Rice Lake man charged with 1st-degree sex assault of child

A Rice Lake man has been charged with first-degree sexual assault of a child for allegedly assaulting a girl when she was approximately 8 years old and could be sentenced to as many as 60 years in prison if convicted.

Barron County Circuit Court records show that Steven A. Markegard, 30, was charged on Sept. 13 and his initial appearance has been slated for Wednesday.

According to the criminal complaint, the now-13-year-old girl gave a letter to her mother in the morning but asked her not to open it until after she left for school. The letter disclosed that the defendant did some “bad things,” which were not described, and the girl wrote she was sorry.

The mother contacted police and only after an investigator conducted a forensic interview did the child tell the mother everything. The mother asked if anything else happened other than touching, but the girl said he had just touched her.

The girl told the investigator that Markegard told her not to tell anyone otherwise her mother would be mad at her and him. He also said her mother would not believe her because she had been naughty at the age she was at the time.