Defendant pleads guilty to sex-related offenses
A Sawyer woman charged with sex-related offenses involving a minor was sentenced to 129 days with credit for time served after entering a change of plea to guilty at a hearing in North Central District Court on Thursday.
Rose Renee Wenger, 18, Sawyer, filed a request to change her plea five days after she appeared for a preliminary hearing with co-defendant Julian Monson, 18, Powers Lake, on Aug. 8.
According to court records, Wenger and Monson were charged after an investigation by the Ward County Sheriff’s Department into a report by a 15-year-old female. The teen alleged that on Feb. 24, Monson pressured the alleged victim to smoke meth with him and initiated sexual activity. Wenger was charged with four counts of promoting a sexual performance of a minor, a Class B felony, and two counts of possession of prohibited materials, a Class C felony.
Wenger appeared before Judge Richard Hagar on Thursday for the change of plea hearing. In accordance with the plea agreement with Ward County prosecutors, Wenger pleaded guilty to two counts of permitting a minor to participate in an obscene performance, a Class C felony, while the other four counts were dismissed.
Hagar sentenced Wenger to first serve 129 days of a five-year sentence with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, with credit for 129 days already served. Wenger was ordered to complete three years of supervised probation, along with chemical dependency and psychological evaluations. Wenger was further ordered to have no contact with or to go within 200 feet of the victim. Wenger was also assessed $525 in court fines and fees.
Monson has been charged with a total of 28 felony counts and three misdemeanors in the case, and a further 27 felonies and four misdemeanors in two other related cases.
The felonies include use of a minor in a sexual performance, a Class A felony; promoting a sexual performance by a minor, a Class B felony, promoting obscenity to minors, surreptitious intrusion, and possession of prohibited materials, all Class C felonies; as well as corruption of a minor, sexual assault, and luring minors by computer, all Class A misdemeanors. Monson is scheduled to appear for a pretrial conference in two of the cases on Wednesday, Sept. 11.