Community Corner
Skout Predator Suspect will Learn Sentence on Porn Charges
Daniel R. Schmidt was arrested in June for assaulting a Muskego teen in a Hales Corners park, but pleaded guilty to other charges in Waukesha County; his sentencing is Monday
Daniel R. Schmidt was charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Muskego boy he met on Skout.com, a mobile flirting website back in June. The court will hear his case in Milwaukee County in February.
However, additional charges in Waukesha County also were filed shortly after that incident, for which Schmidt pleaded guilty, and he will learn what his sentence on those charges will be Monday afternoon.
The Waukesha man's sexual assault charge led to a partial shutdown of a dating website entered a guilty plea and was convicted Tuesday of several charges, including possession of child pornography.
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The case has drawn national media attention and prompted Skout’s CEO to shut down a mobile app to the website and temporarily shut down the under-18 portion of the site. The site has reopened but has banned anyone under the age of 18 from using it.
Schmidt pleaded guilty on Oct. 15 in Waukesha County Circuit Court to two counts of possession of child pornography and had 11 counts dismissed in his plea agreement. He will be sentenced Dec. 3. He also pleaded guilty to fleeing from police. Drug dealing charges against Schmidt were also dismissed as a part of the plea agreement.
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The Waukesha Police Department discovered potential child pornography and sexual text messages between Schmidt and a minor while they were investigating Schmidt for drugs following a March police chase. Police executed a search warrant on Schmidt’s home and found child pornography, according to the criminal complaint.
The complaint alleges Schmidt admitted to sharing about 360 images and four videos with other people. Investigators located more than 600 pornographic images on his computer, with the majority of the files being child pornography.
One of the children in the images has been identified as a known child victim by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the complaint states.
The drug charges allege Schmidt sold marijuana to a confidential informant working with the Waukesha Police Department on Oct. 20 and Nov. 17.
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