A convicted child molester who could have been sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for sexually assaulting 6 and 7-year-old girls in a Middleton swimming pool is already back on the streets and living in New London, Wisconsin, because of a short sentence by leftist Judge Susan Crawford, who is seeking a seat on the state’s highest court, Wisconsin Right Now has documented.
He’s living about 1.6 miles away from the high school.
In addition to the 4-year prison sentence that Crawford gave Kevin D. Welton in January 2020, she rejected a prosecutor’s repeated request to raise his $500 SIGNATURE BOND even after he was convicted of two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child and a third count of attempted first-degree sexual assault of one of the same children, court records show.
Furthermore, the sentence was less than the victims’ families and prosecution asked for, and she diminished the seriousness of the crime during sentencing.
Read the Kevin Welton criminal complaint here:
Welton was convicted of molesting the girls, ages 6 and 7, at a Middleton swimming pool where one of the girls was getting swimming lessons. The assaults happened eight years apart but had a very similar M.O.
Court notes show that, right after the jury convicted Welton, the prosecutor moved for bail to “be revoked…Court does not modify bond at this time, bond is continued.” That’s even though his sentencing was more than three months away. In December, the prosecutor tried again to get his bail remanded; Susan Crawford only modified the conditions of release. Again, she left his signature bond at $500.
Again, this was AFTER he had been convicted, and it was against the express and repeated request of prosecutors.
On Jan. 16, 2024, Welton was released from prison, according to state records. He is on extended supervision in New London, Wisconsin, where he is currently living. Welton is a registered sex offender whose address was last verified in May, the sex offender registry says. He lives in a $457,000 house, according to real-estate websites.
The Waupaca County Sheriff warned the public when Welton was released. He will be on supervision only through 2030.
Residents responded angrily in the comment thread of the Sheriff’s Department’s warning, with one person writing, “That puts him 4 minutes away from a school. Shouldn’t they be residing further away from schools once released?” Another person commented, “Has anybody noticed that his address he’ll be living at is pretty close to the high school?”
According to the Middleton Times, Susan Crawford’s sentence “was less than half of what
the prosecution or victims’ family members sought.” The Deputy DA wanted Welton imprisoned for 10 years, saying he “had perfected the methodology of assaulting children under water.” The father of one girl wanted Melton to receive 9 years in prison because that’s the amount of time his daughter suffered. The mother of the 7-year-old called Melton the “true epitome of evil. I hope he dies in prison,” the newspaper reported.
Judge Susan Crawford, who has repeatedly made her preference for diversion programs for criminals known, responded by giving Welton less time than everyone asked for.
She then diminished the seriousness of the offense. Crawford said that Welton’s conduct was “less severe than many of the cases she has presided over,” according to a paraphrase from the Middleton Times.
After the first attack, Harbor Athletic staff were told to “keep an eye” on Melton, Crawford said. He then reoffended years later, according to the Middleton Times.
Court records say, “A jury convicted Welton of one count of first-degree sexual assault of a child and one count of attempted first-degree sexual assault of the same child, as well as one count of first-degree sexual assault of a different child.”
What The Criminal Complaint Says
Wisconsin Right Now has obtained the criminal complaint in the case. This is what it says. Be forewarned that the details are graphic and disturbing. According to the complaint:
In 2010, a Middleton police officer responded to Harbor Athletic Club in Middleton to investigate a sexual assault complaint. A swimming instructor at the club told the officer that she was providing swimming lessons to a 6-year-old girl. During the lesson, the instructor noticed Welton was staring at her. She exited the pool and the child remained in the pool to swim. Five minutes later, she was approached by the girl and girl’s mother. The girl “disclosed that the defendant touched (the girl’s) private area.”
The girl told a police detective that a “scary man” touched her private area in the pool, pointing to her vaginal area on an anatomical drawing and said the man put one hand on her “private part” and his second hand on her butt and “then squeezed hard causing pain.” She immediately told her mother and then the swimming teacher.
The detective called Welton and asked him to come in for an interview. He admitted knowing what it was about and denied touching her vagina and buttocks but admitted she may have “brushed me” as she passed him in the pool.
Asked if he placed his hands on a child’s vaginal area or buttocks he said, “Not that I can remember.”
In 2018, a different 7 year old girl was dropped off at a child’s birthday party at the same Middleton fitness club. When she picked the girl up, she noticed she immediately became upset and told her something scary happened involving a “scary man.”
She said he touched her front private parts twice while she was swimming.
She told an officer that she was playing with friends when she “accidentally bumped into a man in the pool. The man put his hand under the water and touched (the girl’s) front private part.” She said his finger may have gone into her vagina a little.
A while later she went to get a squirt gun and the same man reached out his hand a second time and touched her on her front private part.
The officer made contact with an employee who provided access to surveillance video.
The video showed the girl accidentally bumped into a man who matched the description of Welton as he was swimming. .He came out of the water and was face to face with the girl. His right hand was not visible. The girl slowly backed away from the man as the man looked back and forth and then the girl swam to the south end of the pool, the complaint says.
Sixteen minutes later, the man was observed looking in the girl’s direction and swimming over to her. “The man’s right arm moves in (the girl’s) direction and (the girl) reacts immediately,” the complaint says. She moved away from the man. She got a squirt gun and got back in the pool looked at the man and immediately moved away from him.
The officer verified the man was Welton. The video showed that the defendant “appeared to track (the girl’s) location in the swimming pool so that the defendant could place himself in close proximity to (the girl) numerous times,” says the complaint.
In a recorded interview with an officer, the girl said the man was “rubbing” her vagina and then touched it a second time.
According to the complaint, Welton was prohibited from the club after the second sexual assault occurred.
As for the 2018 incident, Welton said the pool was filled with children and “there is going to be contact” because “people were flailing around.”
Confronted with the surveillance video and what the girl said, Welton said, “I must have had contact with her” and “I really wouldn’t have meant to do that, but if it happened, it happened.”
When confronted with the evidence, he eventually admitted that he “groped her.”
Confronted with the 2010 incident, he claimed that the girl “was launched” at him while he was in the pool.
Susan Crawford gave Welton four years for each count but ran them concurrently, court records show. That means he only had to serve four years in prison. He also received extended supervision.
Welton’s appeal in the case focused on the mother of one of the two girls.
A Wisconsin Watch article raised concern about the background of the mother, who was accused of making false child abuse allegations against other parents.
That mother’s daughter testified she changed her story in the Welton case “just a little” due to her mom’s “kind of” coaching and originally described the touching as an accident, Wisconsin Watch reported. The mom denied coaching the girl. Welton was convicted by a jury after that testimony, however. Welton appealed, arguing the state suppressed information about a workplace investigation into the mom’s conduct at UW Health, but the appeal was rejected.
The mother’s daughter was the accuser in the more recent case in the complaint.
The mother “was placed on administrative leave at her two previous jobs — first in June 2019 at UW-Madison and later at Providence in Anchorage in fall 2021,” wrote Wisconsin Watch.
According to Wisconsin Watch, Susan Crawford said she couldn’t order the release of records to the defense that the prosecution did not have, referring to the mom’s workplace issues.
A criminal complaint says Welton “admitted to a Middleton Police Department detective that he groped” the woman’s daughter, Wisconsin Watch acknowledged.
Newspaper reports at the time also document the signature bond issue.
“Welton remains free on a signature bond after Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford declined to revoke or change his bail, but he is scheduled to be sentenced in January. Prosecutors have filed a follow-up motion asking that Welton be jailed until his sentencing hearing, or that his whereabouts be tracked with GPS,” according to In Business Madison.
Welton owned Welton Investment Real Estate in Middleton.
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