MADISON, Wis. — The Madison Police Department Special Victims Unit arrested a man Saturday who they say trafficked and sexually assaulted multiple children.
Zachariah Singletary Sr., 36, of Madison was the subject of an ongoing investigation, police said Tuesday.
Online court records show he is charged with four counts of trafficking a child; two counts of sexual intercourse with a child; two counts of child enticement-exposing genitals, pubic area or intimate parts; one count of attempted child enticement-sexual contact; and one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child.
Police did not give further details as to the events leading up to Singletary’s arrest.
Another man, 40-year-old Xavier Allen, is charged with one count of sexual intercourse with a child in the case.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the Dane County Circuit Court on Tuesday, a 15-year-old girl reported that on September 30, she and two friends visited Singletary at the 7-Eleven on State Street, where he was a manager.
The teen reported that two of her friends had previously had sex with Singletary and one of the friends referred to him as her “sugar daddy.” The 15-year-old said she did not know about this until she arrived.
She reported that she felt uncomfortable but didn’t have a ride home, so she stayed. Singletary then allegedly took the teens into the back of the store.
One of the teens reported that Singletary tried to buy her drugs and vodka to have sex with him, and when she refused, he told her he would force her “to submit to him.” She said that Singletary tried to have one of her friends convince her to have sex with him.
On October 2, another 15-year-old victim said she walked into the 7-Eleven and met with two of the girls. The trio then waited for Singletary and Allen and went to dinner with them.
According to the complaint, one of the girls reported that after they were done, Singletary got up and kissed each of the girls on the lips. The group then bumped into a dance team on State Street, who asked if the girls wanted to go with them, which one of the victims said was probably because the dancers sensed that something was wrong.
Singletary then allegedly made the girls go back to 7-Eleven, even though it was closed. The group went to the rear alley, where Singletary yelled about shooting or hurting the dance team if the girls left him. He then allegedly showed one of the girls a gun. He then allegedly took them all back into the 7-Eleven and tried to get them to go to a back room, but not all of them did.
According to the complaint, Singletary denied to detectives that he let anyone into the store when it was closed and said he knew one of the girls to be 19, but she is actually 17.
Singletary also reportedly said he had met some of the girl’s friends but had not spent time with them.
The complaint alleges one of the girls said she went to the store with the supposedly 19-year-old friend so that friend and Singletary could have sex. The girl said Singletary also pressured her to watch and to have sex with him.
During an initial appearance on Tuesday, Singletary’s cash bond was set at $10,000. The court entered not guilty pleas as to any misdemeanor counts. As a condition of his bond, Singletary can not have any contact with the victims named in the criminal complaint and cannot have any contact with any non-familial children unless supervised by the child’s parent.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to remove some details to protect the identity of the victims.
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