Town of Menomonie man sentenced to 25 years in prison for child sexual assault
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 you a password reset link.
By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A 34-year-old Town of Menomonie man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after being found guilty by a Dunn County jury on four felony counts related to the first degree sexual assault of a child.
Kory M. Cockeram appeared before Judge Luke M. Wagner for a sentencing hearing in Dunn County Circuit Court February 19, according to online court records.
Cockeram was convicted following a two-day trial in October of 2023.
The jury deliberated for a little less than two hours before returning with a guilty verdict on all four counts.
Following the verdict, Judge Wagner revoked the bail set for Cockeram with a $1,000 signature bond and remanded him into custody.
Cockeram’s attorney, Christopher Wilhelm, filed a motion with the court December 12, 2023, asking for Cockeram’s temporary release from custody at the Dunn County jail.
Dunn County District Attorney Andrea Nodolf opposed the motion and told the court she believed it was too much of a risk to release Cockeram from custody.
Judge Wagner denied the motion for a temporary release.
At the February 19 hearing, Judge Wagner sentenced Cockeram to 25 years of initial confinement and seven years of extended supervision for each of two felony counts and sentenced him to seven years of initial confinement and five years of extended supervision for each of the other two felony counts.
The prison sentences and extended supervision will run concurrently, and Cockeram is credited for 125 days of time already served.
Judge Wagner ordered Cockeram to have no contact with the victim and also ordered him not to have any employment or volunteer opportunities involving anyone under the age of 18, although Cockeram is allowed have contact with his infant son through jail and prison communications.
Complaint
According to the criminal complaint, which was filed March 5, 2021, the first degree sexual assault occurred in 2012 or 2013 when the victim was four or five years old.
The victim was interviewed at the Chippewa Valley Child Advocacy Center in Eau Claire and described Cockeram asking her to perform oral sex.
The victim said “she didn’t know it was wrong” and that Cockeram told her that “everyone does it.”
The incident, the victim said, made her feel “disgusting,” and that later on, she felt “ashamed” because at the time, she did not know that she had done anything wrong.
The victim said she did not tell anyone what had happened because the defendant had told her “everyone does it” and that “it was fine” if she did not tell anyone.
Later on, the victim said, “she didn’t feel she ‘was good anymore,’” and that by the time she was in fourth or fifth grade, she thought she might be “better off dead.”
Several times during the interview, the victim said “she didn’t believe she was good enough anymore because of what she did,” according to the criminal complaint.
The victim did not tell anyone what had happened until seven or eight years later.
By the time Cockeram has served 25 years in prison and seven years of extended supervision, he will be 66 years old.
Cockeram also has been ordered by the court to register as a sex offender and to pay $2,152 in court costs.
Following the pre-sentence investigation, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections recommended the prison sentence that Judge Wagner ordered of 25 years in prison with seven years of extended supervision for two of the counts and seven years in prison with five years of extended supervision for the other two counts.
