State v. Frederick A. Ziesmer

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedAugust 11, 2020
Docket2019AP001437-CR
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Frederick A. Ziesmer (State v. Frederick A. Ziesmer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Frederick A. Ziesmer, (Wis. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. August 11, 2020 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Sheila T. Reiff petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2019AP1437-CR Cir. Ct. No. 2014CF1106

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT III

STATE OF WISCONSIN,

PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,

V.

FREDERICK A. ZIESMER,

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

APPEAL from a judgment and an order of the circuit court for Eau Claire County: JOHN F. MANYDEEDS, Judge. Affirmed.

Before Stark, P.J., Hruz and Seidl, JJ.

Per curiam opinions may not be cited in any court of this state as precedent

or authority, except for the limited purposes specified in WIS. STAT. RULE 809.23(3).

¶1 PER CURIAM. Following a jury trial, Frederick Ziesmer was convicted of repeated sexual assault of the same child. The victim of that offense No. 2019AP1437-CR

was Ziesmer’s stepdaughter Claire.1 As a condition of Ziesmer’s extended supervision, the circuit court ordered that he have no contact with any minor children, including his biological daughter, Iris. The court subsequently denied Ziesmer’s postconviction motion, which sought to modify that condition to allow him to have contact with Iris.

¶2 On appeal, Ziesmer argues the circuit court erroneously exercised its discretion by prohibiting him from having contact with Iris as a condition of his extended supervision, and that the court erred by denying his postconviction motion to modify the no-contact condition without a hearing. Ziesmer also argues that the no-contact provision impermissibly infringes on his constitutional right to parent his child. We reject these arguments and affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶3 In November 2014, Ziesmer was arrested and charged with repeated sexual assault of Claire, who was then fifteen years old. Claire told police that the assaults occurred from 2012 until June 2014, while Claire was in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. At the time of the assaults, Claire would have been twelve to fourteen years old.

¶4 Following his arrest, Ziesmer was released on signature bond with a condition stating he could have no contact with Claire or any other children at her residence, and no unsupervised contact with any other minors. In February 2015, Ziesmer’s bond was modified to specifically permit contact with Iris if it was

1 For ease of reading, we use pseudonyms when referring to the victim and to Ziesmer’s biological daughter.

2 No. 2019AP1437-CR

supervised by Iris’s mother, who was also Claire’s mother and Ziesmer’s then-wife. Iris was four years old at the time of that modification.

¶5 In May 2015, Ziesmer pled no contest to a single count of second-degree sexual assault of a child. He was sentenced to nine years’ initial confinement and eleven years’ extended supervision. As a condition of his extended supervision, he was ordered to have no contact with Claire and “[n]o unsupervised contact with any minor children, to include his own children and grandchildren.”

¶6 Ziesmer was subsequently allowed to withdraw his no-contest plea, and the original charge against him was reinstated. While awaiting trial on that charge, Ziesmer was again released on bond and permitted to have contact with Iris, if it was supervised by Iris’s mother.

¶7 Ziesmer’s case was tried to a jury in March 2018. At trial, Claire testified that Ziesmer sexually assaulted her twice when she was in sixth grade, two or three times when she was in seventh grade, and about two times while she was in eighth grade. Other evidence at trial showed that when police interviewed Ziesmer about Claire’s allegations, he admitted that he had touched Claire’s breasts and vagina on one occasion and her breast on another occasion.

¶8 In his trial testimony, Ziesmer denied sexually assaulting Claire and asserted that when he told police he had done so, he was merely recounting events that happened in a dream. Ziesmer also testified at trial that Claire was seven or eight years old when he began dating her mother. When asked about his relationship with his stepchildren, Ziesmer responded, “I loved them like they were my own.” He further testified that his stepchildren typically called him “Dad,” and he referred to Claire as “my daughter” during his testimony.

3 No. 2019AP1437-CR

¶9 The jury found Ziesmer guilty of repeated sexual assault of the same child. On June 1, 2018, the circuit court imposed the same sentence Ziesmer had received before withdrawing his no-contest plea—nine years’ initial confinement and eleven years’ extended supervision.

¶10 When setting forth the conditions of Ziesmer’s extended supervision during its sentencing remarks, the circuit court initially stated that Ziesmer was “not to have contact with [Claire] or any minors.” However, the court subsequently stated, “[N]o unsupervised contact with minor children.” Defense counsel later asked the court to clarify whether Ziesmer was allowed to have supervised contact with minor children, and the court responded, “I don’t want any contact with minors. I’m sorry. That’s—thank you for correcting that.” The court also clarified that the prohibition on contact with minor children barred Ziesmer from having contact with Iris. Defense counsel then asked whether Ziesmer would be allowed to send letters to Iris, and the following exchange occurred:

THE COURT: [Assistant district attorney] Larson, what’s your feeling about that?

MS. LARSON: I guess I’d like to ask her mother.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I would prefer not.

MS. LARSON: She would prefer not.

THE COURT: Okay. So no.

[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: In that case if I could ask if it would be up to the agent or have the agent make this decision. As he’s progressing through time, I think the agent or the social worker in the prison system may be in a better position than us at this point in time to assess that.

THE COURT: I’m going to say no at this point. If he is doing better, he can always address the Court and ask for a modification at some point in time, and if he’s doing well and if the mother of the child changes her mind, that can

4 No. 2019AP1437-CR

happen, but it seems pretty firm that she does not want that contact to occur, okay?

¶11 The circuit court subsequently entered a judgment of conviction, which stated that as a condition of his extended supervision, Ziesmer was to have “[n]o contact with any minor children, to include his daughter.” On June 27, 2019, Ziesmer filed a postconviction motion asking the court to modify that condition to allow him to have contact with Iris. The State submitted a letter to the court in opposition to Ziesmer’s motion. The State noted the victim witness coordinator had contacted Iris’s mother, “who indicated she did not want the condition modified.” The State also asserted there had been “no other change in circumstances since the sentencing hearing on June 1, 2018, to justify modifying the extended supervision conditions.”

¶12 The circuit court denied Ziesmer’s postconviction motion without a hearing. Rather than issuing a written decision, the court simply stamped “DENIED” on the first page of the motion and added the handwritten notation “See DA [district attorney] Letter.” Ziesmer now appeals.

DISCUSSION

I. The circuit court did not erroneously exercise its discretion by barring Ziesmer from having contact with minors, including Iris, as a condition of his extended supervision.

¶13 WISCONSIN STAT.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Ramaker v. State
243 N.W.2d 534 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1976)
State v. Koenig
2003 WI App 12 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2002)
State v. Oakley
2001 WI 123 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2001)
State v. Stewart
2006 WI App 67 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2006)
State v. Miller
2005 WI App 114 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2005)
State v. Oakley
2001 WI 103 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2001)
State v. Allen
2004 WI 106 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2004)
State v. Clark
507 N.W.2d 172 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1993)
State v. Andres Romero-Georgana
2014 WI 83 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2014)
United States v. Roy Baker
755 F.3d 515 (Seventh Circuit, 2014)
State v. Leopoldo R. Salas Gayton
2016 WI 58 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
State v. Frederick A. Ziesmer, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-frederick-a-ziesmer-wisctapp-2020.