Sexual Abuse & Domestic Violence

The attempted sexual assault case against a Dillingham parish priest has been dismissed by the prosecution.

A grand jury in Anchorage did not return an indictment on the felony charge this week, and the prosecutor dismissed both charges against Father Michael Nicolai.

Nicholai, originally from Kwethluck, has served several years as the priest at the St. Seraphim of Sarov Church in Dillingham, carrying much respect from his parishioners and church leadership.

Dillingham Police were called to the parish home early July 16 with an allegation of domestic violence. Based on an investigation, police charged Nicholai with attempted second-degree sexual assault and fourth-degree assault. Both charges have now been dropped.

Police say alcohol was a factor, and that both parties displayed numerous wounds from the incident.

David Mahaffey is Bishop of the Diocese of Sitka and Alaska for the Orthodox Church. He says the lack of indictment and dismissal of charges mean Father Michael has been cleared in the eyes of the law. But in order to continue with the Church, he’ll have to meet ethical and moral standards as well.

“Based on our own investigation into the facts surrounding the case against Father Michael Nicolai, we are in agreement with the findings … however, we do still have our own investigation to ensure … the Orthodox Church in America, to which we are a part,” he said.

The Bishop says that following the church’s investigation, it is likely that Father Michael will soon be returned to his pastoral duties at St. Seraphim.

Late last month a woman who had been brutally murdered was found in the vehicle of 34-year-old Benjamin Wilkins of Anchorage. The deceased, 30-year-old Jacqueline Goodwin was laid to rest beside her mother in Kotzebue. Police are still investigating the relationship between Wilkins and Goodwin, but court records show in the past she was charged with prostitution.

Under current law, if a sex worker witnesses or is the victim of a crime, the person cannot report the crime without fear of being charged with prostitution or sex trafficking. But Senate Bill 91, the omnibus crime bill that passed this session, would change that.

Sex workers “can come forward, and they’re not going to be charged with prostitution for coming forward,” explained advocate and former sex worker Terra Burns. “And they’re not going to be investigated based on any information that was gained as a result of them making that report.”

Burns says the changes make it safer for both sex workers and the entire community because sex workers will be able to help police identify violent criminals. They will also be able to report things like sexual abuse of minors and distribution of child pornography without fear of reprisal.

“When you can catch those people right away [with the help of reports from sex workers] you can prevent so much other violence,” Burns said.

SB 91 has not been signed by Gov. Walker yet. He has until July 13 to sign the bill, let it become law without his signature, or veto it in its entirety. His staff said they are still reviewing the 125-page piece of legislation and are looking into concerns over Sections 39 and 40, which are related to sex trafficking.

Burns said she hopes that when the bill is signed, people will provide more information about crimes and about Wilkins and his past. He’s currently been indicted on charges of murder in the first degree, kidnapping, sexual assault, and other charges.

A group of young and adult men outfitted in life vests, huddled together by Iliuliuk Lake on a sunny and windy Saturday afternoon. Off to the side was an inflated rubber raft piled with oars. They appeared ready to go out on the lake, but there was an underlying idea bigger than just the activity of paddling.

“So, what we’re here for, myself, Dimitri, Jeremiah, and there’s a couple of others who you might see in the next trip if you come on the next trip, we’re kind of part of a group called Compass,” said Carlos Tayag.

He’s a recreation coordinator at the Unalaska community center. But at that moment, he was a volunteer.

“Raise your hands if you’ve heard of the Alaska Men Choose Respect campaign,” Tayag said.

Hands go up.

“We’ve taken a pledge to do that, to be mentors and guides for other young men.”

As they inflated a second raft, Tayag explained that last year, a group of men from Unalaska attended a workshop on mentoring, specifically using Compass. Compass is an Alaskan program created in response to requests from various entities for a resource that can be used to guide men in their conversations with youth. The goal was to help Alaska’s young men learn to respect themselves and others. A strategy for this is to engage them in conversation while doing simple and fun activities.

Tayag motioned to the lake to illustrate how the community is surrounded by water, the inspiration for the rafting activity.

“We have a couple of good lakes, so we decided that rafting was a good activity and a bonfire just to hang out and chill,” Tayag said.

“I’m here because it seems like a fun thing to do,” 15-year-old Amiel Fernandez agreed. “I haven’t been on a boat in the middle of the water a lot.”

The conversations went beyond water safety. The young men were getting guidance from male role models on redefining masculinity and are encouraged to explore healthier, nonviolent models of manhood.

“The message is really simple. I think the whole thing about Compass is just getting guys comfortable with, one, being themselves, and two, talking about who they are and where they come from.” Tayag explained. He added that men typically have a harder time expressing their feelings. The objective was to provide youth a chance to be able to open up without judgement, which Tayag believed was part of coming of age for young men and their quest for identity. “I think that’s the most important for me, is just kind of having those open honest  conversations and letting people be who they are.”

This program is a collaborative effort of Unalaskans against Sexual Assault and Family Violence, Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, City of Unalaska Department of Public Safety and the Department of Parks, Culture, and Recreation.

Oakland’s mayor was blunt:

“I’m here to run a police department, not a frat house,” Libby Schaaf said at a press conference on Friday.

A number of police officers in the California city have been accused of sexual misconduct; others have allegedly sent racist texts. Now three police chiefs have resigned over the course of just over a week.

