November hearing set in abuse case
EAU CLAIRE — The Fall Creek man authorities accuse of a long list of sexual offenses was in court Tuesday as the judge sought an update on where the case stands.
Wade Hansen, 57, faces a 26-count indictment with a dozen counts of possession of child pornography, eight counts of sexual exploitation of a child, multiple counts of incest and a single count of first degree child sexual assault.
The charges originated in a separate investigation as authorities charged him with incest and repeated sexual assault of a child. Many of the counts have an enhancement for being a repeat offender because he was previously convicted in Marathon County of sexual offenses against children.
The case has a new prosecutor, and that led to this week's hearing being comparatively brief. Hansen's attorney said they have a meeting scheduled to review a file and asked for adjournment. Judge Beverly Wickstrom agreed, setting a new status conference for Nov. 7.
According to the criminal complaint, Child Protective Services contacted police about Hansen after a young relative accused him of repeated sexually abuse. When the child's mother confronted Hansen, he told her "he grew up where that is normal and so I thought that was normal.'" He said his father had molested his brother, who then molested him.
Charges were filed in October 2023.
As part of the investigation, officers gained access to Hansen's electronic devices. The criminal report in that case said they found images that appeared to be from a deleted video depicting child sexual abuse and checked other devices. One contained nearly 700 images of child pornography. Another had more than 3,700 images. A third device stored more than 10,700 pornographic images involving children.
In addition to the scale of the trove, there was little question to investigators that Hansen was well aware of what he had. One image included the message "It's ok to be a pedo."
The latter case was filed in February.
First degree child sexual assault is a Class B felony, which is punishable by up to 60 years in prison. But if Hansen is convicted on all counts he could face far more.
Sexual exploitation of a child is a Class C felony under Wisconsin law, which means it carries up to 40 years in prison and fines of up to $100,000. That means those dozen charges could result in a sentence of multiple centuries.
