Sexual Abuse & Domestic Violence

An Eagle River man with four adopted foster children faces charges that he viewed and possessed child pornography. A malware alert on his state-issued computer led technology staff to discover the files.

Federal agents arrested John Daniel Brooks, 51, on Thursday. State records show Brooks is an analyst-programmer for the Department of Environmental Conservation.

According to the charges, Brooks was working from home, and an external hard drive connected to his work computer triggered a malware alert. The charges say IT workers looking into the alert Monday found Brooks had used the computer to download child pornography, and they reported it to the FBI.

An FBI agent discovered Wednesday that Brooks was a registered foster parent with whom the state Office of Children’s Services had placed four children, ages 1 to 13, according to the charges. Brooks and his wife had officially adopted the children just one day earlier, on Tuesday, the charges say.

Agents searched Brooks’ home and devices and found hundreds of digital images of child pornography hidden in various computer folders. When they asked him, Brooks said he was sexually attracted to children, the charges say.

Brooks denied abusing children or producing or distributing images, according to the charges. But he admitted he’d agreed to become an assistant with one of his daughters’ scouting group, in part because of his attraction to children, according to the charges.

Brooks did not have an attorney listed as of Friday. Federal prosecutors declined to comment.

According to the state Division of Personnel, Brooks has worked for the Department of Environmental Conservation since 2010. He was placed on unpaid leave this week.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is asking anyone with further information about Brooks’ activities to call the FBI at (907) 276-4441.

Ibn Bailey is one of eight candidates running for a seat on Juneau’s school board. He said he’s running to be a political-free, data-driven voice in local education policy.  

In 2019, two Juneau women say he harassed and stalked them, including the principal of Sayéik Gastineau Community School, Brenda Edwards. She was granted stalking protective orders against Bailey — twice. 

When first asked to explain the orders, Bailey said he didn’t want to rehash the situation. But, he described them as a direct result of his attempts to talk to school staff about his nephews. He said their dad was having trouble caring for them. 

“In that situation where he was homeless, and they’re facing shelter and food insecurities, they were children and in transition,” he said. “And that’s how the initial order came about — where I was banned from the schools.” 

Bailey said he knows it’s jarring to see those restraining orders in his background. 

“They were not domestic violence related. They weren’t. There wasn’t any violence, there wasn’t any sexual coercion, there wasn’t any of those things that you normally associate with domestic violence and stalking,” he said. 

Stalking in Alaska is a specific type of restraining order. It’s one where someone who isn’t a member of a person’s household has nonconsensual contact with them. And because of that contact, they fear physical injury or death. 

But Bailey said that what the court decided was stalking was actually the result of a miscommunication. 

“This was an order to keep me away from communicating with the principal of the school that my nephew attended, and also to keep me away from continuing on with my attempted advocacy for these children,” he said. 

He said the Juneau School District struggles with race. He said data shows that police are called to the schools far more often for disputes involving Alaska Native and Native American students, and other nonwhite students. He said all three of his nephews are Alaska Native, African American and Asian. Bailey is Black. 

He told a story about his brother being profiled while on a local school football team and that his family was threatened with arrest. And he said he thinks that’s why the school district got the police involved. 

“We’ve had prior experiences, so it was a surprise to actually receive the [protective] order, but actually, it wasn’t a surprise,” Bailey said. “Our police and our responders have bigger concerns to be dealing with than the school activating what has historically been the way it has been to get unruly or disagreeable families and advocates out of school by threatening them with police action, or court orders.” 

But it turns out that his description of how he landed in court for stalking is not accurate. Or, at least, it wasn’t the whole story. 

When Brenda Edwards went to court to ask for a protective order,  she brought a stack of emails that Bailey sent that described his attraction to her. 

Edwards said she didn’t want to talk about the incident, but her filings in court tell a very different story than Bailey’s. 

She began by describing her meeting with Bailey at the school in 2019. She wrote that she was nervous at first because she had suspended his son four years prior and at the time, Bailey threatened a civil rights lawsuit for discrimination. But, Edwards said she thought they had a good interaction; he apologized to her for their previous conflict. 

But then Bailey sent her a message telling her that the universe was speaking to his spirit and heart. She didn’t respond. He wrote again, and she didn’t respond to that one either. Then he sent a third email with his number in it and another saying he wouldn’t write to her again. 

