Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office issues rare sex offender bulletin

The Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office issued a rare sex offender bulletin this week to inform the public that a 26-year-old man convicted of sexually assaulting a child and possessing child pornography in 2009 is now living in the Town of Port Washington. 

Terrence E. Lewis, who lived and committed his crimes in Mequon, has completed his prison sentence and was placed in a rural Port home operated by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections Tuesday, Lt. Marshall Hermann said. 

The last time the sheriff’s office issued a sex offender bulletin was in 2014, he said. The bulletins, which are issued in cooperation with the Wisconsin Send Offender Registration Committee, are intended to inform, not alarm, the public, officials said.

“Most of the sex offenders in our area do not meet the criteria for sex offender notification,” Hermann said.

That criteria includes the nature of the offender’s crimes and the potential for him to reoffend. The bulletin notes that Lewis’ criminal history “places him in a classification level which reflects the potential to reoffend.”

He is a lifetime sex offender registrant and is constantly monitored by a GPS tracking device.

Lewis was charged with the sexual assault of a child younger than 16 in January 2008 after a 14-year-old accused Lewis of molesting him while he was at a sleep over.

Lewis admitted to fondling the boy for about two minutes, according to the criminal complaint.

While free on bail in that case, authorities searched his Mequon home and discovered several images and videos of boys having sex with each other and with men, the complaint states.

He was charged in September 2008 with 10 counts of possessing child pornography and one count of felony bail jumping.

In August 2009, Lewis pleaded no contest to three of the pornography counts and was sentenced by then-Ozaukee County Judge Tom Wolfgram to nine years in prison and 12 years of extended supervision. The other charges were dismissed but read in to the record, which means the judge could consider them when sentencing him.

Lewis also pleaded no contest to sexually assaulting the 14-year-old boy, and in November 2009 Wolfgram withheld a prison sentence and placed him on probation for eight years. The sentence was consecutive to the one in the child pornography case.

Wolfgram ordered Lewis not to have contact with the victim or children after being released from prison.

Last week, Lewis petitioned the court to allow him to have supervised visits with relatives who are minors. He argues in his petition that he has been rehabilitated and the risk of him reoffending is low.

Lewis also wrote in his petition that his crimes did not involve girls, and he is asking the court for permission to visit his sister, who is a minor, because it would help with his rehabilitation.