Man charged with eight more counts of sexual abuse in Converse County

GILLETTE (WNE) — A podiatrist who had pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual abuse of a minor in Campbell County has been arrested on eight new sexual abuse charges, this time out of Converse County.

Craig Capron has been charged in the Circuit Court of the 8th Judicial District with eight counts of sexual abuse of a minor. Two of the counts are first-degree sexual abuse, five are second-degree sexual abuse and one count is third-degree. They stem from incidents from as early as 2015 and as recent as 2023.

Capron, 59, had been charged with 10 counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor in Campbell County. Five of those counts happened between August 2015 and August 2016, and the other five took place in May 2017. All 10 counts had the same victim.

This fall, Capron pleaded guilty to four of those counts.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the state had agreed to dismiss the six other counts that he’s been charged with, and the state would recommend a six- to 12-year prison sentence, followed by a supervised probationary period.

This was before the charges in Converse County were brought forward. Capron has not yet been sentenced in the Campbell County case.

In May 2024, someone called the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office after a girl reported that her friend said she had been sexually abused by Capron several times over the past few years, both in Gillette and in Douglas.

Capron had previously been accused of sexual abuse more than 20 years earlier. According to court documents, Capron was caught sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl while he was living in another state. This abuse was reported to law enforcement, but nothing ever came of it. He also sexually abused two other girls.

His church was aware of these allegations and prohibited Capron from teaching children in any capacity.

This story was published on December 30, 2024.