By Shereen Siewert
A 55-year-old Wausau-area man will be sentenced in December after pleading guilty this month to repeatedly assaulting a child over an 8-year span.
Police say Dale Krueger, of Schofield, abused the child on a near-daily basis, prompting a charge of repeated first-degree sexual assault of the same child. The victim was between the ages of 3 and 11 during the time the assaults occurred, according to the criminal complaint. Wausau Pilot & Review will not disclose the precise relationship between the two to protect the identity of the victim.
According to the criminal complaint, the alleged assaults took place at Krueger’s home and in the office of an assisted living business he was contracted to clean. The girl told an Everest Metro Police detective she was also assaulted in the man’s minivan while she accompanied him on his newspaper delivery route.
The case was filed in 2017, after which Krueger was freed on a $5,000 cash bond. A jury trial, after being reset multiple times, would have begun on Tuesday. But after reaching an agreement days before the trial was to begin, Krueger pleaded guilty to the charge, a class B felony that carries a maximum prison term of up to 60 years.
During the plea hearing, Circuit Judge Greg Strasser accepted the guilty plea and requested a presentencing investigation within 45 days. Sentencing has been set for Dec. 17.