At this point, she said in court documents, she called the district superintendent because his emails made her uncomfortable. After they consulted, Edwards sent Bailey an email that ends with the phrase “it is my expectation that you would not email me in the future.”

But he sent another email saying he was separated from his wife and was a safe guy.  Another saying “I know you said to stop with the emails but…” He sent a third email saying that he thought the world of her. He told her he had feelings for her and called her “stunning.” 

She didn’t respond to any of those. 

In his court filings, he said these personal emails were to show her that he wasn’t lying about his intentions. He said he was trying to reassure her that his interest in her and in his nephews were two separate things. 

At some point, she blocked his emails. 

Then, Bailey got a call from Juneau police informing him of the protective order. He told the court that his first thought was, “Why me? Who gets served papers for trying to be a nice guy?”

In court documents, Bailey asked the judge not to grant the protective order. He apologized to Edwards and said that he is not a threat to her or her family. He also said he believed that Edwards filed for an order of protection for professional reasons and not because he was stalking her.

But he said that he recognized that Edwards and her staff were doing their jobs: protecting the children in their school. Then he said he wouldn’t contact her again. 

But, a week after Edwards’ first protective order expired in August of 2019, he sent flowers and a handwritten poem on a notecard to the school for her. She went to court again. She told the judge she had finally reached a point where she wasn’t thinking all the time about being stalked, but getting that gift at the school brought back all of the feelings of being unsafe. 

The court granted her another protective order, this time for a year. 

When reached again to explain why he hadn’t told the entire truth about the protective orders, Bailey said he was trying to be discreet and avoid embarrassing anyone. 

But he also insisted that he and Edwards had romantic feelings for each other. 

The one thing Edwards said on record is that she had no social, personal, romantic interactions or relationship with Bailey. In court, she wrote that he clearly wanted to be involved beyond her professional role — and that was clearly not mutual, because she didn’t respond to him. 

The other local woman who requested a protective order said she, too, had frequent, unwanted contact with Bailey. She said that he showed up to her job uninvited. She asked for a short-term protective order, which she got, but the judge denied a long-term order. 

Bailey said what he regrets the most about the whole situation is that he didn’t help his brother and said the situation was very traumatic for his brother and his nephews. 

But, he also wants voters to know that he believes violence against women is a real problem in Alaska. 

“I would say that, that our rates of domestic violence, violence against women, our murdered and missing Indigenous women, our African American women, our women of color, that we have a real issue in Alaska,” he said. “And that we need to do more, there’s so much more that we need to do, but understanding that this is real. And this is impactful. And it needs to be a concern for every single Alaskan.” 

And, for voters in this community that want to know more about his character, he said to look to the women in his family who stand by him. 

According to the latest Alaska Victimization Survey, 1 in 3 women reported being stalked in their lifetimes. That includes being watched or followed from a distance, getting unwanted cards, flowers or gifts and getting unwanted emails or messages. 

If you are a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking in Alaska, you can find legal help through the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault. You can also call Juneau’s local domestic violence shelter AWARE on their free and confidential CareLine at 1-800-478-1090.

Note: In an unrelated case, the reporter filed for and received a long-term stalking protective order against a different Juneau man in 2019.

An Alaska judge sentenced the man who killed 10-year-old Kotzebue girl Ashley Johnson-Barr in 2018 to a 99-year sentence Tuesday.

The sentence ensures that Peter Vance Wilson will likely spend the rest of his life in prison and ends the criminal legal case in one of the most notorious recent homicides in Alaska.

Wilson kidnapped 10-year-old Ashley Johnson-Barr from a Kotzebue playground on a September evening three years ago, sparking a frantic citywide search in the Northwest Arctic community. The fifth grader’s body was found eight days later. Police said she had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.

Johnson-Barr’s death attracted national attention and sparked a new level of public conversation about sexual violence in Alaska.

Tuesday’s sentencing was held in Kotzebue, with Utqiagvik judge Nelson Traverso presiding.

In June, Wilson had entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors that called for a total 198-year sentence with 99 years suspended and 99 to serve, according to state attorney Jenna Gruenstein, who prosecuted the case and is now the head of the Office of Special Prosecutions.

The court also found four aggravating factors: that Wilson demonstrated deliberate cruelty, that the victim was vulnerable due to her age, that the murder was among the most serious in the class of offenses and that Wilson had engaged in other sexual offenses with other victims.

