Sexual Abuse & Domestic Violence

On Tuesday, Juneau police arrested a man who was wanted on charges of sexually abusing a minor.

According to a Juneau Police Department news release, officers learned Sergius Sheakley, 42, had an outstanding warrant issued by the Anchorage Superior Court. Police located him at a residence on North Douglas Highway.

He’s charged with at least five felony counts of various degrees of sexual abuse of a minor. Court records put the dates of the alleged offenses between 2005 and 2007.

Sheakley is being held at Lemon Creek Correction Center. Bail is set at $50,000 cash.

Alaska has the highest rate of forcible rape in the United States according to the 2015 FBI statistics.

Researcher and author Jeremy Braithwaite conducted research on sexual assault in Bristol Bay last year for his dissertation.

He returned last week to present that research in Dillingham.

Braithwaite interviewed 18 survivors of sexual assault in seven different Bristol Bay communities for his doctoral thesis in criminology from the University of California Irvine.

He found that, especially in native communities, historical context is important for understanding sexual violence that occurs today.

“When I came here and began talking with women and hearing their stories, I realized that in many cases it seemed that the issues that they were experiencing could be traced back to issues that have happened at the structural level in the community, dating back to 30 years ago, 40 years ago, and in some cases hundreds of years ago,” Braithwaite said.

Braithwaite noted that limited entry fishing has led to an out migration of locally owned permits. Since the 1970s, he said, local and native participation in fishing in Bristol Bay has dramatically decreased.

“I found that when women talked about perhaps their families selling off permits, it was common for them to talk about violence that they encountered shortly thereafter in their families,” Braithwaite said. “It was also common to hear issues of addiction that developed when a family member would sell a permit. The cash would come in. The cash would go out relatively quickly.”

“Women would describe family members lives spiraling out of control into a cycle of addiction, treatment, recovery and eventual relapse.”

Lisa Haggblom is the sexual assault response team coordinator at SAFE, or Safe and Fear-free Environment. She assisted Braithwaite with his project. That historical perspective, she said, is helpful.

“For me as an advocate, I actually have more to offer people when I am speaking with them about looking at it kind of more in a broader social scale, which hopefully will be helpful,” she said.

Braithwaite plans to continue his research in other parts of rural Alaska.

He hopes that his findings will assist survivors and advocates with healing and prevention.

Alaska State Troopers arrested a man from Nunapitchuk on a warrant connected to multiple sexual assault charges, but they believe that there are other incidents involving the accused that they don’t know about.

On Nov. 7, Troopers received a report of a sexual assault in Nunapitchuk, an online dispatch said.

After investigating, authorities arrested Gregory Tobeluk, 37, of Nunapitchuk on Nov. 16.

Tobeluk was arrested on a $100,000 warrant.

Over the last six months there were allegedly three incidents of sexual assault involving more than one victim.

Alaska State Troopers think there may be more unreported incidents involving Tobeluk and ask anyone with information to contact the Bethel Trooper Post at (907) 543-2294.

One out of every eight University of Alaska Southeast students said they experienced some form of sexual misconduct or sexual assault between 2015 and 2016. That’s according to the Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Lori Klein tracks reports of sexual discrimination for UAS as its Title IX coordinator.

“Dating violence, domestic violence, gender-based discrimination, sexual assault, sexual harassment, the whole gamut. This year so far, and with five months into the academic year, we’re at 17 reports,” Klein said.

She said there were 10 reports from students and employees last academic year. The reports are for all three campuses in Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka.

It’s Klein’s job to respond to those reports and to otherwise make sure the university complies with the federal law that prohibits sexual discrimination in any federally funded program or activity.

The University of Alaska Southeast wants to give its students and employees more options and information when they experience sexual discrimination. UAS is expanding two community partnerships in Juneau to better protect students and employees. To improve the university’s options for students and employees, Klein said they’re leaning on pre-existing partnerships with the Juneau Police Department and the advocacy group AWARE: Aiding Women in Abuse and Rape Emergencies.

“They serve us just like they serve anyone in the community and we engage with them on any number of issues,” Klein said. “But what we’ve done is we’ve formalized some of these partnerships.”

