Colfax man found guilty of child sexual assault

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX —  A 25-year-old Colfax man has been found guilty on one felony count of the sexual assault of a child.

Jesse D. Thoms appeared in Dunn County Circuit Court before Judge James Peterson December 12, along with Thoms’ attorney, Francis Rivard, and pleaded no contest to the repeated sexual assault of the same child.

Judge Peterson accepted Thoms’ plea of no contest, found him guilty, withheld sentencing, but ordered Thoms to serve seven months in jail and seven years of probation.

Thoms originally was charged with one felony count each of first degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 13, repeated sexual assault of the same child and two felony counts of exposing genitals to a child.

Thoms’ pleaded no contest to an amended charge of the repeated second-degree sexual assault of a child. 

According to the criminal complaint, the assaults occurred between May and December of 2015, and  at the time of the assaults, the victims — two boys — were ten and six years old.

During an interview at the Child Advocacy Center, the ten-year-old said Thoms had taken him fishing, and upon their return, had allowed the boy to sit on his lap and steer Thoms’ vehicle while Thoms controlled the brakes and gas. The boy said while he was steering the vehicle, Thoms had touched him inappropriately, according to the complaint.

The ten-year-old also said the defendant had sexual contact with him a number of times in the defendant’s bedroom and that Thoms had shown the boy pictures of naked women Thoms had on his cell phone.

When the six-year-old boy was interviewed, he said Thoms had done something he was not supposed to do, but that he could not remember what had happened, according to the complaint.

At the time of the plea hearing December 12, Thoms remained in custody at the Dunn County jail.

Judge Peterson had initially set bail at $25,000 cash in May of 2016, but the bail was amended to $10,000 cash November 3. 

Judge Peterson accepted 223 days of jail credit but ordered Thoms to serve an additional seven months in jail, with the first five months of the additional jail time without Huber privileges. 

Judge Peterson also ordered Thoms to pay any uninsured counseling costs for the first victim and ordered no contact with the first victim, who was born in 2005, as well as no contact with victim two, who was born in 2009.

In addition, Judge Peterson ordered Thoms to have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18 and ordered Thoms to register as a lifetime sex offender.

The first, third and fourth counts were dismissed by Judge Peterson. 

In 2014, Thoms pleaded no contest and was found guilty of burglarizing a property owned by state Representative Tom Larson of Colfax and his wife, Mary.

Richard Lipina of Colfax also was  charged with one felony count of burglary in connection with the same incident at the Larson property.

In addition to the jail time and probation, Judge Peterson ordered Thoms not to possess or consume any alcohol while he is on probation, not to enter taverns, bars or liquor stores, and not to be in the presence of drug paraphernalia. 

Thoms also is not allowed to possess a firearm and will not be allowed to vote in elections. 

The Thoms case had previously been scheduled for a jury trial this month.