Big Lake man arrested on sex abuse charges

PALMER — Palmer police say they have arrested a 71-year-old Big Lake man, charging him with multiple counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

Benjamin L. Hammond was arrested Sunday, according to a Palmer Police Department press statement. He was jailed without bail at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility.

PPD Sgt. Shayne LaCroix said the crimes Hammond is charged with were perpetrated over the course of multiple years.

Hammond was employed as a janitor at Willow Elementary School at the time of his arrest Sunday, but LaCroix said the alleged victims in the case were not students there.

“It was over a period of time and the last offense would have been about 12 years ago,” LaCroix said.

Though the incidents were old, they came to light in the past 10 days, LaCroix said.

Hammond is charged with offenses against victims younger than 13 years old, but LaCroix declined to say how much younger the children were.

“We want to protect the victims’ privacy in this matter, so we’re not giving out a lot of information on the victims,” he said.

Hammond’s first court appearance was Monday afternoon. As of 4 p.m., Monday jail records still listed him as an inmate.

“Anyone with information regarding this case or another should contact the Office of Children’s Services or their local police department,” the Palmer Police Department press statement says.

LaCroix said that as of Monday, he did not have information about other potential crimes related to the case, but advice from officers with experience investigating crimes against children led him to include that sentence in the press release.

“I coordinated with Lt. Burkmire over at the children’s crime unit for the Alaska State Troopers just to give them a head’s up and advise them what’s going on,” LaCroix said. Burkmire advised putting that piece in the press release “just in case someone does have information or there was another crime perpetrated they can come forward and report that.”

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