Green Bay Man Indicted for Sexually Exploiting Numerous Children

Brad D. Schimel, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on June 2, 2026, a federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging William G. Waterstradt (age 22) with offenses involving the sexual exploitation of children.

According to the publicly filed criminal complaint that preceded yesterday's indictment, Waterstradt created a fake Snapchat account to facilitate the exploitation of numerous underage girls. Detectives recovered communications between Waterstradt and dozens of girls, some as young as 12 years old, in which he falsely claimed to be 16 or 17 years old. The investigation began after a 12-year-old student saw sexually explicit images on a friend's phone during recess, prompting a report to school officials.

Detectives subsequently identified multiple underage victims. Many reported that they had exchanged sexually explicit images with Waterstradt. Three victims stated that they met Waterstradt in person and engaged in sexual intercourse and/or sexual contact, which he sometimes recorded on his phone. Detectives also determined that Waterstradt shared some of these recordings with unknown individuals online.

Waterstradt is charged with production of child pornography, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison. He is also charged with two counts of child enticement, each carrying a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison.

This case was investigated by the Langlade County Sheriff's Office, the Sheboygan Police Department, the Green Bay Police Department, the Brown County Sheriff's Office, and the Paris (Illinois) Police Department, with assistance from the Forest County Sheriff's Office, the Franklin Police Department, the Germantown Police Department, the Grafton Police Department, the Marquette University Police Department, the Wisconsin Department of Justice - Division of Criminal Investigation, and the Langlade County District Attorney's Office. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Alex Duros.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative led by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

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For further information contact:

Public Affairs Officer Steve Caballero

(414) 297-1700

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