A 42-year-old Norwood man accused of enticing a 16-year-old child with drugs and asking them for “naughty” pictures made a brief court appearance Monday.
Johnny M. Spencer appeared before Court Commissioner Fred Kawalski by video from the Langlade County Jail. He was charged May 18 with the class D felony child enticement and the class I felony of solicit an intimate representation from a minor. Spencer is also charged with the misdemeanors of intentionally contributing to the delinquency of a child and bail jumping. All four charges carry the repeater enhancer.
According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, on May 9, a deputy with the Langlade County Sheriff’s Office went to Spencer’s residence looking for a missing juvenile. The child was located there, but Spencer told deputies “she just showed up at his house,” according to the complaint.
A detective sergeant with the sheriff’s office questioned the child, who said Spencer had brought her to his house on May 8 after she had told Spencer she was running away from home.
She also told the detective that Spencer would frequently communicate with the child on social media. In some of the conversations the girl allegedly showed the detective between May 6 and 8, Spencer would ask the girl to send him “naughty” pictures. After he knew she saw them, he would ‘unsend” the messages and ask her to delete them from her end.
Once at Spencer’s residence, the criminal complaint says the girl went up to Spencer’s room where he and two other individuals were smoking meth. After declining an offer to smoke some once, the complaint said the girl eventually tried some.
It was at this time that the first deputy arrived at Spencer’s house looking for the child.
At Monday’s hearing, Kawalski noted Spencer still didn’t have a public defender and that he still wanted one. Another adjourned initial appearance was set for Aug. 8.
He also has two other open cases. He was charged March 14 with operating while revoked and failure to install or tampering with an ignition interlock device. On May 10, he was charged with resisting or obstructing an officer, operating while revoked and misdemeanor bail jumping, all charges in this case also carry the repeater enhancer.
Spencer also faces revocation of his probation stemming from a 2020 case where he pled no contest to possession of meth with the repeater enhancer. Judge John Rhode withheld sentence and placed Spencer on probation for three years. He is facing up to three years, six months in prison with the repeater enhancer adding up to a four more years.
The child enticement charge in the latest case carries up to 25 years in prison.
