Jury finds Wheeler woman guilty of 7 felonies related to child sexual assault
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Following a three-day trial, a Dunn County jury has found a 40-year-old Wheeler woman guilty on seven felonies related to child sexual assault.
The trial in Dunn County Circuit Court for Michelle S. Englin began January 27 and concluded January 29 after the 12-person jury deliberated for nearly four hours to return guilty verdicts on seven of the felonies and not-guilty verdicts on four other felonies.
The felonies on which Englin was found guilty included two counts of second degree sexual assault of a child, two counts of neglecting a child, and failure to prevent mental harm to a child.
The four counts on which Englin was found not guilty included child enticement with sexual contact and first degree sexual assault of a child.
Michelle Englin’s sexual assault victims were a teenaged boy and a toddler.
Following the jury’s verdict, Judge James Peterson revoked the cash bail of $50,000 that was set May 13, 2019, and ordered a pre-sentence investigation.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled on April 16.
Michelle Englin has remained in custody since the time of her arrest in May of 2019.
Judge Peterson issued an order for a competency evaluation May 20, 2019, for Michelle Englin, and at a court hearing June 3, 2019, based on a report by Dr. Donna Minter, a clinical psychologist, the judge issued a decision that Michelle Englin was competent to stand trial.
Wayne Englin
Wayne Englin, Michelle’s husband, initially was charged with 30 felonies related to child sexual assault and child pornography.
Wayne Englin pleaded guilty in Dunn County Circuit Court June 13, 2019, to two felony counts of the repeated sexual assault of the same child with at least three violations of first degree sexual assault and one felony count of the possession of child pornography.
Judge Peterson dismissed the remaining 27 felonies but ordered them read into the record for sentencing.
Wayne Englin was sentenced to 50 years in prison and 15 years of extended supervision by Judge Peterson on August 27, 2019.
Wayne Englin also was ordered to register as a sex offender, complete sex offender treatment and aftercare programming and to comply with the Serious Sex Offender Registry. He was ordered to have no contact with the victims and no unsupervised contact with minors.
Tips
A Dunn County Sheriff’s Department investigator received a tip in March of 2019 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children indicating that on January 23, Facebook had flagged a photograph as apparent child pornography, according to the criminal complaint.
The investigator then received four additional tips all associated with the original tip. The tips referenced images originating from five different Facebook accounts.
A subpoena to Charter Communications revealed the IP address for Internet access was assigned to Wayne Englin with an address on Hillside Drive South in the Village of Wheeler, the complaint states.
During the execution of a search warrant, in addition to a cell phone and computer tablets, investigators discovered numerous pairs of juvenile female underwear with the names written on the inside of the underwear, even though no female juveniles live at the residence, according to the complaint.
The criminal complaint includes descriptions of 10 pornographic images of what are described as “prepubescent females.”