By Jean Matheson
Correspondent
Scott Anderson had insisted he was merely babysitting for the 2-year-old girl, but a jury convicted him of sexually assaulting the toddler in a Whitewater apartment where the two lived.
On Jan. 11, a judge in Walworth County Circuit Court sentenced Anderson, 35, to 10 years in prison to be followed by 10 years on extended supervision.
The child’s mother had complained to authorities that she woke up the morning of Sept. 2, 2011, to find Anderson’s hand inside the child’s diaper while the two of them slept on the floor. Judge John Race said there were indications Anderson had molested the girl on previous occasions.
Anderson had told authorities he was living in the woman’s apartment to help care for her four children. He pleaded guilty on Jan. 10, 2012, to first-degree sexual assault of a child, then several months later withdrew the plea and asked for a jury trial.
The jury, after a two-day trial in November, took only two hours to find him guilty of the assault.
The toddler’s mother, Tara L. Laumann, 35, pleaded guilty in July to a felony count of failure to act in the sexual assault of a child. Four misdemeanor charges of neglecting a child were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
Laumann is completing an eight-month jail sentence. The young girl, Judge Race said, is in a foster home.
The Whitewater apartment was a “chaotic mess,” with no electricity and littered with filth, Race said. Anderson, he said, had a sketchy employment record that relied largely on babysitting.
“He needs correctional treatment that exists only in the prison system,” the judge said. “He must engage in sexual offender treatment, register as a sex offender and have no contact with children.”
Deputy District Attorney Joshua Grube, who asked for a 15-year sentence, called Anderson a “sex offender in desperate need or treatment.”
Anderson’s attorney, Joshua Klaff, said his client suffered from numerous psychological disorders and a prison sentence would be an “excruciatingly wrenching” experience. He said Anderson could receive sex offender treatment in the community with severe restrictions on his behavior.
Before hearing his sentence, Anderson told the judge he felt “horribly bad” about his actions.
