EAU CLAIRE, Wis (WEAU) – Two people accused of human trafficking appeared in court for the first time 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 Sheriff’s Office in Chippewa County. Their arrests lead to a three-year investigation.
Prosecutors said Ottinger tried to sell a child for sexual activity. She is charged with two offenses, trafficking in a child and causing a child under 13 to watch / listen to sexual activities.
Scoville is facing 32 charges, including second-degree sexual assault and human trafficking.
A provisional cash bond of $ 5,000 was given to Ottinger on Thursday. Scoville received a provisional cash bond of $ 25,000 on Thursday.
They are due to appear in court next April 13.
According to the criminal charge, Scoville and Ottinger met through her then-boyfriend Charles Page, who died in 2019. Scoville and Page were friends.
According to the complaint, Page and Scoville assaulted several women and girls.
“The allegation in the second-degree sexual assault assault indicated in the criminal charge is specific to sexual contact or sexual intercourse with an unconscious person and the accused knows they are unconscious,” Det said. Don Henning with the sheriff’s office in Eau Claire County.
The criminal charge also said that Page and Scoville traded women and girls by having them perform commercial sex acts by giving them drugs.
“The qualifier to determine a commercial sex act is that the accused got something in return and / or the victim got something of value,” Henning said. “And in this case, the value of drugs was increasing, drugs.”
He said the investigation initially began in 2018 as a case for drug trafficking around Fairchild.
“Through information and intelligence on various targets in the Fairchild area, they learned that there was a possible component of human trafficking or sex trafficking in the same residences involved in the alleged drug trafficking.” Henning said.
He said the drug component makes this case unique.
‘This is by far the largest case of human trafficking and sexual assault we have had in connection with an investigation into drug trafficking in our country. We do not see that these two things cross very often in our community, ”said Henning.
He said several law enforcement agencies were working on the case.
Scoville and Ottinger were arrested in 2019 and eventually released. Henning said prosecutors waited until recently to continue while building a case. Arrest warrants were initially issued on March 24, 2021 for Scoville and Ottinger.
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