Teen-Ager Pleads Not Guilty to Raping His 11-Year-Old Niece

A 17-year-old boy from Ford Heights pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of repeatedly raping his 11-year-old niece in Wauwatosa, WI.

The youth has been charged with eight felony counts of rape and incest with a child after his arrest on a warrant sought by Wauwatosa.

The alleged abuse by the boy reportedly first began here in Illinois, with inappropriate touching in the boy's father's home when the family gathered after the girl's grandmother died.

According to the criminal complaint:

The assaults took place from December 2008 through August 2010 while the boy was living in Wauwatosa at his sister's home. The girl said the assaults became more numerous the longer the boy stayed with her family until they took place daily or almost daily throughout 2010.

On April 29, the girl, now 11, told a friend at school about being raped by her uncle, and moments later the school principal happened upon them. When he told them to hurry to class, the girl's friend urged her to tell what had happened, and she did.

The principal immediately took the girl to a school counselor, who called police after hearing her story.

The investigating officer said that the girl was honest and open about everything she remembered and was able to describe clearly a number of incidents that coincided with dates she could remember.

She also described seeing her even younger cousin raped in the same fashion when the suspect locked them together in a room while the cousin was visiting.

The girl said the first encounter with her uncle, which involved inappropriate touching, took place in the boy's father's home in Ford Heights when the family gathered after her grandmother's death.

The children were all sent upstairs to play, and the defendant talked the younger children into playing a game that involved climbing under a blanket with him. At that time, the Wauwatosa girl said, he first took her younger cousin under the blanket, and when she came out, she was visibly upset and warned her not to go under the blanket.

When she refused, the boy pulled her under by her ankles, held her from the back and rubbed his body against hers.

Shortly after the grandmother's death, the boy was sent to live with his sister's family here. The girl told police that for a few days he was nice to her but then began to be mean and threatening. Then he demanded she play the game again, and said he would make up bad things about her if she didn't.

When she complied out of fear, he pulled down her clothes and sodomized her. This happened again and again, she said, in various rooms of the house and at different times whenever he could get her alone. She said he told her he would kill her and her family if she ever told anyone about what he was doing.

Because of the great number of incidents, the investigating officer focused on four incidents in which the girl could clearly recall dates and details – in one case because it was the day before her birthday, and the defendant had called the act his "birthday present to her."

The girl told police and a school psychologist that she could not sleep, that her school work and grades had deteriorated, and that she now feared all teenage boys because "they all have (the defendant's) face."

She also related that she had earlier told an adult relative whom she trusted about the assaults, but they kept it between themselves.

Wauwatosa police presented the case to the Milwaukee County district attorney's office on May 6, and on May 11 that office issued a criminal complaint and a warrant for the boy's arrest.

The Cook County Sheriff's Department took the boy into custody on May 12, got an extradition waiver, and Wauwatosa police picked him up May 17. He was questioned and has since been held at the Milwaukee County Jail.

Though he's charged as an adult, Patch is not naming the suspect to protect the identity of the victim and her family.

The criminal complaint charges him as an adult with four counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child, a Class B felony punishable by up to 60 years in prison, and four counts of incest with a child, a Class C felony punishable by up to 40 years in prison.

The complaint notes that under Wisconsin statutes, if the defendant is found guilty of sexually assaulting a child younger than 12, the court must impose a penalty of not less than 25 years imprisonment with no option of release under supervision.