TikTok Video Of Statutory Rape Goes Viral, 590k Views
Recently, a TikTok video with allegations detailing Statutory Rape, Domestic Violence and False Imprisonment went viral on the platform as well as across other social media platforms. Savannah DeTroye who goes by the TikTok name “savannahsmil101" posted her three part story to her TikTok page that has received over 590k views. View all three of the videos on the Never Stop Voices YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/_LZi8qfv4GI
When Savannah was 15 years old, she claims her mother had abandoned her and she reached out to an older man who was 25 at the time that kept coming around her school to see her. NSM learned his name is Daniel Christopher Campbell from Oshkosh Wisconsin. Savannah states that Campbell had told her that his mother lived nearby and that she could stay with her. To Savannah’s surprise, Campbell also lived in the house. At some point in 2015, the two began a sexual relationship where Savannah would end up getting pregnant at 16 with her first of two children by Campbell.
Savannah’s School Resource Officer Lindsey Michels, from Ripon High School reported the sexual behavior between Savannah and Daniel in 2015. According to the criminal complaint Officer Michels learned Savannah was pregnant. Savannah stated she consented to the intercourse. Wisconsin Law in 2015 states: the crime of sexual intercourse with a child 16 years or older, a Class A misdemeanor, for any person, regardless of age, to have sexual intercourse with a child who was not the defendant’s spouse, and the child had attained the age of 16 because she could not legally consent to intercourse. Officer Michels is still employed with the Ripon PD as a School Resource Officer.
Wisconsin amended their statutory rape laws in 2017. The amended section now states: Amends the crime of sexual intercourse with a child age 16 or older, a Class A misdemeanor, to not apply to situations where a person committed the new crime of underage sexual activity. Under the Act, a person who was age 18 years or younger at the time of the violation, may be charged and convicted of the new crime of underage sexual activity, and not the crime of sexual intercourse with a child age 16 or older, for having sexual intercourse with a child who was 16 or 17 years old at the time of the violation.
The criminal complaint also states that Officer Michels spoke with Savannah’s mother who stated she had repeatedly made attempts to report the sexual activity to the Ripon Police Department who allegedly told her at the time there was nothing they could do about it because Savannah consented to the intercourse which directly contradicts Wisconsin State Law pertaining to Statutory Rape in 2015. The complaint then contradicts itself stating Savannah’s mother doesn’t mind the relationship which Ripon PD took as her consent, despite Wisconsin not having a parental consent law pertaining to intercourse of a minor like some other states have.
The criminal complaint also states that Officer Michels reported to a domestic violence call between Savannah and Campbell on 5/13/16.
In July 2016 Daniel Campbell was charged with sexual intercourse with a child 16 years or older which was a Class A Misdemeanor with a penalty of up to $10,000 and up to 9 months incarceration. On August 29th 2016 the Fon Du Lac County District Attorney’s Office filed a motion with the court to dismiss the charge. The State claimed according to the motion that although they could prove the case, further criminal action was not necessary. The two had a 9 year difference in age, again Savannah was 16 at the time she got pregnant and Campbell was 25. Campbell was still with his girlfriend and supported the child that the two had together. The motion also alleges that prior to the relationship beginning; Campbell did “seek permission”’. For those reasons the District Attorney, Kristin R. Menzl who still works for the Fon Du Lac County DA’s Office wrote: “I don’t believe that a criminal conviction for this case would further any interest of justice nor do I believe that society would be harmed in any way by the dismissal of this case. For those reasons I respectfully request this court for an order dismissing the case “without prejudice”. Savannah claims she was never notified about this hearing. Years later when she found out she wrote to the courts telling them she was not notified and the courts told her that the case was done because she consented to the sexual relationship, according to an interview I did with Savannah.
In the State of Wisconsin, “’without prejudice” means it's not dismissed forever. The person whose case it is can try again. Vaun Mayes, a local Milwaukee Activist interviewed Savannah during a Live Stream where hundreds of comments came in during the stream wanting “justice for Savannah” and for Campbell to be arrested and jailed. With thousands of comments on Savannah’s TikTok, it sounds like a lot of noise is being made for the case to be re-opened and have Campbell charged since the original case was dismissed “without prejudice”. Watch the interview here:
The judge who handled the original case was Judge Richard Nuss who ran Circuit Court Branch 3 in Fon Du Lac County. Nuss announced his retirement from the bench which ended July 31st, 2021. Nuss ran Branch 3 for 20 years, Family Court for 7 ½, had a Private Practice for 22 years and served in the military as Marine.
Regardless of who consented anything in this case, Savannah was not of legal age and multiple entities should have protected her under Wisconsin Law.
The viral TikTok videos were forwarded over to the Ripon Police Department and they put out their own press release on Dec. 8th 2022 from Chief William Wallner.
“The City of Ripon Police Department has become aware of a recent video posted on social media in which the poster of the video makes several allegations against the Courts, the City of Ripon Police Department, and the City of Ripon as a community in general. When this video was forwarded to the department, I immediately had staff pull all the investigative files relating to this case and conducted a full review of the file to investigate the allegations addressed in the video. Due to the age of the poster of this video at the time of the incidents in question, I am unable comment much further, other than to say there is substantially more information about our involvement in this situation than what was posted in the video and that we did arrest and charge the defendant in this case.
This statement does not attempt to minimize this individual’s concerns of victimization, or events that have occurred to her during her life or with her involvement with the alleged offender. Our department takes any allegations of sexual assault, crimes against children, as well as any other offenses very seriously, and will investigate those to make sure that alleged offenders are brought to justice, and we will continue to be a voice for victims in this community.
The City of Ripon Police Department prides itself on the fair treatment of all persons, including victims of crimes, all citizens, and even the fair treatment of offenders and defendants accused of crimes. The members of this department believe that the citizens of this community deserve that fair and equitable treatment, regardless of the color of their skin, their economic background, their personal beliefs, or gender. Further, the community of Ripon has historically been a voice for all citizens, regardless of those factors that I just stated. Our Department, and our Community, will not tolerate anything less than that, and our department members recognize this and work hard every day with those principles in mind.
We will continue to review the circumstances surrounding this video and the allegations contained, with the expectation to make sure we are living up to our high standards as an organization and those of this community”.
One thing that is interesting to note with all of this, in Wisconsin the website CCAP where you can look up court case information does not have this case listed. In Wisconsin, even cases that are dismissed remain on CCAP. NSM also looked up another case involving Campbell for Possession w/Intent to Deliver (200 grams) where he was convicted which gave him a “repeater” status on the charge of sexual intercourse with a child 16 years or older, also does not show up on CCAP. We looked into multiple court documents that do not appear on the CCAP website. NSM is working on getting the criminal complaint from a 2018 charge of Disorderly Conduct which Savannah alleges has to do with one of the Domestic Violence charges that was reduced to a DC. When Officer Michels showed up in May of 2016 for that Domestic call, there is also no charge that we can find on CCAP.
The two have a pending Family Court case where Campbell is allegedly trying to get more custody of the two children. Savannah told me she is concerned with this as one of her children claim verbal and physical abuse by Campbell along with racial slurs towards him. She has a GoFundMe set up to raise funds for an attorney for the Family Court case. https://gofund.me/460c6ae0
NSM was unable to get in contact with Campbell for a statement. This is an ongoing story and NSM will continue to report on this.
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