Nicholas Wotnoske
RACINE, Wis. - A Racine County judge sentenced Nicholas Wotnoske on Tuesday, April 28 to three years in prison plus an additional three years of extended supervision. Wotnoske, a former Racine middle school employee, was charged in 2024 with sexual exploitation of a child and more than a dozen counts of child pornography possession.
Wotnoske pleaded guilty in February to three of the 21 charges against him. Those three charges were for possession of child pornography. The remaining counts against Wotnoske were dismissed and read into the court record.
Case details
What we know:
Prosecutors accuse Wotnoske, who worked as a second-shift custodian at Mitchell Middle School, of having numerous images and videos that contained child porn. A preliminary review found more than 44,000 illegal images, the sheriff's office said.
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An investigation began in late May 2024. According to a criminal complaint, a Racine County sheriff's investigator learned of "multiple different connections and downloads" from the same IP address. Those connections were found in Hartford, Janesville, Kenosha County and the state of Oregon. The IP address was linked to Wotnoske's address.
Investigators searched Wotnoske's home and uncovered various electronic items that ultimately were found to contain the illegal material, the sheriff's office said. Once in custody, the sheriff's office said Wotnoski admitted to downloading, possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material.
The Source: Information in this post was provided by Wisconsin Circuit Court Access and previous FOX6 News coverage.