Man sentenced to 18 years for repeated sexual assault of girl

By BILL SCHANEN IV

Ozaukee Press staff

A 35-year-old man who was convicted by an Ozaukee County jury of repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl in Port Washington beginning more than three years ago was sentenced last seek to 18 years in prison.

Jesse S. Gonzales was also sentenced by Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Steve Cain during a Jan. 25 hearing to 18 years of extended supervision following his incarceration.

In July, a jury deliberated for about four hours before finding Gonzales guilty of sexually assaulting the girl, who said he molested her more than 15 times beginning when she was about 7 years old.

The investigation that led to Gonzales’ arrest began in December 2020 when the girl and her mother reported to police that Gonzales had repeatedly assaulted the girl.

During a forensic interview, the girl said that some of the contact with Gonzales occurred when she was 7 and others when she was 10 at a house in Port Washington, while another incident happened in November 2020 in Wisconsin Dells, according to a criminal complaint.

She specifically recalled an assault that occurred in the living room of a Port Washington home when Gonzales molested her.

Another time, she said, Gonzales told her he had a gift for her and instructed her to close her eyes and “show him how much she wanted the gift,” the complaint states. Gonzales then molested her.

The gift turned out to be a fake diamond ring.

The girl said Gonzales sexually assaulted her another 15 times between July 2017 and October 2018.

Court records show a Milwaukee address for Gonzales, but since early last year he has been at Redgranite Correctional Institute, where he was sent by Cain to serve a 16-month sentence after an Ozaukee County jury found him guilty of violating court orders and a domestic abuse injunction.

Gonzales, whose criminal record includes convictions for domestic abuse battery and child abuse, violated those orders when he drove by the house of a woman he was ordered not to have contact with on Oct. 10, 2019.

The woman said that she had been in court with Gonzales for a custody hearing and, after returning to her Port Washington home, she saw him drive by her house.

The woman said that because of abuse at the hands of Gonzales, she was in the Safe at Home program and had no idea how Gonzales found out where she lived.