Gruenstein wrote that the defendant’s behavior was “among the most vicious and predatory” of cases seen in Alaska courts, she said.

Tuesday’s sentencing was about Ashley, her father, Scotty Barr, said in an interview.

“Today is about her, and only her,” Barr said.

Family members attended, and Barr brought along a large blown-up photo of Ashley from her funeral, he said. Everybody wore purple, her favorite color.

During his statement to the court, Wilson asked for forgiveness, according to Barr.

Barr’s own statement in court talked about forgiveness, too.

“I said, ‘I’ve asked Jesus Christ and Father God to help me forgive you for what you’ve done to our daughter,’” Barr said.

Barr said he accepted the sentence. It was a tough day, but the criminal case against Wilson coming to an end is a step toward one kind of closure, Barr said.

“I feel a heavy burden off my shoulders, off my heart.”

This story was originally published by the Anchorage Daily News and is republished here with permission.

The FBI has re-arrested a former Haines resident nearly a year after he was arrested at Chilkat Lake and extradited to Idaho on child pornography and sexual abuse charges. Now, federal agents want to bring him back to Alaska to face new federal charges.

Shortly after 39-year-old Christopher Panagiotou-Scigliano was arrested in Haines last November, the Chilkat Valley News spoke with his Chilkat Lake neighbors, who said he and his wife lived in a trailer at the Covenant Life center before moving to a property at the lake.

Federal court documents allege that while he lived at Chilkat Lake, Panagiotou-Scigliano recruited minors to visit Haines that he had previously groomed for exploitation while living in Idaho. Prosecutors also say they seized his cell phone and that it contains evidence of his sexual abuse of at least one of those minors.

Investigators also say they have a laptop containing more images and videos of child exploitation that were downloaded from the internet.

Two adults and one minor approached law enforcement in Idaho to discuss alleged abuse by Panagiotou-Scigliano early last year. Their families lived off-grid and participated in organic farming and church services with the suspect. Investigators say the three young men wanted to make sure Panagiotou-Scigliano didn’t continue his pattern of abuse.

The investigation conducted by the Bonner County Sheriff’s Department in Idaho wrapped up last September. Haines police, assisted by a Bonner County detective, arrested Panagiotou-Scigliano without incident on his property at Chilkat Lake.

Haines Police Chief Heath Scott says there are still some loose ends to his department’s investigation into the suspect’s activities over the five years while he was in Haines.

“I would say this is somewhat (of) a complex investigation dealing with multiple regions, one being Bonner County, Idaho, the second being Haines, Alaska, and then the third being the FBI, from a more federal side. We are very close to completing that investigation and submitting our findings to our district attorney out of Juneau,” said Scott.

Panagiotou-Scigliano was transferred from Haines to Lemon Creek Correctional facility in Juneau.

While in custody he petitioned the court to allow him to be released into a third-party custody arrangement due to COVID-19 concerns. The defense asked that he be given an electronic location monitor and be remanded into the custody of Benjamin Herndon, a member of the Covenant Life center in Haines. He cited close ties to the religious community where he attended church and ate meals.

His request was denied.

Panagiotou-Scigliano was then extradited to Idaho to face state charges of child exploitation last November. About five months later, an Idaho judge ordered him released on $105,000 bond into the custody of Rick Phegley. As a condition of his release, he wore a location monitor and had to be constantly supervised.

When federal agents learned that Panagiotou-Scigliano was out of jail, they moved ahead quickly with their investigation and re-arrested him at the residence he was confined to on July 23, arguing he’s a serial predator. As of Aug. 19, he was being detained in Idaho by U.S. Marshals, who plan to bring him back to Alaska to face federal charges brought by the U.S. Attorneys’ office in Anchorage.

On July 28, Panagiotou-Scigliano’s defense attorney made yet another plea to have his client remanded to third-party custody. It’s the same chaperone Panagiotou-Scigliano was released to in Idaho, Rick Phegley. Phegley has offered up his condominium in Las Vegas, Nevada for a place to stay while Panagiotou-Scigliano awaits trial.

Calls and emails to his Anchorage attorney John Cashion were not returned.

However, according to Bonner County investigators, the Idaho judge has issued a no-bail bench warrant because Panagiotou-Scigliano missed a recent court appearance in Idaho while in federal custody. That means he likely won’t be released to house arrest without being re-arrested in Bonner County.

