By Shereen Siewert
A 34-year-old Ringle woman is accused of leaving her 14-year-old daughter in the care of her husband for a week, shortly after learning he had repeatedly sexually assaulted the girl.
The woman is now facing felony charges of failure to protect a child from sexual assault. Wausau Pilot and Review is not releasing the suspect’s name because doing so could also identify the alleged victim in the case.
Court documents show one of the woman’s five adoptive children called 911 on April 20 to report that her 14-year-old sister was being sexually assaulted by their adoptive father. The 17-year-old girl who called police said she, too, had been victimized by the same man. The girl told police she informed their mother of the repeated assaults two weeks earlier, but their mother “ran crying into the bedroom” and later left for a week-long trip to Florida, leaving her husband in charge.
In a Sept. 27 interview, the woman confirmed she took no action after the disclosure, instead leaving for her planned vacation.
During the woman’s trip to Florida, police say, the 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted again.
The woman, who has no prior criminal history in Wisconsin, is being summoned into court Nov. 14 for an initial appearance on the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in the Wisconsin Prison System and up to $10,000 in fines.
