Alleged rape lands Wasilla 17-year-old in adult court

PALMER — Prosecutors allege that a 17-year-old Wasilla boy raped a former girlfriend and are therefore charging him in adult court.

According to documents Alaska State Troopers Investigator Andrew Adams filed in court in the case against William Aaron Hightower, the girl, named only by her initials in court filings, called to report she’d been raped at 6:40 p.m., June 28.

It is the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman’s policy not to identify sexual assault victims.

The woman said she’d been in a relationship with Hightower and that they were parked in a cul-de-sac making out. She agreed to sex, but then told Hightower she’d changed her mind.

Then Hightower sexually assaulted her, according to the documents.

The woman told the investigator that she “attempted to stop (Hightower) by scratching and pushing him off her, but he overpowered her.”

Eventually, she got away from him and exited his vehicle.

“(Hightower) attempted to apologize, then left the scene,” Adams writes in the court filings.

The woman told troopers she then called her friend and told her what happened. The friend confirmed for troopers this part of the story. The woman underwent a forensic rape exam that uncovered evidence of rape. The next day, Adams obtained a warrant to monitor communications between the woman and Hightower. The court also permitted Hightower to pose as the woman.

“During a text conversation between (Hightower) and Inv. Adams posing as (the woman), (Hightower) stated he was sorry for forcing (the woman) to have sex with him,” Adams writes.

On June 30, Hightower called and again apologized.

After he was arrested, Hightower talked to troopers. He said that he only wanted to talk with the woman when they went to the cul-de-sac. He said sex ensued and it was consensual until she told him to stop. He said he kept going until she started fighting and scratching him.

Hightower faces two counts of first-degree sexual assault, both of which are unclassified felonies, the most serious type of crimes in Alaska criminal law, in the same category as murder.

Generally, a 17-year-old boy would be charged in juvenile court where proceedings are more private and lenient than in adult court. But Alaska law calls for the automatic waiver into adult court of teens charged with unclassified felonies.

Though generally rare, such waivers have been used three times this year. On June 14, Jamie R. Smith, 17, was charged with attempted murder for severely beating his girlfriend and putting her in the hospital. In February, William Samuel Carson Robinson, now 17, was charged with shooting and killing his father in Meadow Lakes. Both Smith and Robinson are awaiting trial.

Hightower was jailed after he was arrested and made his first court appearance on July 1. On July 9 he posted $25,000 bail through a bondsman and was released.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.