MADISON — Timothy M. O’Shea, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Alan J. Liphart, 36, of Darlington, Wisconsin, was sentenced July 8 by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 96 months in prison for receiving child pornography. This term of imprisonment will be followed by 25 years of supervised release. Liphart pleaded guilty to this charge on April 8, 2021.
On May 25, 2020, Liphart was taken into custody for violating a condition of his probation and a smart phone was seized. Officers analyzed the phone and found text messages between Liphart and a then-14-year-old child from approximately five years earlier. In one of the messages, he asked the victim to send a picture of their genitals and the victim complied. Text messages also showed the defendant then traveled to meet the minor and paid the minor to engage in sexual conduct.
Judge Conley noted that Liphart’s criminal history began when he was 15 years old and that he had a history of victimizing children dating back decades. Judge Conley was also concerned that Liphart did not take his sex offender treatment seriously and that until he did, he remained a danger to the community.
Court records show he was convicted of two Class D felony counts of child enticement in 2005 in Lafayette County and sentenced to eight years in prison and five years on extended supervision. He was previously convicted in 2001 in Green County of fourth-degree sexual assault and exposing genitals to a child, both misdemeanors.
According to court documents, in October 2005, when he was camping with his parents at Collins Park in Darlington, he lured two boys, 12 and 13 at the time, into a restroom to ask them sexually explicit questions.
Liphart had been registered on the sex offender registry for conduct at age 15 in Browntown, where he had attempted to entice young males into the woods near a park in June 2001. He was also charged with 4th degree sexual assault for sexual contact of a boy under 10 and a Class A misdemeanor of causing a child to expose himself. He was initially given three years on probation and 120 hours of community service by Green County Judge James Beer.
However, after a string of incidents in 2002 in which an 11-year-old boy reported Liphart repeatedly asked him questions about sexual acts and offered to pay him to keep quiet, the probation was revoked in October 2002. His time on the registry increased from five years to 15 years after the revocation. After being found guilty of two Class D felony counts of child enticement, Liphart was added to the sex offender registry until 2037.
The charge against Liphart was the result of an investigation conducted by the Darlington Police Department, Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office, and Rock Island (Illinois) Police Department. The prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Altman.