Exposing Tim Bachleitner, Jason Storms, and the Church of the Trewhella.

Reporting from the frozen wastelands of so-called Fond du Lac, WI.

The Kingpins

Timothy Bachleitner

Timothy Bachleitner is the main local organizer behind the recent surge of Christian Nationalist demonstrations outside drag-related events in Wisconsin. Bachleitner is desperate to create a name for himself as a minister for Mercy Seat Christian Church, Administrative Director and Youth Outreach Coordinator for the Wisconsin arm of Operation Save America, and the new Chair of the Republican Party of Fond du Lac County. Don’t let all those fancy titles fool you. Timmy’s main job is to be loud and obnoxious while following orders from the smarter, more powerful people he’s dependent on for money, favors, and relevance.

Bachleitner is an ordained minister and a resident of Ripon, WI. His home address is known to local AntiFascist groups because of photographs Bachleitner himself shared on his public social media accounts. He uses the location of an abandoned church as a false address for his cleaning business, and put the same fake address on his nomination paperwork during his failed campaign for a seat on the Fond du County Board of Commissioners.

Bachleitner’s religious ideology is as toxic as his public behavior, and as fraudulent as his fake address. Mercy Seat teaches that women are subservient to men and have zero bodily autonomy, that reproductive justice is another word for murder, and that homosexuality and same-sex marriage are abominations. 

The majority of Bachleitner’s mobile astroturfing protest group are minors, teenagers and younger children that he and a handful of other adults carpool around the state. These kids are made to stand outdoors in below-freezing weather, with not much more than prayer circles and protest signs to keep them warm. For a man who claims to be all about “protecting” children, he sure doesn’t mind coercing them into trespassing where they’re not invited at adults-only events and using his freedom of religion to attack others’ freedom of assembly. 

Bachleitner presents himself as a fearless crusader, when all he really does is yell lies and slander into a portable microphone while standing behind a row of shivering children. He wants to claim he’s being persecuted, but the truth is that he and his outside agitators came to us. He may have expected easy targets, but what he found was united opposition. Timothy Bachlietner likes to claim that drag-themed events are sexually indoctrinating our youth so he has an excuse to harass business owners and bully private citizens. Any witness can clearly see he is guilty of using young children and teenagers, including his own, as props in his mission to insert fundamentalist, white supremacist Christianity into local and state politics.

Timothy Bachleitner wants to claim he’s a leader. In reality, he’s a creepy fraud
with a microphone and some dangerous friends.

On January 3, 2022, Bachleitner took minor children on another cross-state car trip, this time to meet up with Jason Storms and Matthew Trewhella outside the State Capitol on behalf of Operation Save America. Bachleitner and Co. want to pressure the State legislature to eliminate the “life of the mother” exception from Wisconsin’s otherwise total ban on abortion rights.

Jason Storms

Jason Storms is the owner and leader of Faithful Soldier School of Evangelism and Discipleship, a “Boot Camp for Bible Thumpers” fundamentalist indoctrination racket that specializes in churning out street corner preachers on behalf of Mercy Seat Christian Church in Brookfield, WI. Faithful Soldier claims to accept all ages, but is especially focused on recruiting teenagers. 

Jason’s main gig is serving as the new National Director for Operation Save America, which the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has flagged as an extremist organization due to their long history of attacks on abortion rights, the LGBTQIA+ community, and the Islamic faith. Operation Save America is the rebranded name for Operation Rescue, whose original founders have all been convicted of crimes related to illegally blockading abortion clinics and stalking clinic patients and staff. Operation Rescue’s former Vice President, Cheryl Sullenger, was in close contact with anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder before he assassinated Dr. George Tiller during worship services at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas in 2009. 

Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned and abortion is almost totally illegal in Wisconsin, Jason has had to find a new target for his lies and hatred. He was among the group of outside agitators who traveled to Fond du Lac and Waukesha Counties to protest outside private, adults-only Drag Bingo events. Jason spends a lot of time preaching about protecting children from the dangers of sexual perversion, but doesn’t like to talk about his own father’s conviction for public obscenity. 

