20 years in prison for River Falls man who forced woman to stream on OnlyFans, other sex sites

A western Wisconsin man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison term for keeping a young woman captive in his home, raping her and forcing her to appear on sexually explicit websites such as OnlyFans, then keeping the money that viewers paid.

Austin Koeckeritz, 30, of River Falls was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court after pleading guilty to compelling the young woman to perform commercial sex acts online and sex trafficking a minor, in this case a teenage girl.

“Sex traffickers exploit vulnerable victims for profit and, increasingly, this practice includes commercial sex activity online,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement issued after sentencing.

In its written argument to the court for a 20-year term, prosecutors said Koeckeritz “used physical and sexual violence, threats of violence, isolation, emotional manipulation, and financial control to compel [the woman] to stream pornographic content online six days a week, for 10 hours a day.”

He not only sexually assaulted the teenage girl, the prosecution filing continued, he “used her to create sexually suggestive advertisements for [the woman’s] online content.”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and court documents:

Koeckeritz and the woman met on Facebook in August 2020 when she was 19, and she moved in with him within a week. As the relationship continued, Koeckeritz became physically abusive and verbally threatening.

Koeckeritz told the woman, “If anybody comes to get you from this house, I will shoot them,” one document quoted him as saying. He also chased her around while brandishing a gun.

The woman was subjected to repeated sexual assaults by Koeckeritz. He also had the teenage girl sexually assault the woman at least once.

During the time he forced the woman to appear in sexually explicit ways on Only Fans and other streaming sites, Koeckeritz kept the woman isolated in the home while monitoring her phone calls and social media use. She received none of the money coming in from the streamings.

The defense countered in a court filing that the two started a company together, with Koeckeritz owning 60% and she the balance. The woman was paid in various ways, whether it be tips, wages or money held in a business bank account, and she had access to her earnings, the defense contended.

Koeckeritz was arrested in August 2022 and indicted in January 2023.

Anyone who has information about human trafficking is encouraged to contact the 24-hour National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. More information is available at www.humantraffickinghotline.org.