FRANKLIN — Former Franklin College President Thomas J. Minar has been offered a plea deal by prosecutors on charges related to sex crimes with a minor.
Minar was back in a Wisconsin courtroom Thursday for a status conference, where he waived his preliminary hearing on the three felony charges against him. He was fired from the college last month after his arrest in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, where he is accused of sending sexually explicit messages, including photos, to an undercover officer who was posing as a 15 year old.
The Door County, Wisconsin district attorney charged Minar with child enticement, use of a computer to facilitate a sex crime and exposing a child to harmful materials, all felonies that carry a maximum sentence of 68 ½ years in prison if convicted on all counts and ordered to serve separate sentences for each, as well as up to $210,000 in fines.
Minar appeared in person at about 2 p.m. Thursday before Judge David L. Weber at the Door County Circuit Court, according to online court records. It was his second court appearance. Minar has been living in Evanston, Illinois since he was released from jail Jan. 7 on $7,500 bond, court records show.
Minar is represented by Brett Reetz, a Sturgeon Bay defense attorney. Door County District Attorney Colleen Catherine Nordin is prosecuting the case, according to court records.
Reetz said the district attorney’s office has made Minar a plea offer in the case. But the details of that offer were not available Thursday.
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
