Man faces federal charges after sexual messages to undercover Outagamie County officer posing as child
A 40-year-old Janesville man faces federal charges for attempting to meet a 12-year-old girl for sex.
David Fuchs was indicted on two counts by a federal grand jury Tuesday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. He is charged with attempting to sexually exploit a minor and persuade the minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct, and an additional charge of committing a felony offense involving a minor while required to register as a sex offender.
According to a criminal complaint, an undercover officer from the Outagamie County Sheriff's Office posed as a 12-year-old girl on Kik, an internet messaging application.
Fuchs engaged in conversation with the undercover officer, and sent sexually explicit messages and photographs. In some messages, he described wanting to "teach" the 12-year-old girl about sexual intercourse, according to the complaint.
In the messages, Fuchs expressed belief that the girl was in school. In one message, Fuchs asked if he was messaging a police officer. When the undercover officer asked why Fuchs was worried, he responded that because of the girl's age, "that's prison time," the complaint says.
Fuchs and the undercover officer made a plan to meet at a travel plaza in Edgerton, about 30 miles from Madison. On March 15, Fuchs arrived at the meeting spot, where he was arrested by U.S. Marshals.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Fuchs was also in communication with undercover officers from the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office and the Madison Police Department who were also posing as underage girls.
Fuchs is a registered sex offender, after he was convicted of second-degree sexual assault of an intoxicated victim and attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child in two 2015 Dane County Circuit Court cases. According to Department of Corrections records, he was released from prison in January 2020, then returned to prison following a sex offender registry violation and was again released in April 2022.
At the time of his arrest, Fuchs was on extended supervision for a previous conviction.
The case was brought forward as part of the U.S. Department of Justice's initiative Project Safe Childhood. It was investigated by the Outagamie County Sheriff's Office, the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office and the Madison Police Department, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Man charged after sexual messages to undercover Outagamie County officer
