MONROE — A former Green County man scheduled to go to trial in late May on felony charges of sexually abusing a 4-year-old reached a plea deal with probation instead.
Matthew Thomas Ingham, 33, who now lives with family in Turtle Lake, pleaded no contest May 28 to two counts of disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to two years on probation. He also entered a four-year deferred prosecution agreement on a Class F felony charge of causing mental harm to a child. He is eligible to have the felony fully dismissed in four years.
Ingham was originally charged with more serious Class B and C felonies related to charges that he repeatedly groped a 4-year-old girl at homes in New Glarus and Belleville. The girl disclosed the abuse to a social worker in a nearby county. Ingham was arrested on the charges in New Glarus in July 2017.
However, District Attorney Craig Nolen downgraded the original charges as part of a plea agreement he reached with Ingham’s defense attorney Christopher Van Wagner.
“It saves the child the strain of a trial,” Nolen explained at Ingham’s sentencing. Nolen also noted “there were some proof issues in this case.”
Van Wagner described the case as “he said, she said.” He stressed that his client’s pleas should not be taken as an indication that the charges are true.
In a written statement to the judge, Van Wagner noted that a medical examination of the girl “shortly after she first made these claims turned out utterly unremarkable and showed no new or old injuries.” Van Wagner also wrote that the girl’s mother “had all sorts of bad, nasty, demeaning things to say” about Ingham and police “berated and bullied” Ingham.
Ingham became physically ill, lost his job and lost his home as a result of the case, according to Wagner. Ingham had worked at Overture Center in Madison and as an EMT for New Glarus EMS, Brooklyn EMS and the Oregon Area Fire & EMS District.
Since his arrest in 2017, “he feels like he’s been under a microscope,” Van Wagner said. “My client has suffered collateral consequences already.”
Ingham declined the opportunity to speak to the court before being sentenced.
The victim’s mother read a lengthy statement in which she called Ingham a predator and described how her “once joyful” daughter “lives in constant fear” as a result of Ingham’s abuse and his subsequent threats to her to not to tell anyone.
“Don’t allow him to get away with this again,” she said to the judge.
This was the second time Ingham faced charges in connection to alleged sexual activity with a minor.
A 2010 case in Fond du Lac County resulted in a conviction of disorderly conduct related to child enticement of a 14-year-old girl online, according to Nolen. Police found that Ingham planned to meet with the girl but did not end up having physical contact with her. The case was later expunged from his record.
Nolen said the earlier case was noteworthy, but Van Wagner countered that “these two sets of alleged facts are light years apart in nature, motive, thought, planning and normal attractions.”
Tension between Ingham’s family and the victim’s family was evident in the courtroom. Someone on Ingham’s side audibly scoffed as the victim’s mother spoke. Later, as Van Wagner spoke positively about his client, a woman on the victim’s side gasped.
Judge Thomas Vale accepted the jointly recommended sentence of probation for the misdemeanors and a deferred prosecution on the felony.
“It is a compromise here,” Vale said. Regardless of disposition, the effect of cases like this “vibrates and revibrates” in a family, and a trial “could drag this thing on.”