Investigators in Idaho say they worry that because Panagiotou-Scigliano has a long history of living off-grid, he’s a flight risk.

Corrine Smith contributed additional reporting.

If you or someone you know is a victim of child exploitation, you can find help at:

• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 1-800-843-5678
• The S.A.F.E. Child Advocacy Center in Juneau 907-463-6157.
• The Alaska Network on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault at 907-586-3650
• The National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673)
• STAR Alaska’s 24-hour crisis line at 907-276-7273 or its toll-free crisis line at 800-478-8999

The Lower Kuskokwim School District agreed this week to pay $3.8 million to settle a lawsuit.

Attorneys for two girls had sued the district for failing to protect them from sexual abuse at the hands of Christopher Carmichael, a former Bethel elementary school principal. Carmichael is currently serving a 15-year federal sentence for attempted coercion and enticement of a minor and a 25-year sentence for sexual abuse of a minor.

KYUK’s Greg Kim spoke with Anchorage Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins who recently reported a story on LKSD’s settlement.

Greg Kim: Kyle, you just published an article about the Lower Kuskokwim School District agreeing to pay an almost $4 million settlement in a sex abuse lawsuit. What was this lawsuit arguing?

Kyle Hopkins: This was the first of two lawsuits filed against the school district that involve Carmichael’s years working for the district, specifically his latter years as a principal in Bethel at the elementary school. And what the lawsuit is alleging is that these two children who were former students of his were sexually abused at school by Carmichael and that his ability to abuse them was kind of enabled by the school district — that the reason he had access to these kids was by virtue of his job as the principal of the school.

Greg Kim: By agreeing to pay this settlement is LKSD essentially admitting that it knew about Carmichael’s prior problems with students and that it mishandled those prior reports?

Kyle Hopkins: They’re agreeing to pay this money, right? And in exchange, the lawsuit goes away and the plaintiffs can’t come back and file another one. But in that agreement, they specifically say, ‘You know, we’re not admitting guilt.’ It’s one of those types of settlement agreements where the defendant is not admitting to do anything wrong. But they’re willing to pay out this kind of extraordinary amount of money to make the lawsuit go away.

Greg Kim: And did the victims or the victims’ parents make any statements in the settlement hearings?

Kyle Hopkins: I did talk to the mother of one of the girls yesterday. She’s making this ask that — it has a little bit of precedent, but it would be unusual — she’s asking that the state of Alaska, the Department of Education, step in and appoint a trustee who would kind of really have authority over the school district. They would then investigate this matter — what was known and when, who knew what, what actions were taken? And if this trustee were to find that people enabled this behavior, the mother’s asking that those people, basically, that they be removed from the district. And so that’s the unusual part here. And it’s probably a little unlikely because the Department of Education says that there’s not necessarily a mechanism to do that, to kind of put a trustee in place for these matters, that they would consider to be personnel issues.

Greg Kim: That’s interesting. Has LKSD made any statement in response to that mother or in general about these cases?

Kyle Hopkins: They said that they’re confident in their response to date. Their position seems to be that they went kind of above and beyond any standard that exists in other schools in Alaska to make sure that their employees, their administrators are being trained, with the best knowledge available on how to spot grooming behavior, how to prevent sexual abuse, how to not enable this type of behavior in the future. So their position is: There’s a new policy and there’s a new system in place that would prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future. And certainly, they’re arguing that no state intervention would be necessary.

Greg Kim: And this settlement was for $3.8 million, which will be paid out to two victims. Compared to other school sexual abuse lawsuits that you’ve looked at, is that a lot of money?

Kyle Hopkins: It sure seems to be. After the story that you and I worked on last year, we did a round of records requests to school districts to try to understand how many settlements were out there. Because sometimes they just happen and nobody knows about them. The school districts aren’t keen to advertise them. So we wanted to get a sense of: What did we miss? What other types of lawsuits like this have been settled by Alaska school districts? And there were a few. One was already pretty well known, which was the Wales case from about two years ago. The Bering Strait School District agreed to pay like $12.6 million, but there were plaintiffs in that case. So, this is a large payout for two plaintiffs. It might be the largest per plaintiff that we found. We might be missing something, not all the school districts complied with that records request. But from the information we were able to get, this seems like a pretty severe penalty for the school district.

GK: And as you mentioned, this is not the only sexual abuse lawsuit that LKSD was facing. What’s going on with the other one?

