A New Berlin Police investigation started with a break-in at a landscaping business in August, but it soon led to a much more serious crime.
The videos are very disturbing, and it's somebody that definitely needs to not be able to be around children," Town of Brookfield Det. Lt. Sean Schmidt said.
[...]
27-year-old Michael McMullen was sexually abusing a 2-year-old boy he was caring for inside his
[....]
home. It was abuse that may never have come to light if McMullen wasn't caught burglarizing a New Berlin business.
A search warrant of his phone to find evidence of the sale of stolen
equipment on Craigslist revealed photos and videos of the abuse.
"With modern technology and what people do on cellphones nowadays and
laptops and
iPads, everything's in there, and it's saved,
[...]
Schmidt said as hard as the evidence was to look at, it got the boy away from McMullen and may have spared other victims as well.
"For a couple of days there, I wasn't getting much sleep and, I have children of my own and to see a 2-year-old going through this, and just the stuff in the video was very disturbing,"
[...]
Schmidt credits New Berlin police for being so thorough.
If convicted on all the counts in these complaints, McMullen would face a maximum penalty of nearly 500 years in prison.
McMullen faces 17 felony charges for possession of child pornography and child sexual assault. And another felony count for burglary. He's jailed awaiting a court hearing next week.