By Shereen Siewert
WAUSAU — A 33-year-old Plover man snared in an undercover child sex sting in which he asked to “try for a baby” with a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl will spend seven years on probation but was not ordered to spend time in prison.
Police say Christopher Smith communicated repeatedly with the “girl,” who was really an undercover officer. He was arrested April 18, 2019 after he drove from his Plover home to Weston to meet the “teen” in person.
The communication began in mid-April 2019 and quickly escalated to a conversation about sex and marriage, according to court filings.
Smith was convicted of child enticement in October 2019 but was not sentenced until last week in Marathon County Circuit Court.
Circuit Judge Greg Strasser on Oct. 1 sentenced Smith to probation, the terms of which include one year in jail with time away for work and treatment along with the potential for electronic monitoring. The maximum penalty for child enticement is 25 years in the Wisconsin Prison System.
As part of a plea agreement, additional charges of using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and soliciting an intimate representation from a minor were dismissed but were read into the record.
Smith will be required to register as a sex offender and is prohibited from having contact with anyone younger than 18 without his probation agent’s approval. A request to transfer his jail and probation to Wood County was also approved.
Judge Strasser allowed Smith 97 days credit for time served awaiting trial.
