Saukville man gets 20 years for ‘monstrous’ crimes

A 38-year-old Saukville man convicted by an Ozaukee County jury of sexually assaulting his 11-year-old daughter and physically abusing her and her brother in 2018 was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison by a judge who called his behavior “monstrous.”

“It’s monstrous behavior that’s frankly unforgivable in the eyes of the law,” Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Steve Cain said. 

Referring to the children’s testimony during a two-day trial in January, Cain said, “It’s frankly unfathomable what we heard in court.”

The judge also sentenced the man, who by virtue of his conviction is a registered sex offender, to 20 years of extended supervision following his incarceration. 

Ozaukee Press is not naming the man to protect the identity of his children.

The sentence came shortly after the man’s son, who was 13 when his father gave him a concussion during a fit of rage while drunk and high on marijuana, described him as a “horrible father” guilty of “unspeakable” acts who sought to convince his children they deserved to be abused.

“I hope you get what you deserve and more,” the teenager told his father, who sat emotionless in the courtroom. 

The man’s daughter said she fell into depression because of his abuse and she “wanted to commit suicide every time I had to go to your house.”

She said she suffered from eating disorders and harmed herself by cutting.

“You took away that sense of beauty I saw in myself,” she said. 

But the girl also thanked her family, as well as people in and associated with the justice system, for supporting her, including Child Protective Services “for getting us out of that shitty situation — sorry for my language.”

The children’s mother, who filed for divorce from their father in 2011, said her daughter has had to deal with a litany of mental health problems but is “truly a warrior and an empathetic spirit.”

Her son, she said, suffers from nightmares during which he “shouts in depression for safety.”

She said her family is not trying to forget but rather deal with what happened and asked the judge to sentence their father to a substantial number of years in prison to “give her children time to heal” while at the same time acknowledging “there are no number of years that will take any of this away.”

The sexual assault occurred on Saturday, June 30, and the physical assaults on Sunday, July 1, and a day after that the man’s daughter told authorities that she and her two brothers were at their father’s apartment when he was “really drunk” and high on marijuana, which he frequently smoked in front of them, according to the criminal complaint.

She said she was in her bedroom when she heard yelling, went to the kitchen and saw her father pinning her 13-year-old brother against the wall. She said her father slapped him in the face, punched him in the stomach and slapped both his ears at the same time.

The girl said that when she tried to intervene, her father swore at her and ordered her to her room, then followed her there where he slapped and punched her. 

At one point, the boy texted their mother and asked her to pick them up or call 911. A short time later her father became enraged and yelled, “Who the (expletive) called mom?”

The girl said that at one point her father lifted her by the neck, making it difficult for her to breathe.

Her brother, who said his father head-butted him, had symptoms of a mild concussion when examined by medical professionals.

About seven months later, the girl reported the sexual assault when she told authorities that while at his apartment on June 30, 2018, her father came into her bedroom wearing only boxer shorts, laid his head on her chest and touched her inappropriately.

She said she was able to push him away, but then he tried to take her pants off and fondled her again.

The next day while in the car with her father, the girl said he told her she should not say anything or he would “come back for her and bad things will happen to her,” according to the criminal complaint. The girl said she was very scared and crying.

The man was convicted of two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child and two counts of child abuse, all felonies.

Cain, in an effort to assess the man’s character during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, noted he has continually tried to shift blame to his children and suggested that his daughter’s allegations of sexual assault were part of a Me Too movement effort to “stick it to him.”

“They were infinitely credible,” Cain said of the children and their testimony during the trial. “They were clear and concise in their testimony.”

The man’s lawyer, Brodie Campion, didn’t address his client’s crimes but rather said the man suffered a head injury prior to trial that made it difficult for the two of them to communicate and may have exacerbated mental health issues the man has.

Campion said the man hopes to reconcile with his children one day.

“It’s clear to me (he) loves his children,” Campion said. 

Assistant District Attorney Jeff Sisley said there was little he could add to the children’s description of the abuse they suffered and the lasting effects it has had on them and called a sentencing recommendation by a Wisconsin Department of Corrections agent who wrote the presentence report inadequate. Sisley recommended a sentence that was roughly double the recommendation — a total of 22 years in prison. 

Cain agreed that the recommendation was inadequate.

“Any sentence this court metes out pales in comparison with what these kids may face for their entire lifetimes,” he said. 

In addition to protecting his children by sending the man to prison, Cain said, the public needs to be protected and a message sent.

“Anyone who could engage in this type of behavior is a danger to the public,” he said. “He will be removed from the community so the community can be protected.

“People need to know that if you sexually assault your (11-year-old daughter), there will be significant consequences.”

The long list of conditions of the man’s extended supervision include maintaining absolute sobriety and having no contact with his children or their mother, as well as not owning computer devices, accessing the internet or dating or having sexual relationships without the approval and supervision of his DOC agent.