(Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office)
KENOSHA, Wis. — Dale Robert Nixon, 43, of Kenosha, a former foster parent, adoptive father, five-year Daybreak Church elder and youth volunteer/co-leader, was formally charged Thursday with four felonies after his adopted daughter told Kenosha Police that Nixon sexually assaulted her at least weekly for about five years, beginning when she was just 10 years old. The now-17-year-old estimated there were more than 260 assaults. Kenosha County Court Commissioner Daniel E. Kellum set Nixon’s cash bail at $500,000 Thursday afternoon.
Nixon is charged with child enticement, causing mental harm to a child, incest and repeated sexual assault of a child. The most serious charge, repeated sexual assault of a child, is a Class B felony carrying up to 60 years in prison and, if convicted as charged, a mandatory minimum of 25 years of initial confinement.
According to the criminal complaint, the girl went to the Kenosha Public Safety Building Monday without her adoptive parents’ knowledge. She reportedly turned off her phone’s location before going to police because her parents were strict. She told investigators Nixon began sexually abusing her a few months after she moved into the Nixon home in August 2019, when she was approximately 10.
The allegations contained in the seven-page complaint are extraordinarily graphic. The girl described the first alleged sexual assault as occurring in the basement laundry room of the family’s former Kenosha home. She told investigators the assaults then continued on a weekly basis for approximately five years, sometimes occurring as often as four or five times in a single week.
The girl alleged Nixon sexually assaulted her throughout the family’s home and even during family trips to Cancun, Mexico, and Sedona, Arizona. She said the final assault occurred in January 2025.
When Detective Bray asked her to estimate how many times Nixon had sexually assaulted her, the girl reportedly did the math herself: 52 weeks per year for approximately five years, at least once per week. She estimated approximately 260 sexual assaults, and investigators noted the actual number could be higher because she described periods when the alleged assaults occurred several times per week.
The complaint also alleges Nixon repeatedly threatened the girl that if she told anyone, she would no longer be able to live with the family and would not have a mother and father who loved her. The girl told investigators she began wetting the bed after the alleged abuse started at age 10 and continued doing so until the alleged assaults stopped in January 2025.
Police confronted Nixon at his home Tuesday. According to Detective Bray, when Nixon was told the girl had reported sexual abuse and was asked whether he knew anything about it, Nixon paused, took a deep breath and responded “maybe” while simultaneously nodding his head yes.
The girl appeared personally in court Thursday for Nixon’s initial appearance, accompanied by numerous friends and loved ones. She struggled through tears while making an emotional plea to the court before Kellum ultimately ordered Nixon held on $500,000 cash bail. Nixon was ordered to have no contact with the alleged victim or several other individuals.
Nixon’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for September 3 at 8:15 a.m.
The charges also bring renewed scrutiny to Nixon’s significant role at Daybreak Church in Kenosha. Following KCE’s initial reporting, Daybreak founder and lead pastor Brit Windel attempted to distance the church from Nixon and disputed KCE’s characterization of Nixon as a youth pastor. Windel instead described Nixon as a “background checked youth volunteer/co-leader” and acknowledged that Nixon had served as a Daybreak elder for five years.
But KCE subsequently located a Daybreak church service providing considerably more context about Nixon’s role. During that service, Windel warmly introduced Nixon as his “good bearded brother from another mother” before turning the service over to Nixon to preach. Windel prayed for Nixon and asked God to “continue to flow through him as he speaks your words.” Nixon then told the congregation that he and his wife had hosted middle-school children at their home the previous night, where they played games, ate food and studied the Bible.
Later in that same service, Windel discussed Nixon’s involvement in planning sermon series with church leadership, recalling Nixon being in his office helping plan the church’s sermons.
Windel has said Nixon was immediately removed from all Daybreak responsibilities after his arrest and will never again have access to children through the church.
The criminal complaint now confirms that the allegations KCE first reported as potentially involving hundreds of assaults are substantially what the alleged victim told investigators. KCE had been made aware of some of the specific allegations before the complaint was filed but declined to publish them because of their horrific nature.
Nixon remains in the Kenosha County Jail on $500,000 cash bail.
One Response
I wonder what God thinks of all these straight, white, pontificating Christians having sex with children.