MADISON, WIS. — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Wisconsin, Western), published as received.

MADISON, WIS. – Chadwick M. Elgersma, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Creighton Mithaugen, 38, Faribault, Minnesota, was sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 97 months in federal prison for traveling from Minnesota to Wisconsin to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. The prison term will be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Mithaugen pleaded guilty to this charge on July 13, 2026.

From April 2024 through February 2026, Mithaugen chatted with what he believed to be a 14 or 15-year-old girl, when in reality he was chatting with an undercover law enforcement agent. On February 13, 2026, Mithaugen was arrested after he drove from his residence in Minnesota to a prearranged meeting spot in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, to meet the purposed minor to engage in sexual activity. 

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Conley considered Mithaugen’s history, which included a conviction for sex with a fifteen-year-old girl in 2007 and credible allegations he touched a ten-year-old girl in 2022, and concluded that Mithaugen was a repeat and dangerous sex offender. Judge Conley found that a lengthy sentence was necessary to protect some of the most vulnerable members of society from Mithaugen’s predatory behavior. 

The charge against Mithaugen was the result of an investigation conducted by the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office, the Rhinelander Police Department, the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Pfluger prosecuted this case. 

This investigation was a part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.