Anne Nelson-Koch appears in a booking photo. (Monroe County District Attorney’s Office)
A septuagenarian and former Wisconsin private school teacher will spend the next 10 years behind bars for forcibly and repeatedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old student several years ago.
Anne Nelson-Koch, 75, was convicted on 25 separate counts related to those months of sexual abuse in August. The charges included 12 counts of sexual assault of a child in the second degree, four counts of child enticement – sexual conduct, eight counts of exposing intimate parts to a child, and one count of intimidating a victim.
Late last week, Monroe County Judge Richard Radcliffe sentenced Nelson-Koch to 10 years in prison followed by 15 years on supervised release, Monroe County District Attorney Kevin Croninger announced on Wednesday.
Content warning: child sexual assault.
The underlying incidents occurred during the 2016-2017 school year. Nelson-Koch, then 67, repeatedly forced the child to engage in oral and anal sex during school hours in the basement of a private school in Tomah – a small town that serves as a major transportation hub due to its proximity to several large Wisconsin cities and the Twin Cities in neighboring Minnesota.
The defendant was charged in April 2022 after her victim came forward to law enforcement and described the abuse he suffered.
“The victim of these crimes is an incredibly brave young man,” Assistant District Attorney Sarah M. Skiles said at the time Nelson-Koch was convicted in a press release. “He spoke the truth, and the jury heard him loud and clear. We are so grateful to the jury for their dedication to finding the truth. We could not have achieved this outcome without the victim’s strength.”
The state had requested pre-sentencing detention, but the defendant was allowed to remain free on bail with GPS monitoring.
Nelson-Koch faced a potential sentence of several hundred years in prison, followed by several hundred years of extended supervision.
In a pre-sentencing report, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections recommended that she be sentenced to 24 to 32 years in prison, followed by 20 to 24 years of extended supervision, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
Skiles, the lead prosecutor on the case, argued for a sentence of 100 years in prison followed by 60 years of extended supervision.
Ultimately, the judge issued a sentence that substantially departed from the recommendations made by law enforcement.
According to Radcliffe, the harm caused to the victim and his family was an aggravating factor, while Nelson-Koch’s character — which he described as “nice,” “selfless,” “giving,” and “hardworking” – was a substantial mitigating factor. The judge reportedly remarked the defendant is “not someone who normally would be [seen] in the criminal justice system facing 600 years of prison.”
The state claimed the defendant’s demeanor was little more than a ruse and described Nelson-Koch’s behavior before the court as “a calculated attempt to conceal her predatory tendencies.”
In a victim impact statement, the victim’s father said his son spoke out to make sure the defendant never harmed another child. He asked for Nelson-Koch to be incarcerated for the rest of her life.
While the judge did not honor that request, he praised the victim’s courage and called him “a leader of his family and community.”
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