Former Colfax man pleads “not guilty” on sexual assault charges
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Following a preliminary hearing, a 36-year-old former Colfax man now living in Boyceville has pleaded not guilty in Dunn County Circuit Court on four felony counts related to the sexual assault of a child.
Daniel Z. Sims appeared with his attorney, Shirlene Perrin, before Judge James Peterson for a preliminary hearing and an arraignment hearing November 9.
Sims also is charged in three other cases in Dunn County with felony bail jumping; two felony counts of second degree sexual assault of an unconscious victim and third degree sexual assault; and two felony counts of first degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 13.
Sims is scheduled for another court hearing on the bail jumping charge November 21. Bail was set at $300 cash October 4 on the felony bail jumping charge.
Sims has another open case in Dunn County on one felony charge of possession of methamphetamine and one misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia.
Judge Luke M. Wagner approved a deferred prosecution agreement on the drug charges in April of this year, and a hearing on the agreement is scheduled for September of 2023.
Judge James Peterson set bail with a $2,000 signature bond in April for the initial charges related to the sexual assault of a child.
Conditions of the signature bond are that Sims is to have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18, no contact with the alleged victim, no possession or consumption of alcohol and that he is not to enter any taverns or liquor stores, according to online court records.
Bail was set at $20,000 cash in October, with a $10,000 cash bail for the charge of second degree sexual assault of an unconscious victim and third degree sexual assault, and a $10,000 cash bail for the charge of sexual assault of a child under the age of 13.
Conditions of the cash bail are that Sims is to have no unsupervised contact with any minors and is not to possess or consume alcohol.
Dunn County Circuit Court Judge Christina M. Mayer issued an arrest warrant for Daniel Z. Sims on October 14 regarding the two additional cases in Dunn County.
Sims was taken into custody and appeared in court on the warrant on October 17.
He was scheduled for an initial appearance on the later cases on November 15.
At the time of the November 9 court hearing, Sims was in custody at the Dunn County jail.
According to the criminal complaint in the first of the recently-filed cases, Sims would become heavily intoxicated and would engage in sexual contact with the alleged victim while she was sleeping and without her consent.
The alleged victim described Sims’ sexual contact as “violent and vulgar,” the complaint states.
The alleged victim told investigators that she was taking two different kinds of medication to help her sleep and that it was difficult for her to wake up.
According to the complaint, the alleged victim had to take several breaks during the interview with investigators because she was crying and that she told investigators she was afraid of Sims and what he might do because she had reported the sexual assaults.
In the second case, the alleged victim told at interviewer with the Child Advocacy Center in Eau Claire that she believed she was going into the fourth grade when Sims initiated sexual contact with her.
In the first of the sexual assault cases, for which the November 9 arraignment hearing was held, the alleged victim was seven or eight years old at the time some of the incidents occurred and was several years older at the time of other alleged incidents, according to the criminal complaint.
The girl was interviewed at the Child Advocacy Center in Eau Claire earlier this spring and told the interviewer that Sims was at times physically abusive and that he would sometimes “get very drunk.”
The alleged victim said following one incident, she had cried herself to sleep.
The alleged victim told the interviewer she had decided to tell someone about the things that had happened to her because of a book she was reading, had written in a notebook and had given the notebook to a trusted adult.
The trusted adult had told the girl she needed to report the incidents, according to the complaint.