Ex-LPL advisor behind bars after allegedly contacting child sex abuse victim

A former LPL Financial advisor who pleaded guilty to sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust is headed to prison after allegedly contacting the now 20-year-old victim repeatedly.

David Arthur Wismer III received a sentence of four years to life in prison after again pleading guilty — this time to violating his probation, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. Wismer, 55, registered as a sex offender after the June 2018 conviction, and he’s been held in El Paso County Jail since the May 18 sentencing, state inmate and offender databases show.

Wismer’s incarceration comes the same year a former Commonwealth Financial Network advisor from Oregon was arrested in January and later charged with first-degree online sexual corruption of a child. A onetime Northwestern Mutual advisor also faces three felony charges as part of a child sex abuse sting in Michigan, MLive reported.

Wismer allegedly spoke to the former teenage victim on the phone more than 100 times during a 10-month period last year, even though he was forbidden to have any contact with her. The plea deal had previously enabled him to avoid prison time, though he spent about 60 days in jail awaiting a trial.

An attorney for Wismer, who’s being held once more in county jail pending a transfer to state prison, says that the victim had been texting and calling him.

"He has accepted responsibility for his actions towards the victim that led to the charges," says Rick Bednarski of the Sherman & Howard law firm. "He also has accepted full responsibility for continuing to have contact with her, even though he didn't initiate it. ... It's frustrating, but we also know that he had to accept his own responsibility, and he did that."

Wismer left LPL after 14 years in May 2017, a month after authorities charged him with first degree burglary, first degree assault and stalking, according to BrokerCheck. FINRA barred him later that year for failing to respond to its request for information.

Representatives for LPL confirmed his departure but didn’t say whether the firm fired Wismer at the time of his exit.

El Paso County Sheriff's Office

Bednarski claimed at the hearing that the victim tried to extort the former advisor into paying her for not turning him in, the Gazette reported. However, a relative of the victim told the local newspaper that Wismer contacted her using anonymous social media and phone apps.

“They’re still trying to portray him as someone who was trapped, but it was a 50-year-old man who groomed a child into having sex with him for years,” the victim’s family member said to the Gazette. “She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. She has lost trust in everyone around her.”

The former advisor had been president of Wismer Wealth Management Group after stints with the Ameriprise forerunner firm American Express Financial Advisors and as a financial analyst with Blue Cross of California, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was also previously a CFP.

Wismer's probation officer agreed with prosecutors' view that there should be prison time, according to Bednarski, who says it's difficult to avoid a sentence under those circumstances. Wismer will become eligible to apply for parole in 2024.