EAU CLAIRE, Wisconsin (WEAU) – Two people charged with human trafficking had their first court appearance on Thursday.
Mark Scoville and Catherine Ottinger were arrested Wednesday between Fairchild and Stanley by Eau Claire County sheriff’s deputies with the help of the Chippewa County sheriff’s office. His arrests culminate in a three-year investigation.
Prosecutors said Ottinger tried to sell a child for sexual activity. He is charged with two felony counts, trafficking in a child and the fact that a minor under the age of 13 sees / hears sexual activity.
Scoville faces 32 charges, including second-degree sexual assault and human trafficking.
A $ 5,000 cash bail was issued to Ottinger on Thursday. Scoville received a $ 25,000 cash bail on Thursday.
They are due to appear in court on April 13.
The criminal complaint says Scoville and Ottinger met through her boyfriend Charles Page, who died in 2019. Scoville and Page were friends.
The complaint says Page and Scoville assaulted several women and several women.
“The allegation in the second-degree sexual assault section denoted in the criminal complaint is specific to having sexual contact or sexual intercourse with an unconscious person and the defendant knows they are unconscious,” Det said. Don Henning with the Eau Claire County Sheriff’s Office.
The criminal complaint also stated that Page and Scoville trafficked women and girls by causing them to engage in commercial sexual acts by giving them drugs in return.
“The requirement to determine a commercial sexual act is that the defendant received something in return and / or the victim obtained something of value,” Henning said. “And in this case, to expand, the value element was drugs.”
He said the investigation initially began in 2018 as a case of drug trafficking around Fairchild.
“Through the media to obtain information and intelligence on various targets in the Fairchild area, they learned that there was a potential component of human trafficking or sex trafficking in the same residences involved in the alleged drug trafficking,” Henning said.
He said the pharmaceutical component made this case unique.
“This is by far the most important case of human trafficking and sexual assault we’ve had related to a drug trafficking investigation in our county. We don’t see these two things coming together very often in our community.” said Henning.
He said several police agencies worked on the case.
Scoville and Ottinger were arrested in 2019 and finally released. Henning said prosecutors waited until recently to move forward while building a case. Arrest warrants were initially issued for Scoville and Ottinger on March 24, 2021.
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