A judge has issued a motion compelling the release of records about the victim in a case against a former music teacher who is accused of repeatedly raping one of his students.
Dina Cale, public defender for Jeremy Anderson, requested the disclosure of several documents and records on the girl who said she had a sexual relationship with him.
Anderson, a former Nikiski Middle-High School choir director and music teacher, faces 16 counts of sexual abuse in varying degrees stemming from allegations that span a 6-month period in 2013 and 2014.
Among the records that Kenai Superior Court Judge Carl Bauman ordered be turned over to Anderson’s defense lawyer are reports relating to an Alaska State Trooper investigation into allegations that he had been having inappropriate conversations with the victim in 2013 — several months before he is accused of beginning a sexual relationship with the girl.
While the sexual encounters between the two were alleged to have begun in late 2013, Anderson was investigated 11 months after he was hired by the school district on July 2, 2013 after troopers received reports that he had been having “inappropriate conversations” with the same student.
Records from those conversations, including correspondence between Nikiski Middle-High School staff, school board and law enforcement were included in what the defense was asking the judge to compel the prosecution to release.
The judge also ordered any sexual assault response team exam reports, transcripts of conversations between the victim and Anderson, the victim’s diary and records the Kenai Peninsula Borough School district may have on Anderson, his relationship with the girl and six months’ worth of surveillance videos from Nikiski Middle-High School.
Bauman also ordered that Anderson’s defense lawyer be able to review Office of Children’s Services records on other incidents of sexual abuse against the victim and “inappropriate sexual acts” she may have been involved in with others.
Anderson’s defense lawyer also requested communication between the minor victim and her psychotherapists during counseling sessions, substance abuse treatment and “discussions with health care professionals pertaining to this particular allegation of sexual abuse or incident or any past incident,” according to Bauman’s order. The judge denied that portion of the request, ruling that Anderson had not proved that seeing those materials was necessary to protect his right to confront his accuser.
Fourteen of the charges against Anderson are first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and two are second-degree abuse of a minor.
First-degree sexual abuse is an unclassified felony. If he is convicted, he faces up to $500,000 in fines and 99 years in prison for each charge. Second-degree abuse of a minor is a class B felony which is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment and up to $100,000 in fines, per charge.
Reach Rashah McChesney at rashah.mcchesney@peninsulaclarion.com or follow her on Twitter @litmuslens.
