Wis. man gets 10 years in prison for abusing ex-girlfriend's kids MILWAUKEE, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A Milwaukee man who abused his ex-girlfriend's children and put one of them in a dryer was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Nicholas James Fuchs, 26, admitted abusing the children, then ages 4 and 5, when he lived with his ex-girlfriend last year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. As part of a plea agreement, Fuchs pleaded guilty to three counts of child abuse and one count of recklessly endangering safety in exchange for the state's dismissal of charges of false imprisonment and strangulation and suffocation, online court records indicate. The abuse was discovered in February when Fuchs' ex-girlfriend, whose name was not reported, overheard her daughter threatening to put her son in the dryer. When the mother confronted her children about it, they told her it was something "mean Nick" had done to the girl before. The children told police Fuchs had struck the boy's feet with a spoon, pinched his penis and choked him, and had broken the girl's arm.