October 29, 2014 at 5:29 p.m.
Sex offender 'obsessed with children,' complaint says
Sex offender 'obsessed with children,' complaint says
The criminal complaint against Chagnon, formerly of Rhinelander, describes a stunning and disturbing array of material he is alleged to have possessed while an inmate at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution, including a 300-page, hand-written story about sexual contact with children and publications about incest and child murders.
The charges follow a 2003 conviction against Chagnon for possession of child pornography, in which he emailed sexually explicit images of children to a co-worker. He has since been in and out of prison, and most recently served a two-year sentence in Oshkosh for violating the state's sex offender registry rules.
Chagnon has never been charged with a sexual assault, according to court records.
In the new case, Chagnon faces 23 felony counts of violating a state law prohibiting registered sex offenders from storing photographs of a minor without the written consent of the minor's parent, legal custodian or guardian. He also faces four misdemeanor counts of violating prison policies.
Prosecutors are seeking enhanced penalties on all of the charges for repeat, and if convicted on all counts with the enhanced penalties, Chagnon could be sentenced to a maximum of nearly 181 years in prison and a $232,000 fine.
According to the criminal complaint, Chagnon possessed in prison a notebook containing 189 photos of young girls. (There were 250 girls pictured in the photos, according to Lt. Terri Hook of the Oneida County sheriff's office.)
The girls pictured were between the ages of approximately 0 and 10 years old; some photos have names and ages of girls written next to them, as well as explicit sexual comments. Names of girls' parents were also written next to a number of the photos.
Police and the state Department of Corrections have said Chagnon removed the photos from The Lakeland Times, to which he subscribed while in prison, and other publications. Chagnon canceled his subscription to the Times earlier this month.
According to the complaint, found other materials in Chagnon's possession:
• Hand-written narratives of child pornography, including a 300-page story Chagnon is alleged to have written involving an adult male having sex with juvenile females;
• Publications about incest and child murders;
• A list of books related to pedophilia, abused children and child sex assault;
• A copy of a local school's honor roll in which Chagnon allegedly highlighted names of girls in middle school;
• A binder containing information on cases involving crimes against children, and names of girls and their ages;
• A list of websites that police believe contain child pornography;
• Two images of adult pornography.
Other details of Chagnon's activities have not yet been released. Citing a federal privacy law, DOC has declined to say whether Chagnon participated in any sex offender treatment programs while incarcerated.
The criminal complaint also muddies the timeline of precisely when prison officials first became aware of the booklet, and for how long officials were aware that Chagnon possessed sexually explicit material involving children. The complaint says a corrections officer discovered the booklet in the last week of September or the first week of October during an inventory of Chagnon's belongings. The inventory was conducted in preparation of Chagnon's release from prison, on Oct. 7.
Police and state officials have said the booklet was discovered on that same day, Oct. 7.
But the complaint notes a prison officer found some contraband material a month before his release -- on Sept. 6 -- including the stories about incest. Whether the booklet was also discovered on that date is not clear in the complaint.
Chagnon had been previously warned about writing sexually explicit stories involving children, which the prison considered contraband. The complaint did not specify when that warning occurred.
According to the complaint, a former inmate said he was aware of Chagnon's notebook containing images of young girls, and that Chagnon would often talk about performing sex acts on children.
"[T]he defendant was obsessed with children in sexually inappropriate ways," the complaint says, paraphrasing the former inmate.
Despite the booklet's discovery, the prison could not hold Chagnon because he had reached his mandatory release time on Oct. 7, a DOC spokesperson has said. Consequently, on that date, Chagnon was transferred back to Rhinelander to serve probation. He was set to live at a state-operated temporary living facility on Prospect Street while under intensive DOC supervision.
The next day, on Oct. 8, Chagnon was placed in the Oneida County jail on a probation hold because of the booklet.
DOC has not yet released details about what happened in the time period between when Chagnon was released from prison and when he was booked into the Oneida County jail.
On Wednesday, Chagnon was in Winnebago County Circuit Court for an initial appearance, in which a judge set cash bond at $100,000. Authorities there have jurisdiction because that county is where the Oshkosh prison is located and where the crimes are alleged to have occurred.
Unless Chagnon can pay the bond, he will continue to be held in the Winnebago County Jail.
Attorney Steven Smits, a public defender representing Chagnon, was not immediately available for comment as of press time.
A hearing is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 3.
On Wednesday evening, a community meeting was scheduled to take place in Minocqua so authorities could speak directly with the public and concerned parents.
Jamie Taylor contributed to this report.
Jonathan Anderson may be reached at [email protected]
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