Chagnon charged with failing to update sex offender information

A convicted sex offender who returned to Rhinelander in the fall of 2022 after serving a sentence for violating prison rules during his incarceration on a possession of child pornography conviction has been charged with failing to update information as required under the Sex Offender Registry Program (SORP).

According to a criminal complaint filed Jan. 8, Albert Chagnon, 41, is accused of using an email address he did not disclose to authorities as required by law.

The complaint indicates Chagnon sent an email using the email address in question and the recipient advised law enforcement of the correspondence.

According to the complaint, registered sex offenders have 10 days to “update” information such as new email addresses. When police contacted Chagnon, he indicated he believed he was in compliance with all sex offender registry rules, the complaint notes.

Later, officers executed a search warrant at his residence and located devices that had not been disclosed as required. The complaint also indicates there were two known email addresses listed for Chagnon but not the one used to communicate with the person who alerted police. 

According to the complaint, the correspondence in question involved discussion of steps Chagnon indicated he has been taking to improve his life. 

The Rhinelander Police Department issued an alert in August 2022 in advance of Chagnon’s return to the community. In reporting on the department’s press release, the River News noted that the Department of Corrections offender locator website indicated that Chagnon would remain under Department of Corrections supervision for just over a year (until Sept. 21, 2023) and will no longer have to register as a sex offender as of January 2025.

According to the release, Chagnon was convicted of possession of child pornography in 2003, failure to maintain sex offender registry in 2010, failure to update sex offender information in 2013, violating state/county institution laws in 2014 and battery in 2018.

The 2014 case involved Chagnon clipping hundreds of photos of young girls and keeping them in a notebook while an inmate at Oshkosh Correctional Institution.

According to the criminal complaint in that case, as Chagnon was being processed for discharge from prison, officials found a notebook containing photographs of fully clothed girls that he had clipped from The Lakeland Times and other publications.

Some of the photos were accompanied by written commentary of a graphic and sexual nature.

Following discovery of the notebook, Chagnon was charged with 23 felony counts of intentionally photographing a minor without consent and four counts of violating state/county institution laws. However, an appeals court later ordered the dismissal of the felony counts, agreeing with Chagnon’s defense attorney that those counts fell under the statute that prohibits sex offenders from “intentionally capturing a representation’ of a minor without the written consent of the child’s parent, legal guardian or custodian.

Chagnon’s attorney argued that “intentionally capturing a representation” means the sex offender, Chagnon in this case, would have had to have produced the photos himself using a camera or recording device. 

In its written decision, the appeals court said the Legislative Reference Bureau's analysis of 2005 Assembly Bill 251, which was the source of the statute under which Chagnon was charged, states: “This bill prohibits persons who are required to register as sex offenders from intentionally photographing, filming, or videotaping any person under the age of 17 unless the parent, custodian, or guardian of the person under the age of 17 provides written consent.”

In addition, Chagnon did not store the “data” of the visual representations because that would have entailed digital storage, the court noted.

Following the appeals court ruling, Chagnon entered no contest pleas to three misdemeanor counts of violating state/county institution laws (as a repeater). The fourth count was read in for sentencing purposes. 

A Winnebago County judge sentenced him to one year in prison followed by one year of extended supervision, to be served consecutively, with credit for 394 days served. Chagnon completed that sentence in the fall of 2022, after which time he returned to Rhinelander.

Chagnon made his initial appearance on the new charge Monday afternoon at which time Judge Mike Schiek set a $5,000 signature bond with a condition that he not possess any type of device that can connect to the internet.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Jan. 24.

If convicted of the new charge, Chagnon faces up to six years in prison.

Heather Schaefer may be reached at heather@rivernewsonline.com.