One of county’s ‘worst’ sex offenders back in custody
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By Brandi Makuski
Convicted sex offender Charles Anderson is back in custody.
Anderson, 82, is one of the county’s few Sexually Violent Persons (SVPs), a state classification saved for the worst of convicted sexual predators. After a lengthy court battle, he was released from Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center, near Mauston, last October and assigned to supervised release at a state-run residence in Junction City.
Sheriff Mike Lukas said Anderson was arrested again on Aug. 22. Anderson is not believed to have sexually assaulted anyone, but he broke the rules of his supervised release, Lukas emphasized, adding he wasn’t immediately able to elaborate.
The conviction and commitment
Anderson was convicted in Portage Co. of repeat second-degree child sex assault in 1997. He was sentenced to five years in prison and 10 years of probation.
During his allocution, court records show Anderson admitting to having sexually abused over 100 children.
Anderson was still considered a threat to the community after his release from prison, and following a series of civil commitment hearings in 2005, he was ordered confined at Sand Ridge, an in-patient, secured facility where he underwent extensive treatment and a medication regiment designed for sex offenders.
After hiring attorney Gary Kryshak, Anderson began petitioning the court for his release in 2010, ultimately convincing the court that continuing the commitment order any longer violated his civil rights. Anderson was sent to live in an Ashland Co. residence monitored by the Dept. of Health Services until he violated the conditions of his release in 2018.
Anderson’s release required that he remain on lifetime electronic and GPS monitoring, stay in his home except for pre-approved trips—accompanied by a Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) approved chaperone—to a limited number of places, and have no contact with his neighbors, along with a lengthy list of other restrictions.
Kevin Greene, a special prosecutor from Green Bay who specializes in Sexually Violent Person cases across a region of 22 counties, prosecuted the case in 2018 when Anderson was rearrested.
Many of Anderson’s infractions during his release, according to Greene, were minor but escalated with each occurrence. Anderson initially failed to complete his monthly financial reports and then began lying to his therapist, probation officer, and other state employees responsible for monitoring his daily activities.
On one occasion, Greene said, Anderson violated his GPS monitoring, leaving an eight-minute window when his whereabouts were unknown. He also reportedly lied about how and where he purchased a new television when he used the internet to complete the purchase—a “clear violation” of the rules, Greene said during Anderson’s revocation hearing in January 2019.
Anderson spent four months in the Ashland Co. Jail waiting for the Portage Co. hearing. While in custody there, Anderson began to exhibit bizarre behavior, Greene said, and one morning emerged from his cell “naked, with an erect penis, and masturbating.”
When questioned, Anderson claimed he was afraid of his cellmate. Believing the other man was a dangerous member of the Aryan Brotherhood gang, Anderson said his actions were an attempt to get assigned to another cell.
“At this point in time, I don’t believe there’s any other option but send him back [to Sand Ridge],” Greene argued before Flugaur on Jan. 3, 2019, adding Anderson’s behavior had become “grandiose” and uncooperative in the weeks prior to being rearrested.
“He is clearly regressing,” Greene said. “Coming out of his cell naked was a decision, and masturbating on top of it…doesn’t make any sense. He’s sliding back.”
Defense attorney Gary Kryshak argued that Anderon’s infractions weren’t serious, and he hadn’t demonstrated violent or threatening behavior towards others. Anderson was being unfairly penalized, Kryshak said, because of his naturally argumentative nature.
“You can’t just throw him back in [to confinement] for being arrogant, argumentative…he is who he is,” Kryshak said.
Anderson was also accused of lying to his therapist. Part of Anderson’s treatment plan is to actively cooperate with therapy treatment, but he recently claimed to have specific inappropriate desires that were uncharacteristic with his history of offenses that he’d failed to mention during the past 13 years of therapy.
Kryshak called it a “misunderstanding,” but Flugaur didn’t buy the explanation, saying he believed Anderson was attempting to manipulate his therapist and others in the DHS system, calling it “a red flag” that indicated a larger problem.
“Rules are rules, and they are put into place for a reason,” Fluguar said on Jan. 3, 2019. “There have been rule violations, and if you take any of these by themselves, [they] wouldn’t be enough to revoke a person. But it went from doing a monthly financial report to being argumentative to the ordering of the TV…it’s a little more serious each time, that is a concern.”
Flugaur ruled in favor of the state, and Anderson was transferred back to Sand Ridge on Jan. 3. Anderson made no statements after the ruling.
