MADISON, WI (WTAQ) - A Wisconsin appeals court rules that a 13-year-old Shawano County boy must register as a sex offender.
Tuesday's decision upholds a circuit court ruling after the boy was found adjudicated delinquent - the juvenile court version of guilty - for first-degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 12.
Court documents reveal the boy raped an 8-year-old girl.
The judge ordered the boy to be placed on the sex offender register. He appealed, arguing the court misstated the law and failed to consider the purposes of the juvenile court code. But the appeals court upheld the ruling.
"Given this record, we conclude the circuit court properly considered the (existing case law) factors, and simply gave more weight to factors that would require (the boy) to register. That choice was completely within the circuit court's discretion. Because the record "reflect[s] the circuit court's reasoned application of the appropriate legal standard to the relevant facts in the case," we affirm the circuit court's discretionary decision denying a stay of the sex offender registration requirement," the court wrote.