Kevin Murphy, Leader Correspondent
A Shawano man was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting two teenage girls on the Menominee Indian Reservation.
In sentencing William Wilber IV, U.S. District Judge William C. Griesbach said Wilber had a history of preying on underage girls.
Wilber, 35, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of having sex with a minor. The charges involved a 14-year-old girl in May 2015 at Legend Lake property owned by his family. A second count involved a 15-year-old girl in July 2015 also at the Legend Lake property.
Wilber was detained in January after one of the girls filed a complaint with the Menominee Tribal Police Department.
A third charge of sexual assault of a minor was dismissed, and the U.S. Attorney agreed to recommend concurrent 10-year sentences on the two remaining charges in exchange for Wilber’s guilty pleas.
Wilber’s attorney, Tom Phillip, argued for a sentence of five years or less, writing the court that it was sufficient deterrence and gave Wilber enough time to treat his alcohol problem.
“Wilber needs alcohol treatment, badly. He appears to be the kind of person who drinks until he is both physically and morally insensible,” Phillip wrote in his filing. “In the rest of his life, he doesn’t seem to be predatory or dangerous or violent. … (W)hen he drinks, he seems to lose all inhibitions. A sober William Wilber would not do any of the things that a drunk William Wilber does. A sober William Wilber isn’t a problem, but a drunk William Wilber is.”
Griesbach said that Wilber used alcohol as a tool to overcome the resistance of the juvenile victims and to rationalize his behavior.
Griesbach noted the impact Wilber’s actions had on the victims, as well as his son, who was present during some of the assaults.
In a pre-sentence interview with a court official, Wilber said he considers himself an alcoholic and the abuse of alcohol played a significant part in the crimes he committed. Alcohol has “devastated my life” and “turned me into a person I don’t like,” he said, according to Phillip.
Griesbach ordered 10 years supervision after Wilber is released from prison.
Menominee Tribal Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case with assistance from the Willow Tree Cornerstone Child Advocacy Center in Green Bay. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Maier.