Jeffrey Prahl - Repeat Sex Offender - Enabled by "friend"

A 25-year-old Manitowoc County woman pleaded not guilty Thursday to multiple counts of sexual exploitation of a child and first-degree sexual assault of a child.

The woman also waived her preliminary hearing and her lawyers say they are working on a plea deal.

Police say the woman admitted to taking pornographic photos of 2-, 5- and 7-year-old girls. She also admitted having sexual contact with the 2-year-old.

According to court documents, the woman said she sent the images to 28-year-old Jeffrey Prahl. He is currently in the Manitowoc County Jail on a probation hold with no bond. He has not been charged in the case.

The woman is not being identified to protect the identity of the alleged victims.

Police and prosecutors expect within a week to file charges against a 28-year-old Whitelaw man involved in a child-porn operation, according to Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department Inspector Gregg Schetter.

A Wisconsin Department of Corrections officer found pornographic images of three girls — ages 2, 5 and 7 — on Jeffrey Prahl's phone after he was taken into custody for a parole violation, according to the criminal complaint.

Prahl, a registered sex offender, was convicted in Calumet County of second- and fourth-degree sexual assault of a child in 2000, according to court records. Schetter said he remains in custody.

Prahl told police he intended to sell online the sexually explicit images that a 25-year-old Newton woman had taken. He and the woman exchanged 1,000 images during a two-month period, according to the complaint. Schetter said they had known each other for several years but were not involved romantically.

The complaint says the woman admitted taking the photographs and sexually assaulting the 2-year-old girl for the purpose of selling the images. Her name is withheld to protect the identity of the victims.

Schetter declined to comment on the woman's relationship to the girls. However, the criminal complaint indicates at least one of the girls is the woman's daughter.

The woman appeared Monday in Manitowoc County Circuit Court where Judge Jerome Fox specified the woman have no contact with children, including her own, unless she is at work where she is supervised. Court records indicate she posted $1,000 cash bail June 21.

The woman, due in court Thursday for a preliminary hearing, is charged with six felony counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child and six felony counts of child sexploitation.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte

"On average most sex offenders are never caught again for a new sex offense, after five years, between 10 and 15 percent of sex offenders are detected, often convicted, of committing a new sex offense. If you follow them for ten years the rates go up somewhat, if you follow them as long as we’ve been able to follow them, which is about 20 years, the rates go up to somewhere between 30 to 40 percent of the total sample will eventually be caught for a new sex offense."

Dr. R. Karl Hansen