A Spring Green man recently appeared in Sauk County Circuit Court after being charged with felonies related to child sexual exploitation and bestiality.
Daniel Joseph Ringelstetter, 36, appeared from Sauk County Jail via video with his attorney Jan. 18. Prosecutor Margaret Delain requested a $10,000 bail, which Circuit Court Judge Michael Screnock granted. According to court records, he had not been released on bond as of Friday.
Conditions of the bond include that Ringelstetter have no contact with anyone under 18 unless allowed by the Department of Health Services. Ringelstetter is prohibited from using any device which accesses the internet unless it is for work and from having any contact with domestic animals.
According to the criminal complaint:
The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by an official with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The official told police that a Sparta resident had contacted DHS with concerns that Ringelstetter was exposing a child, and in some cases having the child participate in, sexual activity with adults.
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Det. Drew Bulin, a sheriff’s office sergeant and a DHS official met with Ringelstetter Jan. 11 at his home, where they spoke to him about the allegations and took his phone after getting his consent and the passcode.
Ringelstetter was also interviewed at the Spring Green Police Department, where he denied sexually exploiting children and explained personal sexual fantasies as reason for his behavior. Police were told by the Sparta resident that Ringelstetter had described having a child involved in some of his sexual activity.
When investigators searched Ringelstetter’s cellphone, they found video calls between him and another adult which showed a child around 5 or 6 years old engaging in sexual activity and being exposed to Ringelstetter’s genitals in August. There was also a video of him taken in October in which he is walking up to a child whose back was turned with his genitals exposed. At least two separate videos depicted Ringelstetter engaging in masturbatory behavior with a dog.
Ringelstetter denied engaging in the calls when the child was present during a police interview Jan. 13, claiming he disconnected a video call to tell the person he was talking to that he did not agree to it. He said he did not have any contact information for the other adult, who he claimed to have met on a dating app. He could not provide the name of the dating app. He denied exposing any children to sexual activity.
Ringelstetter is scheduled to next appear in court for a preliminary hearing March 9.
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