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December 07, 2004
Sexual predator accused of child enticement 2 weeks after release
MILWAUKEE - A man who was declared a sexual predator under a state law that allows offenders to be indefinitely committed is now accused of trying to lure a boy to a hotel less than two weeks after he was released.
Eric Pletz, 29, is charged in Racine County Circuit Court with child enticement-sexual contact, a felony. An 11-year-old boy told investigators Pletz asked him to come over to his place after school to play video games, according to a criminal complaint.
Court records show Pletz was first accused of two sexual assaults in Milwaukee County at age 14, one involving a 12-year-old girl and the other a 4-year-old girl. He was found delinquent in one case and the other incident was read into court records for sentencing.
Just two months after his release from a juvenile facility in June 1992, Pletz assaulted a 7-year-old female relative, court records show.
He was sentenced to five years in prison for second-degree sexual assault. Before his release date, the state filed a petition in 1997 seeking to have Pletz committed under Wisconsin's sexually violent persons law, and a jury found he met the definition.
The law allows offenders to be detained indefinitely because they are considered a high risk to re-offend, but Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Dallet said it also allows offenders to request a yearly review of their detention.
A state psychologist testified this year that Pletz was not substantially likely to re-offend, Dallet said Monday.
He was released from the Sand Ridge treatment center on Nov. 12, without any restrictions.
"We do the best we can. This was one that we definitely felt sick about when he walked out the door," said Dallet, whose office opposed Pletz's release.
She said research within the last year has found that offenders who commit crimes before age 18 re-offend sexually at a lower rate than those who commit the crimes as adults, so a psychologist changed his opinion on Pletz this year. All his offenses were committed as a juvenile.
Pletz' public defender, Carolyn Delery, did not immediately return a call Monday from The Associated Press.
Pletz had appealed his status as a sex predator in 2000, but a state appeals court agreed with the jury. Two psychologists for the prosecution testified he met the definition of a pedophile, suffered from alcohol abuse and had only borderline intelligence.
But defense psychologists said he suffered from pervasive developmental disorder and was not a pedophile.
In the new case, a criminal complaint said Pletz approached an 11-year-old boy at a Burlington bus stop Nov. 22 and asked him whether he liked to play video games. The boy told investigators Pletz invited him to come to his house after school that day, but he refused to talk to him. The boy said he saw Pletz go into a room at a nearby hotel.
Pletz initially denied inviting the boy to his room but later admitted to authorities that he was attracted to the boy, according to the complaint. Pletz told authorities he could not be arrested for his fantasies.
He remained in the Racine County Jail Monday in lieu of $100,000 bail. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 15.
Posted by Nealus at December 7, 2004 01:46 PM
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