In 2012, Grant Storms, a self-styled “Christian Patriot” street corner hate preacher, was arrested for exposing himself while masturbating in his van, which was parked near a playground in Lafreniere Park in Metairie, Louisiana. In his confession, Grant Storms admitted that the day of his arrest was the third time in that same week had masturbated in the park, and that he had viewed pornography shortly before coming to the park for the purpose of acting on his thrill for public masturbation. 

Grant Storms previously received national media attention in 2003 for leading his church congregation on anti-gay protests through New Orleans’ French Quarter during the annual Southern Decadence Pride festival and at other times throughout the year.  After his conviction, Grant Storms held a press conference to apologize to his family, friends and others he had offended, including the LGBTQ+ community he had previously attacked. He said he was no longer associated with the church he once led, and would instead focus on his lawn care service business. 

Jason Storms could have learned from his father’s shame and recanted his ministry of ignorance and hypocrisy. Instead, doubled down into an even bigger and more toxic cult of Christian Nationalism by marrying and fathering 10 children with Sara Trewhella Storms, Matthew Trewhella’s eldest daughter. 

Matthew Trewhella

Matthew Trewhella’s childhood was full of violence, abandonment, and abuse. He’s spent his entire adult life making his trauma everyone else’s problem, all in the name of his toxic brand of religion.

By 17, Trewhella was already a convicted arsonist. He avoided prison through a plea deal arranged by his mother to enroll him in Teen Challenge, a predatory “youth outreach” effort created by the late David Wilkerson to channel incarcerated and drug-addicted teenage boys to his street corner evangelism training camps instead of an actual rehab program. 

Eleven years later, Trewhella founded Mercy Seat Christian Church, the home base and recruitment center for his very own tinpot empire of fascist Christian Nationalism. From his pulpit in an Embassy Suites hotel conference room, Trewhella preaches against abortion for any reason, against all forms of contraception, against gender diversity, homsexuality and same-sex marriage, against formal education, and against gun control, and against mask mandates and vaccines. What he wants instead is a fundamentalist Christian theocracy defended by “the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.”

Trewhella never lost his taste for violence. He simply redirected it into his activism. He’s a former member of Army of God, an anti-abortion extremist group that firebombed abortion clinics, and stalked, kidnapped, and murdered abortion doctors. Army of God is recognized by the Department of Homeland Security and the Southern Poverty Law Center as a terrorist group. Trewhella headlined Army of God’s 2001 White Rose Conference and co-signed their Defensive Action Statement calling the murder of abortion doctors a “justifiable use of lethal force to protect the life of an unborn child.” 

Trewhella was one of the first anti-abortion activists in Wisconsin to encourage his followers to form militias against the government. As co-founder of Missionaries To The Preborn, a Milwaukee-based ripoff of Operation Rescue, Trewhella once told an audience of abortion opponents, “This Christmas, I want you to do the most loving thing. I want you to buy each of your children an SKS rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition.” 

While most of his energy is spent opposing abortion, Trewhella is also a raging homophobe and transphobe who refers to queer and transgender people (and their allies) as “filthy,” “disgusting,” and something that “needs to be suppressed through the force of law.” Right Wing Watch has a complete list 
In Trewhella’s world, violence and intimidation are definitely the solution to almost any problem, and the purpose of government is to legally enforce his religious zealotry onto others while allowing him to do whatever he wants. Matthew Trewhella claims to be a man of God. At his core, he’s a terrorist.

