Man facing porn charge now accused of assaulting boy

A 38-year-old child care worker from Port Washington who was charged earlier this month with possessing child pornography is now accused of sexually assaulting a boy he babysat more than a decade ago when the child was between the ages of 9 and 13.

Ryan C. Kruse, who was working at a child care center in West Bend as recently as late last month when the child pornography investigation began, was charged in Ozaukee County Circuit Court Monday with repeated sexual assault of a child.

Kruse has been held in the county jail in lieu of $250,000 bail since his arrest on March 31 in the child pornography case. During a hearing Monday, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Steve Cain set his bail at $500,000 in the sexual assault case.

According to a criminal complaint, a man told police that Kruse, who was a friend of his mother, babysat him and sexually assaulted him repeatedly — maybe as many as 20 times — from 2011 to 2015, when he was between 9 and 11 years old. The assaults, he said, happened at two apartments Kruse lived at on Portview Drive in Port Washington.

The victim described to authorities several of the assaults in detail, including one in 2014 when Kruse was talking to him about an old iPhone he had often promised to give him, then removed the victim’s pants and underwear and performed oral sex on him, the complaint states. The boy was 12 at the time.

The man said Kruse instructed him to keep the sexual assault a secret.

That same year, the man recalled, he and Kruse were wrestling in Kruse’s basement playroom when he sexually assaulted him, according to the complaint.

The man told authorities that Kruse sexually assaulted him between 10 and 20 times, generally every time he stayed overnight at Kruse’s apartment, the complaint states.

The man said he told his mother about the assaults three or four years ago, and during a recent interview, she confirmed for authorities that her son had told her what Kruse had done to him.

She said she met Kruse through his work in 2010, and because the father of her son was often absent, she thought Kruse would serve as a father figure and role model for him.

She confirmed that Kruse began babysitting her son in about 2011 and said the boy spent nights at his home two to four times a month until 2013. That was the year she and her son moved to Milwaukee,  and although her son’s visits to Kruse’s home became less frequent, he probably spent another 10 nights there from 2013 to 2015, according to the complaint.

The child pornography investigation that led to the initial charges against Kruse began on March 28, when the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office received a tip from the Wisconsin Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and searched his home on New Port Vista Drive on March 31.

According to the tip, a video of two boys estimated to be between the ages of 9 and 13 having sex was uploaded on Sept. 27, 2024, to the social messaging app Kik Messenger by a person using an IP address traced to Kruse, according to the criminal complaint filed in that case.

Authorities seized Kruse’s cell phone and a preview of data extracted from it included a pornographic video of a boy believed to be 7 or 8 years old with a man, according to the complaint.

Numerous images of toddlers who appeared to be at a day care facility were also found on Kruse’s devices, although the images do not appear to portray child sexual abuse, the complaint states.

A full forensic examination of Kruse’s devices has not been completed.

When confronted by authorities during the search of his home, Kruse initially denied having the email address linked to Kik Messenger or even knowing what Kik is, according to the complaint.

He later admitted to having the email address and said he had a Kik account but he deleted it from his phone some time ago and hasn’t used it since.

Kruse denied seeking illegal material online, but then said it had been sent to him in the past, although he didn’t save or share the files, the complaint states.

During the interview, a preview of Kruse’s cell phone data revealed child sexual abuse material, and when confronted with this he said, “I don’t-I don’t know why I even saved it. I don’t watch it, I don’t because obviously I’m in child care,” according to the complaint.

When asked if he recalled seeing videos of teenage boys, Kruse said he did and estimated their ages at 14 or 15 years, the complaint states.

Kruse said he viewed such videos “maybe a few months ago” on Kik and possibly another social messaging app. He admitted to sending or sharing videos of teenage boys with possibly two other people, according to the complaint.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, Kruse was working for Forest Friends Learning Place, a day care center in West Bend, when local authorities began their investigation of him on March 28.

When contacted earlier this month, an employee at the day care center said the owner was not available and the center had no comment, although she did say that Kruse no longer worked there.

On his Facebook page, Kruse listed his occupation at the time of his arrest as lead infant teacher at the day care center.

The Sheriff’s Office said Kruse previously worked as a teacher at Tiny Sprouts Child Care Center in Port Washington. An employee who answered the phone at that facility earlier this month also declined to comment, adding, “We are actively caring for children at this time so please don’t call again.”

Possession of child pornography is punishable by at least three years and as many as 15 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision.

Repeated sexual assault of a child is punishable by life in prison.