PRESTON — A Chatfield man who was sentenced to a year in jail Sept. 23 for sexually assaulting a child has been charged with an additional sex crime for the second time in less than a month.
Paul Anthony Zacker, 33, made his first appearance Wednesday in Fillmore County Court, where he was charged with one count of felony first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person under age 13.
He was granted a public defender and will return to court on Feb. 3.
The newest allegation stems from a series of pornography charges filed against Zacker on Dec. 23. That's when he was charged with 10 felony counts of possessing pornographic work on a computer. He remains in jail as part of his sentencing for crimes committed in May — the first of the three incidents.
According to the December pornography criminal complaint, a woman who was packing up Zacker's living space to store his belongings after his May 30 arrest for criminal sexual conduct found several photos of young boys in his room. The woman told investigators she had boxed up a laptop computer, four servers, hard drives and digital media, then moved them to Rushford.
ADVERTISEMENT
Much of the equipment was taken to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's Digital Forensics Division for analysis. Images and videos submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children resulted in 62 identified children in hundreds of images of child pornography, the complaint says, using boys ages 6-10.
He's scheduled to appear on the pornography charges Feb. 24; conditional bond on that case has been set for $5,000.
As part of that investigation, authorities also discovered photos of a young boy being assaulted by an adult male whose face wasn't visible. Based on the information known, the photos appeared to have been taken at Zacker's former residence and another location.
A search warrant of Zacker's belonging revealed clothing matching that worn by the male in the video, the latest complaint says. The alleged assault occurred on or about April 26, 2013, the complaint says.
Zacker has just days left to serve on the jail sentence from the first case. He pleaded guilty in July 2013 to second-degree criminal sexual conduct-victim under 13. In addition to the jail term, he was sentenced to 36 months in prison, stayed for 25 years.
