By Patricia Bogumil
Staff Writer
Chance Stelmack, 17, of North Sixth Street, Waterford, is charged with felony second-degree sexual assault of a child under age 16 for alleged sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old Burlington girl.
According to the criminal complaint filed Jan. 4 in Racine County Circuit Court:
City of Burlington police responded to an Alice Street residence Oct. 14 after being notified of an unconscious female lying in the front lawn.
With information from a 12-year-old girl also at the scene, officers identified the unconscious female as being 13 years old. Officers noted she was lying unconscious on the lawn with her shirt and bra pulled up.
Her friend told police that they had been at a bon fire party on McHenry Street that evening.
She identified Stelmack as a male who was at the party and said he had tried to keep both girls at the party. She also said Stelmack had paid extra attention to the other girl.
The unconscious girl was first transported to Memorial Hospital of Burlington, and then later transported to Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee.
A report from Children’s Hospital found the girl’s prohibited alcohol concentration level to be 0.278, or more than three times the 0.08 level considered to be evidence of intoxication in Wisconsin.
The hospital also conducted a sexual assault examination of the girl and found indicators of sexual activity.
During their investigation, police interviewed a number of males who had been at the party and obtained a Buccal swab from several of them, including Stelmack.
A Buccal smear is a medical procedure that uses a small brush or cotton swab to collect a sample of cells from the inside surface of a cheek for DNA testing.
The cheek swabs were sent to the State Crime Lab for analysis. Its report identified Stelmack as the most likely contributor of DNA collected from the girl by Children’s Hospital.
Initially, Stelmack denied having any sexual contact with the 13-year-old when interviewed on Oct. 17.
When advised Dec. 29 of the DNA results, Stelmack then admitted to having sexual intercourse with the girl at the bon fire party.
He also admitted knowing she was under age 16 and further admitted that the girl was intoxicated at the time of the assault.
If convicted, Stelmack faces 40 years in prison; $100,000 in fines; or both.
Stelmack was in court Jan. 4 for an initial appearance and is next scheduled in court Jan. 12 for a preliminary hearing to decide whether the case should be scheduled to go to trial.
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