Man pleads to sex crime he committed at age 12

An 18-year-old former Town of Belgium resident who is serving a four-year prison sentence for the sexual assault of a child he committed in Sheboygan County when he was just 15 pleaded no contest in Ozaukee County Circuit Court last week to having sexual contact with a 9 or 10-year-old girl when he was 12.

Cole J. Guttmann’s pleas to one felony count of causing a child younger than 13 to view or listen to a sex act and a misdemeanor count of causing a child to expose his or her genitals to another child were accepted by Judge Steve Cain, who found him guilty during an April 17 hearing. 

Guttmann had been charged with two counts of first-degree child sexual assault for having sexual contact with a child younger than 13, but on the day of last week’s hearing Ozaukee County District Attorney Benjamin Lindsay amended the charges to significantly less serious crimes.

Lindsay recommended Guttmann be sentenced to two years in prison and two years of extended supervision for the felony, but asked that the sentence be concurrent to the one he is currently serving for his Sheboygan County crime, which would allow him to serve both sentences at the same time.

Lindsay said his recommendation was based on a request from Guttmann’s victim that the sentence be concurrent as well as the fact  he is currently serving a significant sentence for a person of his age.

Agreeing those factors deserved consideration, Cain said, “This court is not a big fan of concurrent sentences,” adding they tend to diminish the crime.

“But what’s unique about your case is your age, the passage of time and the victim’s input,” Cain told Guttmann before sentencing him to two years in prison and two years of extended supervision concurrent to the sentence he is currently serving. 

Lindsay, in fact, said Guttmann’s case probably should have been handled in juvenile court, but that wasn’t an option because just days before the Ozaukee County charges were filed, Guttmann and another teenager were waived into adult court in Sheboygan County on a host of felony charges filed in June 2024 that included first-degree child sexual assault, incest with a child, child abuse and intimidating a victim with the use of force.

Guttmann and Spencer M. Dietrich of Fredonia, who were both 15 when the crimes occurred in April 2023, were accused of forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform a sex act on his 14-year-old brother while Guttmann recorded a video.

When the brothers initially refused to engage in the sex act, Dietrich threw one of them into a wall and ordered him to do it, according to a criminal complaint. The brothers said they ultimately did it so they wouldn’t get hurt.

After the brothers did what they were ordered to do, Dietrich threw one of them to the ground so hard he had to be treated at a hospital because his nose would not stop bleeding, the complaint states.

Some time later, Guttmann disseminated the video, which made the rounds at three area high schools, Lindsay said

Guttmann, who was described by Lindsay as “the less culpable defendant,” pleaded no contest in March 2025 to one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child as part of a plea agreement. The remaining charges against him were dismissed but read into the record, which means the judge could consider the facts surrounding them when sentencing Guttmann.

Dietrich took his case to trial, and on April 29, 2025, a jury acquitted him of all the sex crimes he faced but found him guilty of child abuse and two counts of intimidating a victim with the threat or use of force. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and two years of extended supervision.

Dietrich did not have to register as a sex offender, but Guttmann must remain a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. 

The Ozaukee County case was filed on June 21, 2024, after sheriff’s deputies were contacted by their counterparts in Sheboygan County, who reported that an investigation they had been conducting concluded that a sexual assault occurred in the Town of Belgium.

The victim in that case told a forensic interviewer on April 15, 2024, that she was abused several times by Guttmann when she was 9 or 10 and he was 12, which would have been in the summer of 2020, according to the criminal complaint filed in that case. 

The girl said Guttmann asked her what she knew about sex. She said she didn’t know much about it because she was only in fourth grade.

The girl said Guttmann asked her repeatedly if she wanted to try sex and eventually she said she would be willing to, the complaint states. 

She said Guttmann touched her inappropriately, and while he was doing so she stared at the TV because she didn’t want to look at him.

The girl said she didn’t think Guttmann would assault her again, but he did the next day.

During last week’s plea and sentencing hearing, Guttmann’s mother said that years after the fact she learned her son had been sexually abused.

By age 11, she said, he had become an angry boy, and by age 15, he was skipping school, drinking, doing drugs and had “utter disregard for his family.

“It’s unfortunate that he now has to mature in prison,” but incarceration may have saved him from the spiral he was in, she said. 

Guttmann attempted to speak during the hearing, but broke down. In a letter read by his attorney, Casey Hoff, Guttmann wrote about how his life fell apart after he was victimized.

“At 9 years old, I experienced what being the victim of sexual conduct meant and looked like,” he said, adding that the divorce of his parents contributed to his emotional and behavioral problems.

Guttmann described being charged with crimes as a “reality check,” and wrote that while he was awaiting resolutions to the cases against him he started putting his life back together by finishing high school and working. In prison, he wrote, he has a job and plans to earn an associate’s degree.

Cain, who praised Guttmann for making good use of his time in prison, said given the length of the sentence Guttmann is currently serving and his age, additional time behind bars is not warranted.

“It’s a substantial sentence for a young person,” Cain said. “You’re a young man, and that is part of the court’s consideration.”