A 34-year-old man convicted by an Ozaukee county jury in March of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in Grafton beginning in 2021 was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday.
Belgium resident Keith J. Risse was also sentenced by Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Paul Malloy to seven years of extended supervision following his incarceration.
“He’s a pedophile, he’s a criminal and the public needs to be protected from him,” District Attorney Adam Gerol said, arguing that Risse should be sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by 10 years of extended supervision.
Risse, who has been held in the county jail in lieu of $50,000 bail since being arrested in early March 2022, continued to maintain his innocence during Monday’s hearing.
“I ain’t no pedophile,” he told Malloy. “I ain’t that monster.
“I have done absolutely nothing except be in tears about this because I’m being falsely accused.”
Risse’s parents, who spoke during what was at times a tense sentencing hearing, said their son had been “railroaded,” called the victim a liar and faulted Malloy for his handling of the case, which the judge defended.
“God gave me permission to hate your ass,” Risse’s mother told Malloy, who promptly ordered her to leave his courtroom for the remainder of the hearing.
“You don’t have to like me, but you can’t say that in my courtroom,” said Malloy, who also ordered Risse’s father Rocky to leave the courtroom temporarily because of comments he was making from the gallery.
Gerol, however, described Risse as a man who preyed on a particularly vulnerable 13-year-old to satisfy his own urges while showing no regard for her well being.
He and Malloy noted that sexual assault cases often hinge on the credibility of the defendant and victim because there typically aren’t witnesses, and both said the girl’s account of the assaults she suffered at the hands of Risse were credible.
“You have a very credible victim talking about sexual assaults that started when she was 13,” Malloy said, calling her “a very poised young woman in front of the jury.
“She didn’t waiver at all.”
In addition, Gerol said, there was damning physical evidence in the case — Risse’s DNA on the girl’s clothing.
“It wasn’t just the defendant’s DNA that was found on the child’s clothing, it was the defendant’s semen,” he said.
The case against Risse dates to March 2, 2022, when the Grafton Police Department received a report that Risse repeatedly had sex with the girl beginning in July 2021 when she was 13.
The girl, who was interviewed by a sensitive crimes investigator from the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office, said that the first time Risse assaulted her was in Grafton on July 11 or 12, 2021, after he walked up to a picnic table where she was sitting, kissed her and had intercourse with her.
Risse then put his clothes back on and said he should go inside and check on his children, the girl said, adding that Risse told her this was a one-time incident.
The girl, however, told authorities that Risse had intercourse with her one to three times a week from July 2021 to Feb. 25, 2022. The encounters occurred at two homes in Grafton, including Risse’s girlfriend’s apartment, in the Meijer parking lot in Grafton and at Risse’s home in Belgium, the girl said.
The last time Risse assaulted her, the girl said, he grabbed her under her clothes, and although she told him to stop, he used his weight to hold her on the bed, undressed her and had sex with her, according to a criminal complaint.
During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Gerol said the girl had essentially been orphaned and was living at the time with a sister “who really didn’t want her very much.”
In a statement read by Gerol, the girl wrote about how the assaults continue to haunt her.
“I get uncomfortable around almost every man I see,” she wrote. “This has made me hate myself more than before.
“I feel unsafe in my own home and often feel like the walls are closing in on me.”
The girl was in the courtroom with her aunts, who now care for her, as well as about a dozen members of Guardians of the Children, a group of motorcycle riders who support young victims of sexual assault, often by escorting them to and from court hearings.
Risse’s attorney, Darrell Laatsch, asked Malloy to withhold a prison sentence and sentence Risse to probation.
Malloy, however, said that a significant prison sentence was warranted not only to protect the public from Risse but to send a message.
“I want people in the community to know that we’re not going to stand for this,” he said.