Bethel judge sentences Wassillie Brink to 30 years in Kasigluk assault

Wassillie Brink, 52, was sentenced Friday in Bethel Superior Court to 30 years with eight suspended, leaving 22 to serve, for a sexual assault in Kasigluk in May 2022. He pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault and will be on probation for 10 years after release.

The Department of Law, which announced the sentence, said Brink has a prior conviction for sexual abuse of a minor. Its release carries no response from Brink or his attorney.

The case sits inside a regional pattern the state has documented for years. Alaska State Troopers recorded a felony sex offense rate in Western Alaska of 408.6 per 100,000 people in 2024, more than double the statewide rate of 184.9. The state's criminal justice data commission put Alaska's overall rate at roughly four times the national average. The Alaska Judicial Council has written that the problem is most pronounced in Western and rural Alaska and falls disproportionately on Alaska Native people.

Kasigluk is a Yup'ik village of about 623 people in the Bethel Census Area, northwest of Bethel.

Alaska's statewide crisis line for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence is 1-800-478-8999, available around the clock.