Mandy Cole is the deputy director of AWARE. Starting near the end of January, her group plans to give students access to an advocate for at least two hours a week inside the JPD substation on the UAS campus in Juneau.

“Maybe they were sexually assaulted,” Cole said. “Maybe they had an uncomfortable experience they’re not sure how to process and they want to talk to someone about it without triggering the response from the university.”

She said when someone talks to an AWARE advocate, everything is confidential.

“A student can make a choice about what path she wants to start with. She may change her mind either way in either of the paths, but it gives her an opportunity to talk to someone who is just here to listen to what she’s thinking and what she’s feeling and figure out what’s the next best step for her,” Cole said.

Klein said, by law, students and staff can get that same confidentiality from university counselors and health care providers. She and Cole said AWARE will just give people one more option other than filing a report with the Title IX office, which may start a formal investigation.

UAS and JPD also have a new agreement to improve their coordination on cases of discrimination. Klein said that’s important because university employees and students who are victims of crime have rights under the law, and they have administrative rights granted through the university.

“Our opportunity with JPD is for me to provide some training to them about what those administrative rights are, for them to help me understand what (the) legal rights are, so that if a student comes and speaks with me, I can better explain what it would mean if they made a call to JPD,” Klein explained.

Klein said she is only required to tell police about crimes students and faculty report to her if it involves sexual assault and a minor. Otherwise, she said she gives the victim the option to call the police.

“In addition, should there be a report that comes to me and to them; we’ve put into this agreement just a higher level of collaboration with the two investigations running in a parallel manner,” Klein said.

A JPD spokesman said the police and the university have had a “robust” relationship for a long time and this new agreement is a logical next step.

Cole said she thinks UAS is thinking outside the box when it comes to sexual assault and other forms of sexual discrimination. She hopes by giving the university community a wealth of options, they are giving power back to the people they’re trying to help.

Correction: An earlier version of this story overstated how much time AWARE’s advocate plans to spend on the UAS campus. The advocate plans to be there at least two hours a week, not two hours a day. Additionally, parts of the story have been clarified regarding how Title IX reports are handled and which reports the university is obligated to inform law enforcement about.

A Haines man was sentenced to serve two years in prison last week after pleading guilty to one charge of sexual abuse of a minor.

Aihan Goldberg, 24, accepted a plea deal with state prosecutors in August.

He pleaded guilty to the one count, and the other seven charges were dismissed.

In 2015, Goldberg was indicted by a Juneau grand jury on eight felony charges a year ago, stemming from interaction between Goldberg and a 13-year-old in July 2015.

Three charges involved sexual abuse and five involved online enticement of a minor.

Goldberg was sentenced to four years in prison, with two of those years suspended. He is currently in custody at Juneau’s Lemon Creek Correctional Center.

After release, Goldberg will be on supervised probation for three years.

The conditions of probation include that Goldberg not contact the victim and that he limit his contact with girls younger than 16.

Goldberg must undergo a sex offender assessment and participate in a treatment program.

He also will be subject to searches of his residence, car and computer.

Court notes show that at his sentencing hearing last week, Goldberg apologized to the victim and said it would not happen again.

Multiple friends and family members wrote letters of support defending Goldberg and asking the judge for leniency.

Judge Phillip Pallenberg accepted the plea agreement, with its two-year sentence.

His formal judgment is pending.

Two Haines men were indicted by a Juneau grand jury last week. Each faces multiple charges of sexual abuse of a minor.

The charges are from May, when, according to court documents, Stephen Brower, 35, and William Dale Whittington, 25, each allegedly had sex with a 15-year-old multiple times on the same day.

Whittington faces four counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor, a class B felony. Each of the charges are from the same day, in separate locations.

Whittington was arraigned on Thursday in Juneau Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty and asked for a jury trial. The court set his bail at $45,000.

Whittington is also the suspect in a recent library burglary case in Haines.

Brower faces two counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor. As in Whittington’s case, both charges are from the same day, in separate locations.

He was arraigned in Juneau Superior Court on Friday, where he pleaded not guilty and requested a trial.

His bail remains at $10,000.

The jury trial is scheduled Jan. 30 in Haines.