The Second Generation

Darby Trewhella and Isaiah Muckerheide

Isaiah Muckerheide, son-in-law to Matthew Trewhella. Married Darby Trewhella in 2017.
Isaiah was seen in December 2022 crashing private drag-themed events in
Fond du Lac and Waukesha Counties

Isaiah Muckerheide’s father died in 2015, during Isaish’s senior year of high school. Two years later, Isaiah married Darby Trewhella, second-eldest daughter of the man who presided over his father’s funeral. Isaiah traded in his high school wrestling career to spread bigotry and make new grandkids for his father-in-law. It’s just cycles of predatory trauma bonding and fundamentalist indoctrination all the way down with these people. Darby doesn’t have much time to take part in her dad’s mobile outrage mob now that she’s given birth to four kids over the past five years.

Crispian Trewhella

Left: Crispian Trewhella (front) standing with Don Berquist of Waukesha, WI (left) Both men were spotted crashing a private, adults only Drag Bingo event in Waukesha County December 18, 2022. Middle: Crispian Trewhella, using a semiautomatic rifle without safety glasses. Right: Crispian Trewhella and his two young children. Those are unsecured handgun ammunition clips on the nightstand.

Crispian Daniel Trewhella washed out of the Army in 2015 and now devotes his time to soldier cosplay, trying to win his father’s favor through street corner harassment and hate preaching, and making babies with Isaiah Muckerheide’s sister, Marlissa. Sounds like a classic case of overcompensation, if you ask us.

Matthew Trewhella, Jr. and Talia Thorson Trewhella

Matthew Trewhella Jr. and Talia Thorson Trewhella, spotted in Waukesha County while crashing a private, adults-only Drag Bingo event on December 18, 2022.

Matthew Trewhella, Jr. is another middle son trying to please Daddy. He doesn’t seem to have much of an identity or presence beyond playing with guns, harassing abortion clinic patients, being a pest on college campuses, and spreading lies and hate against the LGBTQIA+ community. Talia Thorson Trewhella married Matthew Jr. on August 5, 2022. Talia is yet another victim of lifelong indoctrination into fundamentalist Christianity. By marrying into the Trewhella family cult, her entire life now centers around obeying her husband and being controlled and manipulated by her fascist father-in-law.

Left: Let’s hope the gun Talia Thorson Trewhella pointed at Matthew Trewhella Jr.’s head in this photo from May 2021 wasn’t loaded at the time. Right: Matthew Trewhella, Jr., shown preaching against abortion rights at an unnamed college campus in April 2019. The photo was posted on his father’s social media.

Rochelle Trewhella Proell and Nick Proell

Rochelle Trewhella Proell (left) and Nick Proell, both spotted crashing private, adults-only Drag Bingo events in Fond du Lac and Waukesha Counties.

A Trewhella daughter’s purpose is to be homeschooled into Daddy’s religious cult, then married off young to the man her parents choose for her. Once married, her job turns into having as many babies as she can, as quickly as possible. Rochelle Trewhella Proell fits those requirements perfectly. She and Nick Proell are both barely 20 years old. They were married in October 2022, and by the end of December Rochelle was already pregnant. When asked on social media whether they would still unconditionally love and accept a child who turned out to be queer or transgender, Rochelle quickly made her pregnancy announcement private while Nick claimed his family was being stalked and attacked. 

Rochelle Trewhella Proell and Nick Proell have both been trained not just into fundamentalist Christian Nationalism, but also into the lifelong narcissism and victimhood complex that goes with it. Both of them start trouble by showing up where they aren’t wanted and proselytizing in people’s faces. Nick starts preaching and shouting abuse into any available microphone, be it outside an abortion clinic, a college campus, a public library with a Pride month display, or a private business. Rochelle is right there as his cheerleading mascot, praying and waving Bible verse signs. 

When they meet with resistance, Rochelle immediately acts innocent and expects to be protected. Nick starts out whining about being shown he isn’t welcome and then jumps straight to religious martyrdom. Neither one seems to understand that freedom of speech does not guarantee freedom from dissent, or that consequences apply to them. 

Julia Storms

Left: Julia Storms, spotted on December 18, 2022 while crashing an adults-only Drag event in Waukesha County. Right: Julia and her friend are too young to legally adopt a baby, but almost old enough to be married off and start having their own.

