Child sex crime: Former teacher, athletic director sentenced
Daniel Rick
THIENSVILLE, Wis. - Daniel Rick, a former teacher who pleaded guilty to a child sex crime, was sentenced on Tuesday, April 7, to one-and-a-half years in prison plus an additional two years of extended supervision.
Rick is a former teacher and athletic director at Christ Alone Lutheran School. He pleaded guilty in January to a charge of exposing intimate parts to a child. A second charge of child enticement was dismissed and read into the court record.
Case details
What we know:
A criminal complaint accused Rick of picking "favorite" boy students each year and having some of them sit on his lap, where he would touch their stomachs or rub their backs and kiss them.
One student told Thiensville police he later told the student he had to stop because he "could lose his job or go to jail."
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The complaint adds that when parents met with Rick to discuss his behavior in January 2024, Rick "quickly broke into tears" then tried justifying his actions with a comparison to Jesus, saying, "Let the little children come to me."
The backstory:
Detectives learned of even worse accusations, dating back to January 2024. A student told police Rick asked him to come to his classroom after school.
According to prosecutors, Rick compared the boy's athletic abilities to older students, then pulled the boy's pants down to "see his pubic hair." Rick was accused of later kissing the boy on the cheek and instructing him not to tell anyone because he "didn't want to get in trouble."
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The complaint states Rick admitted "what he did was wrong" in an interview with investigators.
The Source: Information in this post was provided by Wisconsin Circuit Court Access, the criminal complaint associated with this case, and previous FOX6 News coverage.