A Wisconsin woman who is a former teacher faced a maximum punishment of 624 years for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy but will only receive 10 years.
Anne Nelson-Koch, 75, was convicted in August on 25 counts of sexual assault of a child, child enticement, exposing genitals, exposing intimate parts, and intimidation of a victim, People Magazine reported. Nelson-Koch was teaching at Tomah Baptist Academy when she repeatedly sexually assaulted the boy throughout the 2016-2017 academic year.
After she is released from prison, Nelson-Koch will be supervised by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections for 15 years, the Tomah Police Department (TPD) said in a Facebook post.
Nelson-Koch repeatedly sexually assaulted the teen boy during school hours, court documents showed, according to the TPD. After a jury found her guilty, Nelson-Koch faced a maximum 624-year sentence, including 373 years in prison and 251 years of supervised release. Even though she was found guilty, Nelson-Koch was “released into the community to await sentencing,” the TPD wrote. The prosecution objected to the release.
The Department of Corrections recommended Nelson-Koch serve 24 to 32 years in prison followed by 20 to 24 years of supervised release, and Assistant District Attorney Sarah Skiles asked the judge to sentence Nelson-Koch to 100 years in prison and 60 years of supervised release, saying the damage the former teach did to the young boy could not be undone. Skiles also noted Nelson-Koch’s lack of remorse, saying she put on a virtuous masquerade that acted as “a calculated attempt to conceal her predatory tendencies.”
Skiles argued that the lengthy sentence was necessary to show that the sexual assault of a child in school, and the pain that assault caused to the victim, were not ignored. She argued that the public needed to be protected from Nelson-Koch.
The victim’s father spoke during sentencing to say that his son came forward to ensure Nelson-Koch would not hurt any other children, and asked for a sentence that would keep Nelson-Koch in prison for the rest of her life.
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Judge Richard Radcliffe, who won the State Bar of Wisconsin’s 2023 Judge of the Year Award, elected to sentence Nelson-Koch to just 10 years in prison. During sentencing, Radcliffe said Nelson-Koch used her authority over the victim for her own gain, and that she had been trusted by the victim. Radcliffe also thanked the victim for coming forward, calling him “a leader of his family and community.”
Radcliffe said that Nelson-Koch’s character helped reduce her sentence, describing her as “nice,” “selfless,” “giving,” and “hardworking,” according to the TPD, in a move not often seen when describing perpetrators of sexual assault. The judge added that someone with Nelson-Koch’s education and employment history was “not someone who normally would be [seen] in the criminal justice system facing 600 years of prison.”
The case highlights the lighter sentences given to female predators of children. In June of this year, a 75-year-old man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 5-year-old in 2011. In another example, a 75-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison after failing to register as a sex offender after he was paroled from a 99-year sentence.
