10 more charges for rape suspect

PALMER — A Valley man accused in January of rape was hit Thursday with 10 more counts of sexual assault.

Zebulon Whisler, 24, was arraigned Thursday on the new charges during a hearing in which he was also denied a request to have multiple friends appointed to watch over him when he is released on bail.

Whisler was arrested late last month after a 21-year-old woman told troopers he’d forced her to have sex with him in his pickup on a date to stargaze on Lazy Mountain. Following that incident, he was charged with five counts of sexual assault.

According to charging documents filed by a Palmer Grand Jury on Wednesday, Whisler is now accused of four additional counts of first-degree sexual assault and six of second-degree sexual assault. The total number of sexual assault charges now stands at 15.

The affidavit makes reference to at least five additional victims. Dates of the alleged offenses range from March, 2003 to September, 2007 to June 2008 to January, 2009.

Alaska State Troopers declined to speak about the case, citing worries about publicity contaminating a jury pool if and when the case reaches trial.

At Thursday’s hearing, Elizabeth Verela, who was handling the case because Whisler’s attorney, public defender Bruce Brown, was unavailable, proposed five people to serve as Whisler’s third-party custodian:

• Whisler’s parents.

• A young man living with his wife in a one-bedroom apartment.

• A 68-year-old retired friend of the family who cares for her disabled son.

• A homemaker and mother of four teenage boys who live at home.

Assistant District Attorney Kerry Corliss informed Superior Court Judge Vanessa White that both of Whisler’s parents were the subjects of possible investigation relating to the case.

“There was quite a bit of interference with investigators,” Corliss said.

She told White that Whisler’s parents told investigators the charges were “false and trumped up” and that one stood between investigators and Whisler as they were trying to interview him.

Another parent tried to start up and drive away a vehicle that was to be seized as evidence.

“Apparently they have a different take on the situation,” Verela said of the parents.

Still, hearing that there were possible charges brewing against them, Verela rescinded her request to have them appointed as third party custodians.

Having heard from the other third parties, Verela argued that Whisler lacked a criminal history prior to the current case and said that the other three people proposed could keep Whisler out of trouble. White, in handing down her decision, sided with Corliss.

Citing the 10 new charges, she said, “if in fact those allegations are true then Mr. Whisler is a serial offender.”

And, with charges that severe, she said, he is in need of an extremely strong third party.

The three proposed third parties, she said, all had busy lives even without the added burden of looking after Whisler for what would likely be a year or more leading up to trial.

“I just think it’s too much to ask of them, given the very serious nature of these charges,” White said.

Because of the ruling, Whisler remains jailed on $50,000 bail.