By Brandi Makuski

A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to 12 years for repeat sexual offenses against the same child.

Brian Simonick, from Neenah, was sentenced on March 17 after being convicted in January of sexually assaulting the same child over a period of seven years. Several related charges were dismissed but read in for sentencing.

Judge Thomas Eagon sentenced Simonick to seven years in prison and five years of extended supervision, with 365 days credit for time already served.

Simonick was arrested last March on charges of first-degree sex assault of a child under 13, incest with a child and repeated sexual assault of the same child.

Later, two counts of intimidating a witness were added after Simonick contacted the victim through an accomplice.

According to the criminal complaint, Simonick conspired with his then-girlfriend Cristina Storin to lure the victim to a local cemetery under the ruse of visiting a relative’s grave. While there, Simonick arranged to call Storin’s cell phone from jail, at which point Storin turned on the speaker phone. Simonick then begged the victim to recant her statement.

During the call, Simonick told the woman repeatedly to “go to his attorney and tell him that nothing happened between them,” according to the complaint, also saying his current charges made him a target in jail, alleging he had “been beaten up” while in custody.

Simonick’s call lasted long enough for the allotted jail call time to expire, at which point he called back, according to the complaint, “begging [the] victim several times to go to his attorney and tell him that ‘This didn’t happen’.”

After the intimidation complaint was filed, investigators at the Stevens Point Police Dept. requested recordings of Simonick’s outgoing phone calls and jail visits.

In the recordings, detectives heard the phone conversations referenced by the victim, as well as an in-person conversation which occurred when Storin visited Simonick in jail, during which she was heard asking Simonick, “Am I going to get in trouble over this?”, to which he replied, “No, it’s all on [the victim].”

Storin was convicted in January. She was sentenced to an imposed and stayed 120-day jail sentence, and 12 months of probation, for her role in the crime.