Convicted sex offender accused of attacking teen in her bedroom in Wausau

WAUSAU − A convicted sex offender, on probation for a drug charge, made his initial appearance Monday in Marathon County Circuit Court on charges he tried to assault a 14-year-old girl in her home.

James M. Begay, 35, who is listed as homeless in court records, faces new charges of second-degree sexual assault of a child, burglary and child abuse. During Begay's initial appearance Thursday, Marathon County Circuit Judge Schott Corbett set a $100,000 cash bail for Begay. Corbett also ordered Begay to have no contact with anyone under the age of 18.

According to the criminal complaint, on Nov. 17, a Wausau woman called Marathon County Dispatch and said she had been woken up by her daughter's screams. The Wausau woman said she and her husband learned a man had been in their daughter's bedroom, touched her and punched her in the head.

The 14-year-old girl told officers she had been sleeping in her bed when she felt someone touch her above her hip, according to the complaint. The girl, who had been laying on her side, said she rolled over to see what was happening and saw a man on her bed. The girl screamed, but the man put his hand over her mouth and told her to "be quiet" and "shut up," according to the complaint.

The girl said she began to kick as hard as she could at anything that would make noise to get the attention of her parents. She said the man touched her over the top of her clothing and she thought he tried to get his hand inside her shorts. She said the man touched her all over the left-hand side of her body, according to the complaint.

The girl said the man got up and left after she started making noise. When he got up, she saw him pull up his pants before leaving through her bedroom window, according to the complaint.

The girl said it was too dark in the room to see the man's face or color of his hair or clothing, but she saw he was wearing rectangular wire-rimmed glasses when she saw a reflection on them, according to the complaint.

More: One dead following officer-involved shooting in Weston Wednesday evening

The girl said she had gone to bed with a lamp turned on in her room and a porch light shining through the window; neither light was on when the girl woke up to the man in her bedroom, according to the criminal complaint. The girl said she had closed and locked her window before going to bed. An officer checked the window and found it was a double hung-style window and the latches on the two halves were slightly out of alignment, making it possible to open the window when the latch was closed.

The girl's mother said the light on the porch was out, and she tried to turn it on, but it didn't work. The girl's father checked the light and found the bulb was loose in the socket.

Police used surveillance video from the neighborhood to see a man going to and coming from the house. Using the video, they were able to identify Begay as the man who had gone into the 14-year-old girl's room, according to the complaint.

More: Life expectancy has been declining in the U.S. How long can Wisconsinites expect to live?

Begay wears glasses similar to the ones the 14-year-old girl described and was seen wearing clothing similar to what the girl thought her attacker might have been wearing, according to the complaint.

Begay has been on the Wisconsin State Sex Offender Registry since June 6, 2012, according to the website. He was convicted in 2010 of cutting off his electronic monitor and assaulting a 19-year-old woman who had been letting her dog out, according to a previous Wausau Daily Herald story. He asked the woman for a cigarette, then grabbed her by the throat and threatened to kill her, if she wasn't quiet. The woman said he was about to rape her when a motion-activated yard light came on and scared him away, according to the story.

On June 5, 2012, Marathon County Circuit Judge Greg Huber sentenced Begay to five years in prison and five years of extended supervision for the assault, according to online records.

Begay previously was a registered sex offender as a juvenile for an offense on Oct. 26, 2005, in Sawyer County, according to newspaper archives. The electronic monitor he cut off in 2010 was for the 2005 assault.

In August 2015, Begay was released from prison and was on a home monitor on intensive supervision when he escaped and attacked another woman in her yard, according to newspaper archives. He was convicted of sex registry violations in 2016, 2019 and 2021, according to online records.

Begay, who was serving 18 months of probation for methamphetamine possession, faces a maximum sentence of more than 72 years in prison, if convicted of the three new charges.

Begay, who does not yet have an attorney listed in online records, qualifies for a public defender. He has a review of his case scheduled for Wednesday.

Contact Karen Madden at (715) 345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.

This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Convicted sex offender accused of attacking Wausau teen in her bedroom