'Stunned': Judge overrules guilty verdict in sex offender case

A Sheboygan County judge on Wednesday overruled a jury’s guilty verdict, acquitting a previously convicted sex offender accused of trying to lure a 9-year-old Sheboygan girl into a park shelter, officials said this morning.

Judge Timothy Van Akkeren overturned the verdict after a daylong jury trial, saying the shelter was not a “secluded place” as required by state statute, said Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco.

Mitchell D. Pask, 44, had been charged with felony child enticement, a charge that requires prosecutors to prove he attempted to cause the girl to enter a secluded place with intent to have sexual contact. Pask, of 1014-C Erie Ave., faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

DeCecco, promising an appeal this morning, said he was “stunned, just absolutely stunned” by the ruling.

“You get that lift when (the jury) comes back with guilty, and you say, ‘Good, we’ve got another sex offender off the streets,’ and then minutes later you’re told the case is being dismissed,” he said. “I’ve done this for 18 years now. Not only has it never happened to me personally — a judge dismissing after a guilty verdict — I’ve never heard of it being done.”

According to a criminal complaint, Pask approached the 9-year-old while she was with friends at Worker's Park on June 8, saying, “Look at those sexy little salty girls.” He repeatedly offered the girl candy while gesturing she should follow him toward the area of the shelter and the shelter’s bathroom, but she refused.

The jury, which earlier traveled to the park, found Pask guilty after about 30 minutes of deliberations. But Van Akkeren then overturned the verdict, saying the jury could not have determined the shelter was a secluded place as required by statute.

DeCecco vehemently disagreed, adding that such a ruling is typically made far earlier in the trial process or left to the jury, which was instructed that to find Pask guilty they had to determine that the shelter was a secluded place.

“In our opinion, any area can be ‘secluded,’ including a park shelter, trees and large bushes — any area where a child may be sexually assaulted out of the view of other persons,” DeCecco said. “The jury, having visited the site of the incident, obviously concluded we had met that burden beyond a reasonable doubt.”

DeCecco said prosecutors were prepared late Wednesday to seek an emergency order from the District II Court of Appeals to block Pask’s release, but didn’t pursue that after realizing he would remain in custody on a $5,000 cash bond from another pending case.

In that case, Pask is charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for allegedly touching a woman’s breast and telling her “you are my sweetie” while both were at Bethesda Thrift Store, 1019 North 8th St., according to a criminal complaint.

Lt. Jeff Johnston of the Sheboygan Police Department said this morning that he was “certainly disappointed by the ruling.”


“I feel our officers did a thorough investigation, which is supported by the fact that no reasonable doubt of guilt existed in the mind’s of the jury,” he said. “I’m in agreement with the DA’s appealing this decision, and this will not affect our diligence in investigating these crimes in the future.”

If Van Akkeren’s ruling were overturned on appeal, the guilty verdict would stand, and Pask would stand convicted of the felony charge.

Pask was previously convicted of having sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl in March 1991 and has spent 11 of the last 20 years in prison on a variety of charges, officials said.

WHAT this is disgusting how do such fucking freaks get off?!?!??! (other than by jerking off in front of little girls...)