Patrick McCabe, of Shawano, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and another 12 years on probation after accepting a plea deal involving 200 counts of child pornography from 2024.
McCabe, 69, pleaded no contest to 105 of the counts Aug. 11 while the other counts were dismissed but read into the record. He was sentenced Oct. 30 and was credited for the 988 days he’d already been in the Shawano County Jail, held on a $750,000 cash bond.
Conditions of his extended supervision include not having contact with minors without his probation agent’s approval, no access to the internet, no electronic devices with access to the internet, complying with the sex offender registry and participating in sex offender treatment.
Multiple letters urging leniency for McCabe were sent to the court, some of them pointing out McCabe was a contractor who helped to improve homes and other buildings in northern Wisconsin.
One letter came from a childhood friend, Lisa Haefs, a former editor for the Antigo Daily Journal.
“I have known Pat my entire life — we graduated from the small Elcho High School only years apart — and while I certainly cannot condone or fathom the actions for which he is accused, it it important to know that is not ‘who’ he is,” Haefs wrote. “Much like the chapter in a book or the verses and chorus in a song, a person’s life has many separate facets.”
According to the criminal complaint, the Shawano Police Department received an internet tip about inappropriate content being on a computer at McCabe’s home on Lutz Street. Detectives executed a search warrant on Jan. 16, 2024, and seized computers and phones from the home.
Detectives said McCabe denied viewing child pornography or pornography of any kind, and when they pointed out there were images on his computer, he claimed he’d been hacked. According to the complaint, detectives previewed more than 700 images of child pornography on the devices with file folders named “Young Girls Galleries” and “Younger Pink.”
Detectives wrote in their reports that it was clear the pornography found was not there by accident or a one-time incident. According to the criminal complaint, McCabe had moved to Shawano in 2022.
Interviews with McCabe’s wife indicated the couple had separate devices and that they never shared them with each other.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
