Former teacher convicted of child sex crime
Waupaca County Circuit Court Judge Troy Nielsen sentenced a former Marion music teacher Friday, Dec. 14, to 2 1/2 years in state prison and 2 1/2 years of extended supervision.
Timothy A. Gast, 43, Shawano, was convicted of felony child enticement. Two other counts of child enticement and one count of repeated sexual assault of a child were dismissed but read into the court record.
On April 24, 2017, Marion Police Chief Kevin Schultz met with an 18-year-old student at the high school.
According to the criminal complaint, the girl told Schultz that four years earlier, her parents were going through a divorce and she needed to speak with an adult.
She said her band teacher, Gast, talked with her at school and gave her his phone number.
She said Gast later began sending her text messages that encouraged her to touch herself. He also texted her, suggesting she run away with him, the complaint says.
The texting began near the end of the girl’s eighth-grade year and continued until the beginning of her freshman year, she said.
The messages stopped after the girl’s mother saw some of Gast’s messages, prohibited the girl from texting her teacher, contacted Gast and threatened to report it if he did not stop, the complaint says.
She told Schultz her mother did not report the messages because she was concerned the girl would be ridiculed at school.
On May 3, the Marion High School principal met with Schultz and gave him a written statement from the girl.
In her statement, the girl said Gast had called her out of class on several occasions and taken her into the practice room where he kissed and fondled her.
According to Schultz, the girl came forward with the allegations after the Marion Police Department gave an internet safety presentation to students.
Nielsen also ordered that Gast register as a sex offender, provide DNA samples to the State Crime Lab and have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18.