular conversation,” the document states.

That person claimed Melendez also texted choir members in a group chat, the document states.

The second person does not claim Melendez sexually assaulted him in any way, but told police he was served alcohol and at one point at Melendez's home he saw Melendez encourage the alleged victim to undress, which he did, the document states. The second person also said the alleged victim told him in 2019 about the alleged sexual assault in the presence of another friend.

According to the court document, if convicted on all three counts, Melendez could serve a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison.