Couple charged with abuse of teen

PALMER — Alaska State Troopers have jailed a husband and wife, saying that for four years they included an underage Palmer girl in their bedroom activities.

Joshua Peter Mead, 30, and Shannon Rose Mead, 27, both of Chugiak, were jailed Friday at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility, charged with six counts each of sexual abuse of a minor.

The girl, now 18, said in an affidavit penned by trooper David Bower that from the age of 13 she would visit the Meads. In 2004, she said, her relationship with Joshua Mead turned sexual, starting with some over-the-clothes fondling but eventually progressing to full-blown sex. The girl estimated she’d had sex with Joshua Mead over 200 times. She said Mead and his wife had also taken pornographic pictures of her.

The girl said Shannon Mead would sometimes participate in the sex and once, when the girl refused to participate, Shannon told her, “that (if) she didn’t participate, it would ruin their marriage.”

The girl told troopers she didn’t realize until she was 17 that the sexual conduct was wrong.

On June 17, Bower wrote, troopers tapped a phone call between the girl and the Meads. Shannon Mead spoke first, telling the girl that if she’d known the girl didn’t want to have sex with her husband she would have done something about it.

According to Bower’s account, Shannon Mead then passed the phone to Joshua Mead, “who stated ‘this whole thing was a horrible mistake’ and that he was ‘terribly sorry.’ (Joshua) Mead stated that he wishes he could ‘go back and erase the whole thing.’”

Further statements attributed in Bower’s affidavit to Joshua Mead include a profession of his love for the girl said he continued their sexual relationship because he was used to doing it and didn’t have the strength to quit.

“(Joshua) Mead stated … that he has now realized that he raped (the girl).” Bower wrote.

The day after the phone call, Bower wrote, troopers met with Joshua Mead at his Chugiak home. In the affidavit, he gives troopers a full account of his relationship with the girl, mostly consistent with her account.

That same day, Bower wrote, troopers talked to Shannon Mead at Wal-Mart. The trooper wrote that Shannon Mead didn’t deny the sex had occurred and told them she, “didn’t want to hurt anybody and never intended for this to happen.”

She declined to talk further until she’d retained a lawyer, Bower wrote.

Jail records late Monday afternoon showed that both Meads were jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility.

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