STURGEON BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A Sturgeon Bay man has been charged with 10 counts of possessing child pornography for images police say he recently shared online.
It comes 16 years after a separate investigation, when police say the man admitted to downloading child porn, but criminal charges were never referred.
In a criminal complaint for the current case, investigators say they’ve connected hundreds of child porn images shared over the last few months to an IP address assigned to 56-year-old Scott Soucek.
As they were gathering information, they found Door County Internet Crimes Against Children investigators interviewed Soucek in 2009. On July 15 of that year, they say Soucek admitted to downloading child pornography.
“Anytime you have somebody doing this type of activity, we want to be aware of it and look into it,” said Sturgeon Bay Police Chief Clint Henry. “Sixteen years of lapse — that’s a long time.”
According to the criminal complaint, a day after Soucek’s 2009 admission, he brought his computer to the Sturgeon Bay Police Department to be analyzed. There were no images of children engaged in sex acts found; however, evidence of child pornography was found in an index file on the computer.
The complaint states, “It remains unclear as to why the 2009 case was not referred to the Door County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution, given that the Limewire Index file would typically provide evidence of user attribution, supporting the claim Scott Soucek was downloading child pornography. Further, Soucek himself admitted to downloading such material.”
Henry, who was not police chief in 2009, said the department has not figured out a reason why charges were not referred back then.
“We did kind of look into that a little bit,” said Henry. “Obviously — well, unfortunately — our detective at the time has since retired. The investigator from the county that looked at it had left and went to another agency, and our district attorney at the time has also left office.”
I don’t know where that communication fell through the gap, but obviously if it looked like there was some evidence of a download, but we could not recover images, so I don’t know if that was the hangup? Keep in mind, back in 2009, the technology is not what we have today.
Soucek’s wife is Stephanie Soucek, the chair of the Republican Party of Door County. She was also one of Wisconsin’s 41 delegates at last year’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
She says she is filing for divorce, and “at this time, my main concern is for my son and I am asking for privacy at this incredibly difficult time.”
Soucek also says she had no connection to the county GOP in 2009.
Henry said he doesn’t think politics would have played any role in the decision to not refer charges in 2009.
“I really do not believe this would be political in any way, shape or form,” said Henry. “This type of activity is not acceptable, no matter what party you belong to.”
For the recent case, Soucek is out of jail after posting a $10,000 cash bond last week. He’s due back in court in late August.
Each of the 10 class D felony charges carry a punishment of a fine up to $100,000 or up to 25 years in prison.
