‘I’m so sorry this happened to you’: Woodstock man’s retrial in 2019 child sex abuse case opens with alleged victim’s trauma

A woman testified Tuesday that when a 4-year-old child returned to her home in Wisconsin after a December 2019 visit with family in Woodstock, she was withdrawn, vomiting, crying and saying she had been badly hurt.

The testimony was heard in the retrial of Nathan H. Rigg, 35, of Woodstock, who is charged with two counts of Class X predatory sexual assault of a child younger than 13.

He was convicted on the same charges in February following a two-day bench trial heard by McHenry County Judge Michael Coppedge. He was scheduled to be sentenced in April and faced up to 120 years in prison.

However, in a rare move, Coppedge overturned the conviction, citing errors made by Rigg’s former trial attorney, and set a new trial.

Rigg chose to have his case heard the second time by a jury.

On Tuesday, the woman testified that on Dec. 22, 2019, after the typically happy child reported the alleged abuse, she hugged her, cried and said, “I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

The child continued to vomit, and after a bath, the woman took her to a hospital, the woman testified. She said she told a nurse what the child had said to her. The child was not examined for sexual assault at that hospital. She was transferred to another hospital where a doctor examined her. The woman did not say what the doctor said.

The child, now 6 and holding a stuffed animal, also was questioned by Assistant State’s Attorney Tyler Mikan. The girl said Rigg had touched her private parts, but she didn’t remember if other people were present and couldn’t ”really remember” where in Rigg’s house it happened.

When Mikan asked if she was ever told what to say by a family member or prosecutors, the child said, “No.”

Rigg’s defense attorney, Patrick Campanelli, asked the child, who was in the room where she slept when she was at Rigg’s house. She said sometimes another child and a baby also were with her. He asked if she remembered when and where the alleged touching occurred and what she was wearing. She said she could not remember.

On cross-examination, Campanelli questioned the woman who took her to the hospital.

Campanelli said children often get sick and vomit and get emotional and cry when sick. He also sought to clarify that the woman initially decided to take the child to the hospital because she was vomiting and not because of a suspected sexual assault.

The woman said the child’s demeanor changed after Dec. 22, 2019. She became more withdrawn, had severe nightmares and began ripping the heads and legs off of her dolls. She has been in therapy since, the woman said.

The trial is set to continue Wednesday when medical personnel are expected to testify for the prosecution.