“This is the appropriate time to install civilian oversight in this police department,” Schaaf said, according to The Associated Press. Schaaf announced that City Administrator Sabrina Landreth will now be handling personnel and disciplinary matters for the department.

Local leaders are calling for a complete overhaul of the police department, Danielle Karson reports for NPR.

“A teenager is at the center of the scandal,” Karson says. Eighteen-year old Celeste Guap says she had sex with more than two dozen police officers, partly in exchange for information on how to avoid undercover prostitution stings. She had sex with officers when she was a minor, she says.

Separately, a number of officers have been accused of sending racist texts. The officers in question are black, Reuters reports, and are currently under investigation.

The scandals have led to upheaval at the department. Police Chief Sean Whent resigned on June 9. The interim police chief, Ben Fairow, was abruptly replaced on Wednesday after Schaaf learned “unspecified information that led her to lose confidence in his ability to lead the beleaguered department,” as the AP puts it.

And the third chief — acting police Chief Paul Figueroa — stepped down on Friday, with Schaaf saying his decision was unrelated to the scandals, the AP reports.

The mayor denounced the police department’s “toxic, macho culture” and said, “I want to assure the citizens of Oakland that we are hellbent on rooting out this disgusting culture,” the AP reports.

“The Oakland PD is no stranger to controversy,” Danielle notes. The police department was placed under federal oversight in 2003 over high-profile police brutality and racial profiling cases.

That oversight continues today.

Earlier this year, as the East Bay Times reported, the police department appeared to be on track for the federal oversight to finally be relaxed, with a shift toward “ensuring that the police department doesn’t backtrack on reforms.”

But a two-year-long Stanford study, released this past week, found that African-American men in Oakland are four times more likely than white men to be searched during a traffic stop, and African-American people are more likely to be handcuffed by police than whites are.

Then-Acting Chief Figueroa, responding to the study last week, told PBS, “we’re at a position in reform, not only locally, but nationally, that we’re finally getting to the point where we have the data, where we can take some real action.”

That was, of course, before he resigned.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Police have arrested a Homer man on six counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree. Stephen Boyle, deputy fire chief for Kachemak Emergency Services, was arrested Thursday.

A news release sent out Friday says the Homer Police worked with a Florida County Sheriff’s office on the case after a woman reported she was allegedly sexually assaulted by Boyle when she was a child living in Homer.

The 28-year-old woman, who now lives in Florida, said the abuse took place over a period of six years when she was 9 to 15 years old.

The release says during a recorded phone conversation with the victim, Boyle admitted to inappropriate sexual conduct.

The Homer News reports that Boyle, a Kenai Peninsula Borough employee, has been placed on administrative leave.

If convicted, Boyle faces up to a $500,000 fine and up to 99 years in prison on each count.

According to the Kachemak Emergency Services website, Boyle has worked in fire and emergency services since 1991, when he was a volunteer firefighter with the Homer Volunteer Fire Department. Boyle was arraigned in Homer Court Friday and is being held at the Homer Jail.

When U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch visited Anchorage on Friday, she went beyond just meeting with Alaska Native leaders. She also spoke with the youth.

The nine young people who joined her for a round table discussion told her, Alaska, especially rural Alaska, has problems with public safety.

24-year-old Cody Pequeño, the youngest member of Chevak’s city and traditional councils, said most police officers in his community don’t really want to fill the roles.

“It’s rare that I actually see a police officer join to serve and protect,” he said. “The majority of the time, these police officers are going after these jobs because it’s the only job, the only source of income they can get.”

Niviaaluk Brandt from Nome said in her experience, even if law enforcement does show up for an initial call, they don’t follow through.

“They will not turn in their paper work. They will not [bring a] charge. There’s no investigation. Everything just stops when you talk to a police officer,” Brandt said.

She recounted bits of her experience after she was sexually assaulted, saying police did not listen to her. She said similar things happened to her family and friends as well.

Brandt said from her view point, only a few things get the police to listen. “I’m sorry to say but if you look white enough, you can go to the police and they believe you. And if you don’t, nothing gets done,” Brandt said.

Malorie Johnson from Unalakleet said some of the problems exist in Alaska because national leaders don’t understand the state – it’s a beast unto itself. But she said there’s a solution.

“We should have the opportunity– we should have the inherent right — to govern ourselves,” Johnson said.

First Alaskans Policy Center Director Andrea Sanders coordinated the discussion. She said the attorney general’s office requested the round table conversation because President Obama directed all of his cabinet secretaries to meet with Alaska Native youth.

Lynch spoke only a few times during the hour-long meeting, each time directly referencing each of the young people’s words from her extensive notes.

“While there’s so much wisdom to be gained from our elders, there’s so much truth to be heard from our young people,” she told the group. “The stories that you all have really are the ones that will inform me and my team as we go back and try to make sure the Department of Justice can answer you, can answer your questions, can answer your concerns.”

Lynch only made one firm commitment to the young people during the meeting: to carry back a message from Chevak’s Cody Ferguson, who uses comedy to help prevent suicides.

“Every time I’m under surveillance at banks or whatever, I always say ‘Hey, Obama!’” he told the group to erupting laughter. “So if you could pass the word along…”

“I will tell him that,” Lynch replied once her chuckles subsided.

Earlier in the day Lynch announced that the U.S. Department of Justice will formally consult with Alaska Native leaders to develop solutions for the state’s public safety challenges. The department may also create an Alaska-based position focused on Alaska Native engagement.