Jacob Rudnick pleaded guilty Jan. 22 in two cases involving the sexual assault of women in the Town of Lessor as part of a plea deal to lessen the charges.
The 30-year-old Seymour man had originally been charged with two felony counts of third-degree sexual assault and one count of second-degree sexual assault for an attack that allegedly took place in a park in Lessor on Halloween in 2022. The Seymour Police Department initially took the victim’s statement and collected evidence from her before handing it over to the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department.
The second case involved a sexual assault that reportedly took place in July 2023 in Lessor. In that case, he faced two counts of second-degree sexual assault.
Rudnick pleaded guilty to two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, considered a misdemeanor, in the first case and one count of third-degree sexual assault in the second case. The remaining charges were dismissed but still read into the record.
The recommendation from the Shawano-Menominee County District Attorney’s Office is five years in prison followed by five years of probation on the third-degree charge. For the fourth-degree charges, the recommendation is staying a nine-month jail sentence on each of the counts but putting Rudnick on probation; if probation is violated, he would serve the jail time.
Sentencing was delayed due to the request for a pre-sentencing investigation, which is expected to take eight weeks to complete due to a backlog. Rudnick’s attorney, Christopher Van Wagner, will be providing the investigator with a psycho-sexual evaluation as part of the investigation.
Criminal complaints reported that both incidents occurred after Rudnick first encountered the victims online via Snapchat. The first victim told law enforcement a friend had been messaging a guy who “became freaky.” She said she talked with the guy whose screen name was “ccuddlebug” and that he “wanted to be friends.”
The victim told law enforcement that she rode with Rudnick to the park at 1 p.m. Oct. 31, 2022, according to the criminal complaint. She said that Rudnick forcibly attempted intercourse on a park trail, in a vehicle and in the women’s restroom at the park. The complaint states that the victim, who has disabilities, allegedly stayed with Rudnick at his home for a couple of days before going to the park.
The second victim reported the sexual assault on the same day it happened and told law enforcement she initially met Rudnick on the dating site Hily on July 17, 2023. After a day, the two switched to communicating on Snapchat, and this time Rudnick went by the screen name “nightrider165.”
The victim’s in-person encounter with Rudnick took place two days later at a park in Black Creek. The victim had a female friend who drove her to the park.
After chatting and walking around for a bit, Rudnick suggested going to another park and that the victim should ride with him, with the friend following.
On the way, the two vehicles were separated by distance, and the friend tried to text the victim, but Rudnick had taken the phone away and started to grope the victim. Rudnick drove the victim to Moeller Ridge Nature Park and assaulted her before taking her to her mother’s house and dropping her off.
If the case had gone to trial, Rudnick would have faced up to 40 years in prison for each of the second-degree assaults, along with $100,000 in fines, as well as 10-year prison sentences and $25,000 in fines for the third-degree assault charges.
Rudnick will be sentenced at 1 p.m. May 28 in Branch II of the Shawano County Courthouse.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
Rudnick pleads guilty to sexual assault
