MONROE — A rural Albany 17-year-old faces charges that he sexually assaulted several younger children over the course of five years.
Royce J. Brauer is charged with three Class B felony counts of first-degree child sexual assault involving sexual contact with a child younger than 13 and two Class C felony counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child younger than 16.
He is now living in Brodhead and is under bond conditions to have no contact with the alleged victims or any children younger than 18 except supervised contact or incidental contact in public or at school.
He is due in Green County Circuit Court for a preliminary hearing Oct. 28.
The criminal complaint, filed Sept. 4, contains reports from forensic interviews with the children, Brauer and others. The reports include paraphrased quotes and observations.
One girl said Brauer has regularly touched her sexually and forced her to engage in sexual activity over a period of years, in private or in a locked room, most recently this summer. She said when he “does this type of thing she shuts off her emotions and doesn’t feel anything.”
The girl said “she is hoping something will hit him in the head and he would wake up and realize that he is destroying her mentally,” but “it never works.”
To convince her to engage in the sexual activity, she said he promised “he would be nice to her, help her get through school and not be a jerk” but he never kept his promises. Instead, she said, he called her names.
During the interview, the interviewer noted the girl was “very upset and crying” and “her voice would tremble.”
Another girl said Brauer asked her numerous times if he could touch her and on several occasions had touched her or grabbed her hand and put it down his pants. She advised that “she didn’t come forward sooner as she was afraid (he) would get into trouble and get his whole life taken away.”
The third alleged victim, a boy, told the forensic interviewer that Brauer touched his genitalia when he was 6 years old.
When confronted by detectives, Brauer said he was “confused” by the allegations and denied them. He told the detective the abuse didn’t happen or he couldn’t remember it. At one point, when asked if he was ever threatening to others, he “started crying and became upset and told (the detectives) that he has never admitted to anyone about ... having an anger issue.”