McHenry County prosecutors allege that a Milwaukee man beat a partially paralyzed Marengo woman whom he met online and texted her that he wanted to sexually assault children, but a defense attorney said the couple was dating and engaging in role playing and fantasizing.

However, Judge Cynthia Lamb agreed with prosecutors Thursday and detained Johnny Latiker, 51, in the county jail.

Latiker, who said in court that he works as a paraprofessional with special needs children at Cedarburg High School in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, is charged with aggravated battery, grooming and domestic battery, according to Lamb and records in McHenry County court.

Latiker also said that for the past 28 years, he has worked with a sky-gliding company at festivals during the summer.

Assistant State’s Attorney Daniel Conroy said the woman, who is is partially paralyzed, “mostly” uses a wheelchair and has kidney cancer, invited Latiker over, and he attacked.

The prosecutor read from a proffer written July 13 by an officer who interviewed the woman in the hospital after the alleged beating.

Conroy said the woman told authorities that she began dating Latiker in May and that on the day she was attacked, he locked her bedroom door, put on fingerless leather gloves and began punching and choking her. As he choked her, she told police, he demanded that she look him in the eyes. He also put a pillow over her head, attempted to sexually assault her and threatened to kill her, authorities allege.

The woman said he also punched her several times on her side and that she suffered five broken ribs, bruises and contusions, according to the prosecutor, who added that Latiker threatened the woman, telling her that if she told anyone what he had done, he would come back and hurt her.

Conroy also read lewd text messages that Latiker allegedly sent the woman in which he told her he likes “naughty stuff” and said he had a “fantasy” involving children as young as 4, a 10-year-old girl he once saw on a trampoline and the high school girls at his job in Cedarburg. Conroy said Latiker wrote, “I can actually start grooming” the high school girls, and that he also wrote that he wanted to kidnap a child from Marengo because “no one would know.”

Conroy said Latiker is “extremely dangerous” to children, noting both of his jobs giving him “limitless contact” with children.

Assistant Public Defender David Giesinger, appointed only for the initial court appearance, argued that Latiker has no criminal history, scored zero on a dangerousness evaluation and could be safely released with conditions.

The public defender described the texts as a couple “talking about sex fantasies” and pointed to texts in which Latiker asked what the victim’s “hard line” was so he didn’t cross it. When she wrote that he hurt her, he asked what he did that hurt her so he wouldn’t do it again, Giesinger said. Latiker also texted the woman that he “can’t do this fantasy stuff” because he was “starting to creep myself out.” In one text, he referred to their encounters as “playing that game.”

There also are messages where the woman talked about “engaging in facilitating” Latiker’s fantasies, Giesinger said.

Latiker has “no qualms” abiding by a no-contact order and other court-imposed conditions, the public defender said, adding that Latiker has had no contact with the children he fantasized about.

Giesinger said the state is trying to paint Latiker “as a predator,” but role playing and sharing fantasies “was the nature of their relationship. These are two individuals engaged in role playing and fantasy.”

The judge and the prosecutor rejected that argument and said they didn’t believe the nature of a relationship included the woman suffering broken ribs and contusions on a cancerous kidney.

In the detention order, Lamb addressed the grooming allegations, saying that Latiker “used his cellphone multiple times to coerce this victim to ... give him sexual access to a minor ... attempting to seduce, solicit, lure or entice, a child to engage in sexual offenses.”

No one from Cedarburg High School or Cedarburg School District could be reached for comment or confirmation of Latiker’s job status.