Troopers arrest Stebbins man on charges he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl

Alaska Bureau of Investigation officers arrested a 30-year-old Stebbins man on Friday, Nov. 13, on a warrant charging him with first-degree sexual assault in an October attack on a 14-year-old girl in the village, according to an Alaska State Troopers dispatch posted Saturday. The bureau is the troopers' investigations section.

The man faces five charges: first-degree sexual assault, second- and third-degree sexual abuse of a minor, and second- and fourth-degree assault. Investigators took him to Anvil Mountain Correctional Center, a state Department of Corrections facility in Nome, the dispatch said.

According to troopers, the man chased down the girl at about 9 pm on Oct. 25 as she was walking in Stebbins. Troopers allege he abducted her, forced her to the outskirts of the village and strangled and sexually assaulted her there.

The girl was later treated at the Stebbins clinic. She was not seriously injured, troopers said.

Concerned family members reported the attack to troopers on Oct. 27, two days after it happened, and the bureau investigated. Investigators went to Stebbins and made the arrest 17 days after that report.

An Alaska Court System list of newly filed criminal cases shows the case filed in the Unalakleet court on Nov. 7, six days before the arrest. It lists all five counts with an offense date of Oct. 25 in Stebbins and describes the first-degree sexual assault count as without consent and by force. The fourth-degree assault charge is a misdemeanor; the other four are felonies.

The dispatch notes that the charges are accusations and that the man is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.