November 1, 2021 at 11:54 a.m.
Adams man sentenced to jail, probation in Oneida County ICAC case
Adams man sentenced to jail, probation in Oneida County ICAC case
David Lee Bronk was charged Feb. 18 with a pair of Class I felonies: solicit intimate representation from minor and exposing a child to harmful material.
According to a police report attached to the criminal complaint, in early January 2020 a county detective sergeant established an undercover account on an online dating website using an image of a young female as a profile photo.
On Jan. 5, 2020, the report states, the detective began messaging with a "Dave" on the application. The individual was later identified as Bronk, according to the complaint.
During the conversation on the dating application, the "girl" said she was in Minocqua, and soon the electronic conversation switched to text messaging. At that point, the detective claimed to be a 15-year-old female. The subject of the text conversation eventually turned to sex and birth control.
At one point, Bronk expressed some reservation about what he was doing, according to the police report.
"I don't want to say to (sic) much how do I know for sure you ain't working with the cops. I know they do stuff like that to try to catch old guys like me that want to be with a younger female," Bronk allegedly texted the "girl."
"That's stupid. I'm no cop. Can't believe u say that," the detective replied.
Over the course of several days, Bronk allegedly sent several explicit photographs of himself to the "girl" and tried to get "her" to reciprocate. Bronk eventually told the "girl" he would not be coming to Minocqua and the communication between the two stopped.
Following a preliminary hearing May 12, circuit judge Patrick O'Melia found there was probable cause for the case to proceed. Bronk entered not guilty pleas at his arraignment May 17.
On Aug. 3, district attorney Michael Schiek announced a plea agreement had been reached. In exchange for a guilty or no contest plea to the solicit intimate representation from a minor charge, the other felony would be dismissed, he said.
After Bronk entered the no contest plea, O'Melia ordered a pre-sentence investigation and scheduled the sentencing hearing for Oct. 19.
At sentencing, Schiek said there was extensive messages between Bronk and the detective, including the explicit photos. Still, it differed from most ICAC cases where a defendant travels to meet the "girl," only to be greeted by law enforcement officers at the meeting point.
"That was one factor that I took into consideration, and there was a lot of information in the pre-sentence investigation," Schiek said, adding that he didn't want to make a recommendation beyond what he had offered in the plea agreement.
Public defender Breanna Magallones said she thought two years probation and a withheld sentence, as the plea agreement called for, was an appropriate sentence in the case.
"He has been on probation in the past and he has successfully completed both probation and parole," Magallones said.
According to online court records, Bronk was charged Feb. 9, 1999 with first degree sexual assault of a child in Portage County. He pled guilty to an amended charge of second degree sexual assault of a child on Sept. 27, 1999 and was sentenced to six years in prison and lifetime registration as a sex offender in January 2000.
O'Melia noted the author of the pre-sentence investigation agreed with that assessment.
"It's a bad prior record, but on the other side, he has successfully served several stints of probation or parole," O'Melia said.
He also noted that Schiek had a point when it came to this case not ending like most ICAC investigations do.
O'Melia then announced that he was going along with the plea agreement, with the difference of Bronk will serve three years probation during the withheld sentence.
The judge also ordered a three-month jail sentence to be served in either Oneida, Wood or Portage counties to commence on or before December 4, 2021 at 4 p.m.
Bronk had originally faced a maximum of seven years in prison if he had been convicted of both felony charges.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
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