Repeat Sex Offender Sentenced to 25 Years in Federal Prison for Attempted Sexual Exploitation of a Child

Gregory J. Haanstad, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on September 30, 2024, Senior United States District Judge William C. Griesbach sentenced David J. Fuchs (age: 41), formerly of Janesville, Wisconsin, to 25 years in federal prison for attempting to sexually exploit a child.

According to court records, Fuchs engaged in a conversation with an undercover law enforcement officer from the Outagamie County Sheriff's Office, who was posing online as a 12-year-old girl. During the conversation, Fuchs repeatedly described his desire to have sex with the child, sending multiple explicit photographs of himself and requesting explicit photographs from the undercover officer. Fuchs explained to the undercover officer, in explicit terms, how he intended to "teach" the young girl how to have sexual intercourse. During many of the sexually explicit conversations, Fuchs expressed his belief that the 12-year-old girl was in school. He planned to meet the girl at a travel plaza near Madison, Wisconsin, and he promised to bring her art supplies. On March 15, 2024, Fuchs arrived at a travel plaza with the intention of meeting a 12-year-old girl. The United States Marshals Service placed him under arrest.

Court records further indicate that the undercover officer from the Outagamie County Sheriff's Office also talked to Fuchs using a different undercover identity. During this conversation, Fuchs offered to pay $100 to have sex with a 7-year-old girl. Fuchs was also talking to undercover officers from the Madison Police Department, the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office, and the Fox Valley Metro Police Department, who were posing online as underage girls.

Fuchs is a registered sex offender with prior convictions for attempted second degree sexual assault of a child and sexual assault of an intoxicated victim.

This case was investigated by the Outagamie County Sheriff's Office, the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office, the Fox Valley Metro Police Department, and the Madison Police Department, with assistance from the Rock County Sheriff's Office and the United States Marshals Service. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Alex Duros.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006, by the U.S. Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

# # #