Man nets 150-year sentence in sex abuse case

PALMER — Prosecutors at the Palmer District Attorney’s office announced Friday that a Valdez man on Monday was sentenced to serve 150 years in prison — one of the steepest sentences ever in a sexual abuse case in Alaska.

Though the case originated in Valdez, the prosecutor in the case, Melissa Wininger-Howard, and the judge, Superior Court Judge Eric Smith, are Palmer-based.

According to a press release from the state, the case began with a Valdez Police Department investigation in 2011, but the defendant, Derek Werder, 52, abused his victim for more than a decade.

“(He) videotaped some of his crimes, and forced others to participate in some of the sexual assaults,” according to the press release.

The sentence handed down was 219 years with 69 suspended, for 150 to serve.

The state’s press release describes that as “likely one of the longest sentences handed down for sexual abuse in the history of the state of Alaska.”

Smith, in handing down the sentence, described the case as the worst he has sat through in 16 years on the bench.