Julia Ann Storms, eldest daughter of Jason Storms and Sara Trewhella Storms, is fully indoctrinated into her family’s dynasty of fascist Christian Nationalism. Determined to make the most of her time as a “Faithful Soldier” before she’s married off into a life of babymaking, Julia has spent her teenage years following her parents to anti-abortion rights and anti-LGBTQ+ protests around the country. Julia is also a youth ambassador for Milwaukee-based Warriors for Christ, a shockingly homophobic and transphobic group of street preaching grifters that claims “snatching people from Hell is our business” and encourages its members to go out and “fight the Leftist assault on our churches.” Warriors for Christ celebrated opening its new Madison-based chapter in November by setting up a table at Library Mall with a sign reading “Homosexuality Destroys the Family” and challenging University of Wisconsin students to debate them. Witnesses described the setup as being similar to the viral “Change My Mind” meme popularized by Steven Crowder.
Through her father’s connections with Timothy Bachleitner and the Fond du Lac County Republican Party, Julia Storms was invited to speak at the September 2022 Abraham Lincoln Day Luncheon in Ripon, the “Birthplace of the Republican Party.” She could have used her five minutes to speak to Party leaders and candidates about issues that would actually help young people. Instead, she spent them attacking transgender youth and spreading scaremongering lies about gender-affirming medical care. Julia might think she’s a warrior, but in reality, she’s simply another one of her family’s brainwashed pawns.

Meribah Bachleitner and Sean Brierton

Left: Meribah Bachleitner, eldest daughter of Timothy and Kristin Bachleitner. Meribah was with her father and siblings at Drag Bingo events in Fond du Lac and Waukesha Counties in December 2022. Right: Sean Brierton, Meribah’s new arranged suitor.

Meribah Joy Bachleitner has been indoctrinated into her parents’ fundamentalist Christian Nationalism since birth. She and her siblings regularly take part in their father’s religious-based harassment campaigns. Meribah and other young “Faithful Soldiers” carry professionally printed signs full of cherry-picked Bible verses and huddle in group prayer circles to block sidewalks, streets, and parking lot entrances. Now that Planned Parenthood and other clinics in Wisconsin have been forced to stop offering abortion services, Meribah and Co. direct their targeted harassment toward the LGBTQ+ community.

Assorted Fanboys and Groupies

Noah Meyer

Noah Meyer is one of the most physically aggressive members of the Trewhella-Storms Church Cult. He will not hesitate to get into your face, especially if you’re a woman, but his favorite rage target is the LGBTQ+ community. 

At the December 11, 2022 Drag Bingo event in Fond du Lac County, he told a counter-protester that he had a concealed firearm in his jacket. When questioned by Sheriff’s deputies,  Noah immediately changed his story and denied ever claiming to be carrying a weapon. Carrying a concealed firearm without a permit is a misdemeanor in Wisconsin. It is unknown whether Noah was actually armed at the time.

Handel Humphrey

Handel Humphrey is another member of the Mercy Seat Christian Church Cult. Handel would like to be a filmmaker when he grows up, but right now he’s stuck working for a modular building construction company and following the Trewhella-Storms clan around to videotape their anti-abortion demonstrations.

Bob Cress

Bob Cress can be found on social media under the alias “Bob Cee Jim.” He follows the Trewhella Cult carpool to their anti-abortion rights tantrums around the state. He was most recently spotted at the December 2022 Drag Bingo events in Fond du Lac and Waukesha Counties. Bob is more your quiet, loner type but he’s quite useful at standing in one place and holding signs covered in cherry-picked Bible verses or fake gore.

The Enablers

Sam Kaufman, Fond du Lac County Executive

Sam Kaufman is an attorney, a Fond du Lac County Court Commissioner, Town of Waupun First Supervisor, and founding partner of Vande Zande & Kaufman Law, LLP, with offices in Waupun and Fond du Lac, WI. 

