An Oconto man was sentenced Dec. 11 to 18 years in prison for the sexual assault of a girl who said he molested her regularly from the time she was 8 years old until she was 14.
David SanRoman, 41, was given credit for the 1,561 days already spent in the Oconto County Jail since his arrest, so the sentence is more or less equivalent to the 15 years in prison that Oconto County District Attorney Hannah Schuchart recommended. Once released, Judge Michael Judge ruled that SanRoman will be subject to 10 years of extended supervision, what used to be called parole.
SanRoman agreed to a plea deal Dec. 5, one day after his trial began on charges of the repeated sexual assault of a child and second-degree sexual assault of a child.
Under the plea agreement, which Schuchart said had been on the table for about eight months, SanRoman pleaded no contest to a single act, the second-degree assault, in exchange for the other count being dismissed.
During the sentencing hearing, the victim asked Judge for the maximum sentence of 25 years incarceration and 15 years of extended supervision, saying the assaults by her mother’s boyfriend continued for six years.
“I have struggled with things like anxiety and feeling isolated,” she said. “This split my family apart. When this was reported, I had to go live with my father while my younger siblings had to go live with a relative. My younger siblings were my best friends, and it hurt me knowing I would not see them as often.”
She noted that the case has dragged on for four years, including a mistrial when discovery issues were raised at the first trial in 2022.
“I have put numerous hours into this case and have had to testify in front of the jury twice,” she said. “I feel like the defendant has tried to play every trick in the book to make this a never-ending case.”
Schuchart argued for the agreed-upon sentencing recommendation, saying that SanRoman violated a position of trust and began to abuse the girl shortly after he moved in with her mother.
“Trying to feel or understand or wrap your mind around the helplessness that I’m certain (the victim) felt is nearly impossible to do,” Schuchart said. “That’s a burden an 8-year-old should never have to happen.”
Defense attorney Michael Scholke argued for the same 12-year prison sentence that the girl’s mother received after being convicted of chronic neglect of a child with the result being sexual abuse.
Given a chance to make a statement, SanRoman stood, turned to face the victim and said in a shaky voice, “I’m sorry for everything I put you through. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.”
In handing down the sentence, Judge noted that SanRoman had been imprisoned for the 2004 assault of a 13-year-old girl, released in 2008 and then arrested again six months later in Tennessee for a similar incident.
“One would think that after going through that process that you would stay on the beam and certainly not involve yourself with any minor females that would involve any sexual contact,” he said. “Why would this occur again? … Because Mr. SanRoman has a proclivity to have sexual contact with minor females.”
Judge said SanRoman’s conduct is dangerous for the community.
“The fact that Mr. SanRoman was convicted once before for the same offense … how can I trust him? How can I rely upon him complying with the conditions of his extended supervision which determine how long his initial confinement should be?” Judge said. “I do want to protect the public. I do want this defendant to somehow be rehabilitated so that when he comes out of confinement, he can prevent himself from allowing himself to again invade the body of a minor female.”
He rejected the defense request of a sentence equivalent to the mother’s.
“I can’t do that. (The mother) saw the incident and didn’t report it; Mr. SanRoman created the incident,” Judge said. “Those are two different things.”
In addition to time in prison and extended supervision, Judge ordered SanRoman to have no contact with the girl, her mother or any children under age 18 — including his own children, except with the approval of a corrections agent.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
SanRoman sentenced for child sexual assault
