By Shereen Siewert
A 60-year-old Merrill man will spend 20 years in federal prison after he repeatedly sexually assaulted a child over a four-day span while on a cross-country trip.
Brian D. Wickersham was sentenced July 23 by U.S. Senior District Judge William Griesbach.
Dept. of Justice officials say Wickersham, a long haul truck driver, took his victim on a four-day trip from Wisconsin to Virginia and back during which he sexually assaulted the child and pressured him to engage in “increasingly aggressive sexual acts”
The trip ended at a Country Express truck stop in Bellevue, Wis. when the victim fled the truck and sought help in the truck stop’s restaurant. Brown Co. Sheriff’s Deputies came to protect the child, and took Wickersham into custody when he was found at a nearby hotel.
Wickersham is a convicted sex offender, stemming from a 1994 conviction for first degree sexual assault of a child in Milwaukee County. The victim in the 1994 case was a 4-year-old child.
In 2008, Wickersham was convicted in Taylor County Circuit Court of sex registry violations after he had unsupervised contact with minors and lied to investigators.
During Wickersham’s sentencing hearing, Judge Griesbach pointed to the horrendous nature of the crime and pattern of preying on children during the sentencing. He stated that a 20-year prison was “lengthy enough” to protect the community.
Upon the completion of his federal sentence, Wickersham will serve the remainder of his life on supervised release.
This case was investigated by the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, the Brown
County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the Green Bay office of the F.B.I. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Daniel R. Humble and Megan J. Paulson.
