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API loses ‘Jesus Christ' at Alaska State Fair
MARY AMES
03 Sep 2006 12:00 am
The Alaska Psychiatric Institute lost a patient at the state fair on Aug. 29 during a therapeutic outing, so staff called Palmer police to help find the man who calls himself “Jesus Christ.”
“They gave us the information that he was a sexual offender,” said Kelly Turney, a Palmer police detective on duty at the time.
The man is not listed on the Alaska Sex Offender Registry, but he is from out of state, Turney said. The call also stated the man, who calls himself Jesus Christ, had a special medical condition.
“He would get drunk drinking water,” Turney said.
Dr. Duane Hopson, medical director at API, said he had no information the wandering patient had any history as a sexual predator. The patient was one of four who traveled to the fair with two staff members as part of a rehabilitation program, he said.
Class teaches women to take care of themselves
Patrice Kohl
13 Aug 2006 12:00 am
Impressed with what she saw while visiting her daughter at Brigham Young University in Utah, Kath Carlson recently asked a group of Utah officers to come to the Kenai Peninsula and offer Alaskan woman a few lessons on how to handle men.
O’Hara, an instructor for Rape Aggression Defense Systems, a program that teaches women’s self-defense, and six other RAD instructors donated their resources and time to fly to Alaska and spent four days this week teaching women how to protect themselves.
Between practicing knee strikes to the groin and hammer strikes to the nose of their imaginary attackers on Thursday, the RAD students also learned how to recognize risks and reduce vulnerability to attacks.
A major component of the RAD class is teaching students how to avoid a sexual assault by reducing a perpetrator’s opportunity to commit such an act.
For instance, instructors recommended that woman never leave their drinks unattended which, consequently, could allow potential perpetrators the chance to dope it with a date rape drug.
Judge's ruling in DNA case presses state toward testing
KATIE PESZNECKER
11 Aug 2006 1:49 am
The state must allow DNA testing on a piece of evidence from a 1993 rape case where one of the men convicted says he is innocent, a federal judge has ruled.
The order issued last week is a victory for William Osborne, who is serving a 26-year sentence after an Anchorage jury found him guilty of rape and kidnapping. Osborne has been fighting for years for the right to test a blue condom for evidence that someone else took part in a two-man Earthquake Park attack on a prostitute. The condom was used against Osborne at trial.
Bill would triple potential sentences for sex offenders
A bill that would significantly increase prison sentences for sex offenders got on a fast track this week and was immediately scheduled for consideration on the House floor today.
"It has significant, almost overwhelming support," said Rep. Norm Rokeberg, chairman of the House Rules Committee, which decides what bills make it to the floor for a vote and when.
Man convicted of sexually abusing girl, 9, sentenced
A man convicted last year of having sex with the 9-year-old daughter of the woman he lived with, photographing the child while he had sex with her during the six years he remained in the household and then, in violation of a protective order, breaking into the home to take back his stash of child-sex photos was sentenced in Palmer Superior Court.
Criminal DNA Database Expansion Working In Alaska
DNA testing, usually done through a simple mouth swab, is the fingerprinting of the 21st century. Through DNA analysis of blood, hair, fingernails, or skin left at crime scenes, investigators are able to connect perpetrators with their past crimes, or to exonerate those who are falsely accused. Three years ago, the State Legislature passed legislation to broadening Alaska's DNA collection laws.
- by Rep. Tom Anderson
