By Joe Knaapen
For The News-Chronicle
A rural Sturgeon Bay man who already registered as a sexual predator is being held in Winnebago County jail on charges that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl.
The charges against Gerald C. "Chuck" Larson, 41, are mirror images of a complaint that led to his conviction in 1993 for assaulting a girl in Door County almost exactly 10 years ago.
Larson was held on $50,000 bond after being charged Dec. 23 in a felony complaint of sexually assaulting a child in the Neenah area, said Michelle Pennewell, an assistant district attorney in Winnebago County.
If convicted of the offense as described in a criminal complaint, Larson could be sentenced to a maximum of 60 years in a state prison.
A complaint outlining the charges described how Larson allegedly forced a 13-year-old girl to perform sex acts with him on four separate occasions from September 2002 to August. The details were described by the girl in several interviews with an investigator from the Neenah Police Department.
The illegal acts began after Larson befriended the victim's mother by way of the Internet. He began visiting or dating the woman in Neenah, and then allegedly began to take advantage of her daughter.
According to the complaint:
The first assault occurred in September or October 2002 when Larson arrived at the woman's residence hours earlier than expected. The woman had gone shopping, and the child was home alone. At that time, the girl told a detective, Larson forced her to commit sex acts and then threatened to hurt her if she told anyone about the assault.
The alleged victim told the detective that she was mad, sad and scared at the time of the assault.
Using the girl's words to the detective, the complaint described other incidents when Larson either arrived for visits before the older woman was home or arranged activities involving only himself and the girl.
The description parallels a 1993 complaint that led to Larson's conviction for sexually assaulting a girl in the Forestville area. At the time, Larson was dating an older woman and found ways to have the victim baby-sit, even at times when the couple would not leave the house. The pattern became so evident that Judge John D. Koehn remarked when sentencing Larson about how the man apparently set plans to be alone with the girl for sexual purposes in 1992 and 1993.
According to the Door County complaint, Larson first approached the Forestville victim when she was about 11 years old, but her response apparently scared him off. But in 1993, when she was 13, the victim explained in the complaint, Larson sexually assaulted her while his older girlfriend was asleep in another part of the house.
Larson told investigators that the assault in Forestville "just kind of happened" and he "knew it was wrong."
Describing Larson as a predator who showed no remorse, Koehn imposed a 48-month prison sentence. Larson's appeal was denied, and he served the mandatory portion of his prison term. After about two years, he was released on parole. He was jailed in 1996 for violating parole rules.
Larson's name and photograph were included in 1996 when Door County published a poster notifying the public that nearly 30 sex offenders were living in the area. The widespread notification occurred after a state law permitted the publication of information about where sex offenders lived and the charges for which they had been convicted.
The notification practice continues, with information being made available by the Sturgeon Bay Police Department and Door County Sheriff's Department when a sex offender is released into the community.
Larson's correct middle initial is C, for Charles, but some court records incorrectly use the middle initial L, but the birthdates, and a letter on file from Larson to Koehn verify that Gerald C. Larson and Gerald L. Larson are the same man.
In addition to the sex offenses, Larson has previous convictions in Wisconsin and Michigan for battery, resisting police, larceny, receiving stolen property and disorderly conduct.
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