Kyle Hopkins: That one is by two other plaintiffs. And my understanding is it doesn’t involve any of the children who were identified in the state charges. So these would be kids who we haven’t really heard about before. And there’s a Fairbanks firm that’s handling that case. That case is still scheduled for a trial Nov. 1 And it’s really unclear if that’ll be settled. I talked to an attorney for the school district who said that case is, you know, the facts of that case are very different from the one that was just settled. It doesn’t mean they won’t settle but what the attorney said today was they do intend to fight that lawsuit.

Alaska law requires state and local law enforcement agencies to collect DNA samples from anyone charged with a felony or a crime against another person. But in a lot of cases over the last 25 years, that hasn’t happened.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced on Tuesday that the state will be going back to collect missing samples as part of an effort to reduce sexual assaults and other violent crimes. He made the announcement at the state crime lab in Anchorage.

Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore said there are multiple goals in serving the victims of sexual assaults. 

“We want to get the kits processed timely, we want to get back to victims timely and we want to collect this DNA to help us solve those crimes,” he said.

For decades, this hasn’t always happened. The state announced for the first time on Tuesday the number of missing samples of DNA: more than 21,000. Roughly 1,500 of those people have died, so the state will be seeking the DNA of more than 20,000. 

And this is a problem because, as Skidmore says, DNA can provide important evidence. 

“It helps us solve crimes where we wouldn’t otherwise have leads for law enforcement to pursue,” he said.

The state will start with those who were convicted of a class of felonies that includes violent crimes, including sex crimes — a group that’s smaller than 600 people.

A 1995 law first required the state to collect DNA samples from those convicted of this class of felonies. The law has been amended eight times, expanding those covered. Skidmore said the frequent changes have contributed to the gaps. 

“So that’s made some challenges in terms of trying to figure out what’s supposed to be collected when,” he said.

It’s a crime to refuse to provide DNA that’s required under the law. Skidmore said the ability to prosecute that crime will help them collect samples. 

“That’s one of the enforcement mechanisms that’s going to allow us to go back and collect what is referred to as that ‘owed DNA,’” he said.

The departments of law, public safety and corrections are working on the issue, along with local police. 

Department of Public Safety Commissioner Jim Cockrell said that law enforcement now collects DNA from nearly everyone arrested for these crimes. And his department has started the work to find people whose samples weren’t collected in the past. 

“Government has an obligation to follow the law,” he said. “And regardless of the many reasons that these DNA collections were missed, we are focused on making our … state a safer place to live.”

The Department of Corrections will start by collecting DNA from those already in prison or jail. State probation and parole officers will collect samples from those on supervision. And anyone being booked for crimes covered by the law will have their samples collected. 

Dunleavy said he wants Alaska to no longer be known for ranking high in rates of sexual assault. He said he had to deal with children affected by sexual abuse when he worked as a teacher. 

“I would strongly, strongly say to those that would even contemplate committing crimes of this nature on fellow Alaskans, that the days of getting away with it are over,” he said.

State leaders also announced that the state is building a website where victims of sexual assault will be able to track the status of kits collected from their assaults.

Advocates for sexual assault survivors praised the announcement. They include Blaze Bell, a survivor who has worked with the organizations Victims for Justice and Stand Together Against Rape Alaska, or STAR. 

“This is really a full-circle moment for me as a survivor, and I’m incredibly grateful that you are all coming together to help other sexual assault survivors,” she said.

Anchorage Democratic Rep. Geran Tarr sponsored a law that speeds the testing of rape kits. She thanked Dunleavy for the changes. 

“I have a vision — I want to wake up one day in Alaska where we don’t lead the nation in the rates of domestic violence and sexual assault,” she said. “I think this is a step that’s going to get us there, so I’m very grateful.” 

Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson and Police Chief Kenneth McCoy joined Dunleavy in making the announcement. McCoy said he knows from personal experience the importance of collecting DNA samples. 

“I served for many years as a sexual assault investigator, and I know first hand the damage caused by these horrific crimes,” he said. “DNA collection is a critical step in solving these cases and bringing closures to the survivors and their families.” 

The state estimates the initiatives announced on Tuesday will cost $2 million. Of that, $900,000 will come from the budget the Legislature already passed, while Dunleavy will ask the Legislature to approve spending $1.1 million from federal pandemic recovery funding.