(Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office)
KENOSHA, Wis. — Dale Robert Nixon, 43, of Kenosha, a former foster parent, adoptive parent and youth pastor at Daybreak Church in downtown Kenosha, was taken into custody Tuesday by Kenosha Police Department Sensitive Crimes detectives in connection with allegations of incest with a child and repeated sexual assault of the same child. Nixon remained in the Kenosha County Jail Wednesday and is expected to be formally charged Thursday.
(Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office)
Nixon was booked into the jail at 1:15 p.m. Tuesday as a newly charged prisoner following his arrest by the Kenosha Police Department. Jail records currently list two felony allegations: incest with a child related by blood or adoption and repeated sexual assault of the same child involving at least three alleged violations of first-degree sexual assault.
Kenosha County Eye has learned that Nixon is heavily involved with Daybreak Church in downtown Kenosha and has served as a youth pastor. Nixon is also a former foster parent and currently an adoptive parent.
(facebook.com)
KCE reached out Wednesday to Daybreak Church founder and lead pastor Brit Windel seeking information about Nixon’s current status with the church, including whether Nixon remains a youth pastor and, critically, whether he would continue to have access to students or other children if released from custody. Windel declined to comment.
KCE has also been told that Windel has been attempting to keep Nixon’s arrest and the allegations from becoming widely known within the church community. KCE has not independently verified that allegation, and Windel declined the opportunity to address the situation when contacted.
Adding to questions about transparency, Nixon’s presence on Facebook and Daybreak Church’s website was completely scrubbed shortly after his arrest, according to KCE’s review. References to Nixon that had previously been publicly available were no longer visible following his arrest.
The combination of quickly removing Nixon’s online presence and Windel’s refusal to answer basic questions about an accused youth pastor’s continued access to children is beginning to make the situation look uncomfortably similar to what unfolded at Journey Church during the Gabriel E. Mills sex-crime investigation.
Journey Church also quickly scrubbed Mills from its website after his arrest. Journey Church lead pastor Kevin Taylor publicly claimed the church was cooperating with law enforcement and committed to transparency. KCE later obtained Kenosha Police body-camera footage showing Taylor declining to provide investigators with information they sought concerning what Mills may have disclosed to church leadership.
Detective Eric Traxler sought information about what Mills may have told church leadership, but Taylor declined to provide it, telling the detective he was choosing not to disclose that information. Mills ultimately faced 15 felony charges involving intimate images of two women.
There is currently no evidence known to KCE that Windel has withheld information from police as Taylor did. However, the parallels raise questions: a church leader facing questions about serious sex-crime allegations against a pastor, the accused pastor rapidly disappearing from the church’s online presence, and church leadership declining to answer questions about what it knew and what steps it is taking to protect children who could potentially come into contact with the accused.
According to information provided to KCE by sources familiar with the investigation, the allegations against Nixon involve a family member and potentially involve dozens or even hundreds of alleged sexual assaults occurring over a period of several years. Kenosha County Eye has been made aware of some of the specific allegations being made against Nixon involving his relative, and they are too horrific to publish here. The precise number of alleged assaults has not yet been established publicly, and a criminal complaint had not been filed as of Wednesday evening.
Neighbors told KCE that children living at Nixon’s residence were removed from the home Tuesday and are believed to no longer be staying there. The circumstances surrounding their removal have not yet been made public.
Nixon is expected to be formally charged Thursday, when considerably more information about the allegations and the Kenosha Police Department Sensitive Crimes investigation is expected to become available.
Kenosha County Eye will update this story when the criminal complaint is filed and additional information becomes available.
