By Vicky Wedig
Staff Writer
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 19 for an East Troy man charged with having a relationship with a 15-year-old girl.
Mark Schmidt, 19, was charged Dec. 21 in Walworth County Circuit Court with sexual exploitation of a child, a Class C felony offense, which carries maximum penalties of 40 years in prison and $100,000 in fines.
According to the criminal complaint, the girl’s mother contacted police about concerns that her daughter was having an inappropriate relationship with an adult man. The woman said she caught her daughter, now 16 years old, using her phone when she was supposed to be sleeping and saw a sexually explicit Facebook exchange between her daughter and Schmidt, according to the complaint.
Police reviewed the exchange, which involved the girl sending naked pictures of the back side of her body to Schmidt, and Schmidt making sexually explicit comments in response, according to the complaint.
Schmidt admitted having a relationship with the girl, whom he said he knew was 15, but denied sexual contact, according to the complaint.
