Idaho man awaits extradition on Alaska sex charges

PALMER — Alaska State Troopers say a former Valley resident is awaiting extradition back to the state after allegations surfaced he’d sexually abused two girls at least five years ago.

According to a trooper press statement, word of the abuse reached troopers on Nov. 8, 2013, when a 23-year-old woman reported that she and her 22-year-old sister had been sexually abused as teenagers.

The man she said abused them was Anthony Gilliam, 52, of Idaho.

Troopers described their investigation of the case as “extensive” and said that the Ashton Police Department in Ashton, Idaho, a small town in the eastern part of that state, about 20 miles from the Wyoming border.

The charges Gilliam faces include numerous counts of sexual abuse of a minor that require the victim have been under the age of 18. According to online court records, the abuse happened between January and October of 2007, meaning that the girls were 16 and 15 at the time.

The charges also include counts of coercion, which is defined in Alaska statutes as forcing somebody to do something, or not do something, by threatening harm to another person, threatening to accuse the person of a crime, through blackmail, by withholding or committing government action, or by prolonging a labor strike.

Troopers say that on May 16, a warrant was executed on Gilliam’s home with help from Freemont County Sheriff’s Department. Gilliam was arrested without incident and as of Friday was awaiting extradition to Alaska. As of Monday he did not appear in Alaska jail records.

Gilliam’s criminal record includes numerous misdemeanors and two felony convictions: a burglary case out of Glennallen in 2000, and a drug misconduct charge out of Palmer in 1994.

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