EAU CLAIRE — Authorities have filed charges against an Eleva man they say stalked and sexually assaulted a woman.
Jeremiah Goodpaster, 46, is charged with second degree sexual assault, stalking, second degree recklessly endangering safety, false imprisonment, possession of THC and two counts of possession of a controlled substance. All counts are felonies, and the sexual assault charge alone could bring as much as 40 years in prison and fines of up to $100,000.
According to the criminal complaint, a deputy was sent to check on a report of a domestic dispute in Pleasant Valley. The woman said Goodpaster had hit her. That followed an incident days earlier in which she went to his home to talk with him.
Goodpaster began yelling at her and slapped her. He then forced her to strip naked. After allowing her to dress herself again, he forced her face against his penis, eventually forcing it into her mouth.
The woman said she was afraid he would kill her, in part because he had previously pressed a knife to her throat.
While the woman was talking with the deputy Goodpaster called numerous times and left multiple text messages. The woman said that was commonplace after abusive incidents.
Based on the report authorities pulled Goodpaster over and arrested him. A search of his residence turned up a marijuana pipe, hallucinogenic mushrooms, a pill crusher with drug residue and a knife that matched the description of the one the woman said was held to her neck. She was unable to positively ID the knife, though, saying it could be the one the authorities found or another Goodpaster was known to have.
During Tuesday’s hearing the court found enough evidence to allow the case to proceed.
This isn’t Goodpaster’s first brush with the law on strikingly similar charges. In 2011 a case was filed accusing him of second degree sexual assault, second degree recklessly endangering safety, strangulation and suffocation, intimidation of a victim to dissuade reporting and false imprisonment, among other charges. He entered a no contest plea on the strangulation and intimidation charges, along with causing mental harm to a child. The rest were dismissed but read in.
Wisconsin’s online court database does not record a sentence for that conviction, but the Department of Corrections’ inmate locator does list Goodpaster as having been an inmate for that offense.
Despite pleading no contest to several charges, Goodpaster filed multiple appeals. The courts refused to reconsider the case and also rejected efforts to adjust the sentence. In the latter, the court denied it “because it is not in the public interest,” according to court records.
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