Former CAB official faces protection orders

(EDITOR’S NOTE: By practice, The Eagle does not reveal the names of individuals alleging sexual assault with civil and criminal proceedings.)

Former CAB Chair of Finance Caleb Tegtmeier, selected by Gov. Pete Ricketts to serve as CSC’s student trustee, is awaiting civil court decisions on two sexual assault protection orders, court records show.

No criminal charges related to the two cases have been filed against Tegtmeier, 20, a sophomore of North Platte.  

Alex Reuss, the governor’s director of strategic communications, confirmed in an email Wednesday that Tegtmeier was appointed student trustee in January. 

The appointment came weeks before two sexual assault protection order motions were filed against him – one on Feb. 10, the second on Feb. 15 – by two different female students. 

“The certificates were dated January 2022,” Reuss wrote in a Wednesday email. “The Governor makes his selection for the student trustees based on what the Colleges put forward to him. This information was not disclosed and the Governor was not aware of this information.”

The college’s deadline for student trustee applications was Oct. 24, 2021, the selection process concluded with the governor’s January appointment.

On Friday, Judge Russell W. Harford heard testimony from a female student who filed  the Feb.15 motion, and from Tegtmeier. At the conclusion of the hearing, Harford said he would take the case under advisement and render a decision on May 23.  

Friday’s hearing was the second of the two sexual assault protection order motions filed in February against Tegtmeier.  

A hearing on the Feb. 10 motion was March 14. A decision on that motion is still pending.  

In an affidavit seeking the protection order, the female student who filed the Feb. 15 motion described a non-consensual encounter that occurred in September 2020. 

“I told Caleb I did not want to be touched below the waist,” she wrote. 

On Friday, she testified about the effects of the encounter.

“I find it hard to go through my day-to-day life knowing what happened to me and potentially others,” the female student testified Friday. 

During her testimony, she said that she contacted CSC’s Title IX office in November 2020 about the alleged sexual assault. 

Afterward, Ted Tewahade, former Title IX coordinator, and Megan Northrup, current Title IX coordinator, had “a conversation about consent” with Tegtmeier, the female student testified. She also testified she was offered “supportive measures,” such as counseling and academic resources.  

During her testimony, the student said that Tegtmeier’s presence makes her “very uncomfortable.” 

“At the time I thought I could push through it, but I was sorely wrong,” she testified. 

She also testified that in February, Northrup reached out to her again, and afterward filed a no contact order against Tegtmeier.  

Tegtmeier testified after receiving the no contact order he began attending classes he shared with the female student via Zoom, resigned from his position with CAB and has been attending Health Professions Club (HPC) meetings virtually. 

An email requesting comment from Tegtmeier’s attorney Rebecca Chasek went unanswered as of press time Wednesday. 

An email sent to Tegtmeier requesting comment went unanswered as of press time Wednesday.