(The Center Square) – A bill that would make grooming a felony in Wisconsin is now headed to the Senate.
Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, said she was compelled to propose the bill after the Kenosha case of a teacher that led to 12 misdemeanors and sentence of 450 days in jail and three years of probation.
During that case, Nedweski said prosecutors were looking for an enhanced charge and she began working to create a specific grooming law. The legislation was then introduced soon after a series of investigative stories from The Capital Times highlighted how state Department of Public Instruction investigations into 200 cases of sexual misconduct and grooming in Wisconsin schools had been concealed.
Assembly Bill 677 passed the Assembly with a 93-6 vote and is scheduled for the Senate Committee on Education.
DPI supported the legislation, saying that it aggressively moves to act swiftly and decisively to protect children and “a clear statutory definition of grooming will support that work, giving the department and law enforcement additional means to protect students.”
“AB 677 treats grooming as the serious crime that it is, closing the gap in state law and giving prosecutors greater ability to hold predators accountable and give families and victims the justice that they deserve,” Nedweski said in a statement after the bill passed the Assembly. “This bill specifically targets the intentional, calculated, and manipulative behaviors that predators use to exploit our children’s innocence.”
The Kenosha case involved former teacher Christian Enwright, who was convicted of the misdemeanors after evidence of thousands of text messages over two school years with a then-12-year-old student were shown in court.
The new law would make grooming a felony charge that could lead to 10 years in prison, with further penalty if the offender was in a position of trust over the victim, if there are multiple victims, or if the victim has a disability.
The bill defines grooming as “a course of conduct, pattern of behavior, or series of acts with the intention to condition, seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child for the purpose of engaging in sexual intercourse or sexual contact or for the purpose of producing, distributing, or possessing depictions of the child engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”
“I have seen firsthand that grooming is frequently a deliberate, gradual process; one that may unfold over weeks or months and often occurs through digital communication, emotional manipulation, isolation, or the abuse of trust,” bill sponsor Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, wrote in testimony for the bill. “By the time enticement or physical contact occurs, substantial harm has already been done. This bill allows law enforcement to intervene earlier in that process, when prevention is still possible.”