Kryshak, Anderson’s 10th attorney in the case since 2005, has since withdrawn himself from the case.
Becoming a Sexually Violent Person under law
Anderson, a repeat child sex offender with convictions in at least two other states, was involuntarily committed in 2005 under the Wisconsin Sexually Violent Person law, commonly referred to by its statute number, “Chapter 980.”
Until that law was passed in 1994, according to then-Portage Co. District Attorney Louis Molepske (now Judge Molepske), the state was limited in how it could control its worst sex offenders after their prison terms had been served.
The law allows 980 offenders to be released into the community, based on recommendations by doctors and other staff at Sand Ridge once certain treatment benchmarks are reached, but under conditions far more restrictive than other offenders’.
A typical offender prosecuted by the Portage Co. District Attorney’s Office might be required to repay damages, register with Wisconsin Probation and Parole, or refrain from consuming alcohol, but they are generally free to continue their lives provided they stay out of trouble.
SVPs aren’t given the same freedom. According to Greene, each is required to live in a pre-approved residence, run by third-party, DHS-approved vendors, located at least 1,500 feet away from schools, parks, and other places frequented by children, and to pay for at least some of their living expenses.
Each is subject to lifetime electronic ankle and GPS monitoring, and, according to Lukas, deputies are “notified immediately” if the signal is disrupted, or shows the SVP is somewhere they shouldn’t be.
SVPs are confined to the residence, Lukas said, with the exception of pre-approved appointments, and for at least the first year of their release, aren’t allowed to drive or leave the home without a pre-approved chaperone.
Anderson’s first release from Sand Ridge
Anderson’s initial release was widely reported in local media outlets throughout 2016-17, with Lukas’ office receiving notification of the impending release from the state just two weeks in advance, forcing Lukas to hastily organize a public informational meeting on Anderson’s relocation into the Rosholt area.
At the time, Anderson was Portage County’s first 980 offender, someone Molepske characterized as “one of the worst” in the county.
DHS initially planned to place Anderson in a home on State Hwy. 49 in the town of Alban, but after objections by Molepske and Lukas, Judge Flugaur ruled that the property was not acceptable because of its proximity to the Central Wisconsin Electric Cooperative, which is used as the town’s community center.
Anderson was ultimately placed in the Ashland Co. residence.
Anderson was a boy’s baseball coach in Portage Co. when he was convicted of sexually assaulting one of his 11-year-old players. According to the criminal complaint, Anderson also was active at the YMCA, where the victim said Anderson would touch boys sexually in the pool and the shower, and during visits to Anderson’s Second St. home over the summer.
Before coming to Wisconsin, Anderson was convicted of molesting at least three children in Arizona and California between 1979 and 1981. Following his move to Wisconsin, Anderson worked as a licensed teacher at several Central Wisconsin schools, including St. Adalbert Catholic School near Rosholt.
The second release
When Anderson was first released from Sand Ridge, he was one of 50 SVPs on supervised release in Wisconsin, according to the DHS. In November 2020, that number has increased to 69 SVPs on supervised release. After his second release, that number climbed to 70.
Wisconsin Reserve Judge Thomas Cane issued the supervised release in July 2020.
Under changes to the 980 Statute in 2018, SVPs must serve their supervised release in their home counties. Throughout 2016 and 2017, the Alban residence was the site of placements for SVPs from Washington and Chippewa counties, causing a series of controversies in Portage Co.
The change was introduced by Assemblywoman Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point) and Representative Scott Krug (R-Rome) and later signed into law by former Gov. Scott Walker. The law also initially eliminated a requirement that DHS-approved homes be at least 1,500 feet away from schools, parks, and other public spaces where children frequent, largely because of the difficulty in finding DHS-approved residences within those distance requirements. Walker vetoed that part of the bill before signing.
Because of the changes to the law, Sheriff Lukas said that if Anderson is granted a supervised release, he would be placed in the Alban home on State Hwy. 49, due to the lack of suitable residences in Portage Co.
Changes to the 980 law also required the county to create a Chapter 980/SVP Committee, comprised of representatives from Portage Co. Corporation Counsel, the county’s health and human services office, the local probation and parole office, and someone from the Portage Co. Planning and Zoning office. The latter is present to ensure any placement of an SVP is a proper distance from local schools, parks, and other public areas where children are often present.
Under the law, the committee has 120 days from the date that an SVP is granted a supervised release to make its recommendation. If the county fails to meet that timeline, it’s subject to a $500 daily fine by the DHS.
*This story will be updated
