Former Franklin College president pleads no contest to child sex crime charges

STURGEON BAY, Wis. — The former president of Franklin College pleaded no contest to child sex crime charges in a Wisconsin Court Thursday.

Thomas Minar, 58, was fired by the college in January 2020 after he was arrested on suspicion of the crimes.

Wisconsin court records show Minar pleaded no contest to one count of child enticement and three counts of possession of child pornography, all class D felonies.

Prosecutors in Door County, Wis. said Minar was arrested while trying to meet a teenager after a sexually explicit chat through an online dating site.

According to court documents, Minar was allegedly using a cell phone app called "Grindr," which is a platform "commonly used by gay males to meet other males to meet up for sexual encounters," when he began contacting a person he thought was a 15-year-old boy. The person was actually an undercover police officer.

After being arrested at a local McDonald's after making plans to meet, Minar reportedly told officers he was attracted to young males but that the sexually-explicit chat was only "fantasy chat."

Minar had been president of Franklin College for five years and had previously announced plans to leave the school at the end of the academic year ending in 2020.

Court records show Minar is scheduled to be sentenced on June 6.