MADISON, WISCONSIN – Scott C. Blader, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Alexander Kawleski, 44, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 18 years in federal prison for producing and possessing child pornography. Kawleski was convicted of these charges on July 17, 2019, following a three-day jury trial.
Evidence at trial established that in 2013, Kawleski recorded himself sexually assaulting a girl who was between 15 and 16 years old. He kept a copy of the assault on a flash drive, where a friend found it and gave it to a Wisconsin Rapids Police Department detective. In addition to the assault, the evidence established that in 2013 and 2014, Kawleski used a two-way mirror to secretly record two minor females while they were in the bathroom, in various stages of undress, getting in and out of the shower. Those recordings were saved on the same flash drive as the assault. One of the females was between 13 and 14 years old, and the other was 15 or 16 years old. Neither victim was aware that they were being filmed.
Judge Peterson called Kawleski’s crime an atrocity and noted that the defendant’s pattern of misconduct demonstrated an enduring interest in underage girls. Judge Peterson also found the defendant’s conduct manipulative and heartless and expressed a concern that he might reoffend.
The charges against Kawleski are the result of an investigation by the Wisconsin Rapids Police Department and the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation. The prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Altman and Laura Przybylinski Finn.