Somerset Village Board president charged with sexual assault, battery

The St. Croix County District Attorney’s Office has charged Somerset, Wis., Village Board President Michael Kappers with rape and battery after a woman alleged she was forced to have sex with Kappers and given an unwanted back massage that left her injured.

Kappers, owner of the Apple River Hideaway Campground, faces one count of second-degree sexual assault and one count of battery, both felonies that carry a possible prison sentence of up to 46 years in total.

Kappers, in a statement sent Wednesday to the Star Tribune, said the sex was consensual and called the allegations unfounded and outrageous. “This is politically motivated and was posted before I even heard of the allegations,” he said. “This is entirely devastating for me, my family, and this community.”

The woman, who is not named in the criminal complaint, said the assault on May 14, 2023, began as consensual sex with Kappers after an evening of drinking around a fire at the Hideaway Campground. The two met on a dating website and had spoken by email for one to two weeks before meeting, the woman told investigators.

The woman said she felt unsteady after several drinks and went to Kappers’ camper at his invitation; the woman said she agreed to sex at first, but then wanted to stop and said so. In addition, the complaint noted Kappers did not stop giving her a massage when she told him it hurt. A doctor said she now has a moderate to severe disc herniation in her spine with daily pain in both legs and that her back will never fully recover.

The woman said she was ashamed after the experience and didn’t immediately report it to authorities. She was interviewed by a Polk County Sheriff’s Office investigator in August, telling him she initially didn’t want to call it sexual assault because “I didn’t want it to be like that, to have that happen to me.”