The owner of a Racine County Gymnastics Center, charged with possessing child pornography, was arrested on similar charges in 1999. Sheriff Christopher Schmaeling said Thursday that Milwaukee County prosecutors did not press charges against James Kivisto at the time.
Schmaeling said the investigation was handled by the Glendale Police Department. “They did a thorough investigation. Thorough to the extent that they contacted the FBI,” Schmaeling said.
Kivisto is currently charged with secretly recording children changing clothes at Wind Lake Gymnastics Center.
At a Thursday press conference, Schmaling called the 49-year-old Kivisto a “disgusting pedophile,” and said that so far 100 images of children have been found by investigators. “Every time he viewed that image of child pornography, that child is victimized again and again.”
Kivisto was arrested after a hidden camera was found inside a restroom at Wind Lake Gymnastics.