Noriega-Avila pleads not guilty to sex assault

Pre-trial conference set for after new year
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

A six-year-old case involving a man accused of continuous child sexual assault and incest moved closer to a trial as Pedro Noriega-Avila issued pleas of not guilty on all counts.

Noriega-Avila faces one count of first-degree child sexual assault of a child under age 13, two counts of sexual assault with someone under age 16 and two counts of incest with a child by a stepparent. Noriega-Avila faces a maximum of 40 years in prison and $100,000 fine for each of the incest and the latter two sexual assault counts. For the child sexual assault in 2010, he faces up to 60 years in prison.

The criminal complaint states that Noriega-Avila allegedly went into his stepdaughter’s room between September 2009 and June 2010 and assaulted her. It goes on to say that additional incidents occurred in 2014 and 2015. Noriega-Avila married the victim’s mother on July 9, 2010.

Noriega-Avila was initially charged in 2016. An arrest warrant was initially issued on June 10 of that year when the criminal complaint was filed. He was later taken into custody and posted a $5,000 cash bond.

Then Noriega-Avila fled the state and could not be located until he was arrested March 12, 2021, in Pima County, Arizona. He fought the extradition to Wisconsin and lost. No additional charges were filed in relation to his failure to appear in court in 2016.

Progress on the case had been slowed down by the difficulty in finding an attorney to represent Noriega-Avila. It was close to a year before Sara Stertz was appointed as his attorney.

Noriega-Avila’s pleas came on Nov. 21 after a brief delay when he requested being in the courtroom in person. He had previously appeared via Zoom from the Shawano County Jail, but because the hearing was an arraignment, Judge William Kussel Jr. pointed out that the defendant had a right to be in the courtroom.

A pre-trial conference is scheduled for 4 p.m. Jan. 4 in Branch II at the Shawano County Courthouse, with a final pre-trial set for 8:30 a.m. Feb. 16. Noriega-Avila is still in jail being held on a $500,000 bond.


lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com