RACINE – A Racine man with a child sexual assault conviction already on his record is accused of sexually assaulting additional children over a period of about six years.
Paul Puchter, 50, was charged in Racine County Circuit Court with three felony counts each of first-degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 13 and second-degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 16. If convicted, he faces the rest of his life in prison – 400 years – and/or up to $300,000 in fines.
A history of child sexual assault
According to the criminal complaint, a nine-year-old child in 2016 reported to their parents that Puchter attempted to penetrate them digitally when they slept over at Puchter’s house. The child noted two younger children ages four and five were asleep in the same room. The only other person present in the home was the mother of the two young children.
In 2020, when one of the woman’s children was 12 years old, they reported that Puchter sexually assaulted them on multiple occasions when they were only 7 or 8 by touching their genitals and making them touch his, the complaint reads. The mother never kept any appointments with investigators so they could conduct a forensic interview with the child.
The woman’s other child, a 17-year-old, reported in June 2022 that Puchter attempted to have intercourse with them when they were 14 years old after separate incidents during which he used his fingers and tried to force them to perform oral sex on him, the complaint continues. The child said they retreated into a bathroom to get away from him.
Puchter was convicted in 2005 of second-degree sexual assault of a child for which he served about 18 months in prison on his initial sentence of three years incarceration and four years of extended supervision. His release was revoked in 2008, and he served an additional two years. The present complaint against Puchter lists a sex offender registry violation in 2013, but online court records do not indicate he was sentenced to jail for it.
Puchter was assigned a $250,000 bond and was ordered to not have any contact with any of the children. He will next be in court on July 27 for his preliminary hearing.
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