Kaufman also served on the Fond du Lac County Board of Supervisors for six years before he was elected to the County Executive position last April. During Kaufman’s County Executive campaign, we exposed his history of sharing racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic and transphobic images on his personal Facebook page. Kaufman scrubbed his social media and deleted comments from the local community leaders who called him out, but never recanted or apologized for his open bigotry. 

In 2017, the leaders of every major healthcare, educational, manufacturing, religious, and nonprofit organization in Fond du Lac County cosigned a joint statement supporting diversity and inclusion and asking the County Board to adopt it as a formal resolution. Six years later, those leaders are still waiting while Kaufman encourages his friends to join with outside agitators to harass and slander local business owners who welcome and affirm LGBTQ+ patrons and their allies. 

When Bachleitner uploaded videos of his attack on the Fond du Lac County Drag Bingo event to his social media, which included homophobic and transphobic slurs and false accusations of child sexual abuse, Kaufman spent the next three days clicking “like” on those posts. 

When you’re a kingpin of the Old Boys Club, there are no consequences for acting on your prejudices so long as you make sure to only hurt the people your friends don’t like.

Eric Toney

Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney is another card-carrying member of Bachleitner’s Republican Party. 

Last January, Toney spoke at a Winnebago County Republican Party meeting while standing in front of a Three Percenters flag. The Three Percenters are an armed fascist militia that advocates for the violent overthrow of American democracy. When questioned by news media, Toney claimed not to have seen a 3’x5’ flag hanging on the front wall of the meeting room, saying he “was focused on the attendees not the decor.”

During his Attorney General campaign, Toney accepted an endorsement from Wisconsin Family Action, an extremist political action group that denied evolution, advocates for conversion therapy for queer and transgender youth, and opposes all abortion rights without exception. He also said that if he were elected Attorney General, he would support allowing District Attorneys to cross county lines to prosecute abortion cases. 
Eric Toney claims he’s tough on crime. Turns out, he’s really just soft on corrupt cops. As Idavox reported here, former Fond du Lac Police Chief Bill Ledger had been tampering with evidence, disclosing confidential information, misusing department resources, profiling victims, showing racial bias, and sharing sexist and homophobic memes and images for years. Much of this behavior was common public knowledge, yet Eric Toney failed to address it until a Wisconsin DCI investigation forced his hand.

Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office

Left: The Trewhella Cult holds a youth prayer circle that partially blocks an access road to a hospital in Fond du Lac County. Right: Sheriff’s Deputies refuse to enforce County ordinances while Christian Nationalists preach hate in a public street.

Fond du Lac County Ordinance Sec. 38-173 (b)(3) prohibits the public address systems in ways that disturb any persons in the surrounding area, and specifically hospital patients and staff. Sheriff’s deputies not only allowed Drag Bingo protestors to use an amplified microphone to scream bigoted abuse and false accusations within sight of the hospital’s entrance, but also let them repeatedly block the hospital’s only access road while firetrucks and ambulances waited to get through. 

Maybe Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt commanded his officers to stand down to keep his Republican Party cronies happy. Maybe he just didn’t think this protest was one he could hijack into a personal PR opportunity and lecture against looting like he did with a march for George Floyd in May of 2020. 

None of these issues are unique to Fond du Lac, or even to Wisconsin. 2022 saw a drastic increase in protests against drag shows and Pride-themed events across the country. Bible-thumpers with bullhorns are nothing new, but many of these protests are now involving armed militia members as conscripted soldiers in their latest crusade to turn secular governments into fascist theocracies. Christian Nationalism and white supremacy are simply two sides of the same dirty coin, and law enforcement has long been a tool to protect and serve both. 

Here at Idavox, we know what indoctrination really is. We also know that exposing it is the first step toward fighting it. We see Bachleitner’s bullies and the Cult of Trewhella for what they really are, and we are not afraid to speak out and act out against them.