Posted on

Stratford man reaches plea deal on child sex crimes

Tyler Custer, 25, Stratford, reached a plea deal last week Wednesday in Marathon County circuit court involving criminal complaints involving child sex crimes filed Jan. 27 and May 28 of this year.

Details of the plea deal will be released at a hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 9, with Marathon County Branch 4 Judge Gregory Strasser. Custer’s sentencing hearing will be scheduled at this hearing.

Charges filed on Jan. 27 against Custer include a felony, exposing a child to harmful material and a misdemeanor fourth degree sexual assault.

Custer was also charged on May 28 of 18 total counts of sex crimes against children, including 13 felonies, which allegedly occurred with three underage girls in 2018, 2019 and into the beginning of 2020. Custer pleaded not guilty at a preliminary hearing on June 25 in court to all criminal charges against him.

A criminal complaint filed on May 28 in court says Custer had weekly sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl at his town of Frankfort residence that started in summer 2019 and ran through Jan. 8, 2020. The encounters included five specific alleged acts of sexual intercourse. The complaint alleges the suspect and girl traded sexually explicit Snapchat texts, photos and video.

The victim told investigators she initially told Custer she did not want to have sex, but that he was “very persistent” and “so beyond manipulative.” The complaint alleges Custer in 2018 sent a nude photo of him to a 14-year-old girl and, threatening to tell her mother about the pictures, she responded by sending nude pictures of herself.

The complaint further alleges Custer sent a 15-year-old girl sexually explicit photographs in 2019. This third girl, according to the complaint, never responded to his requests for nude pictures.

LATEST NEWS