Officer facing abuse charges

PALMER — A state corrections officer is in jail over allegations he molested a 15-year-old Palmer girl for four years.

The allegations first came to light in October 2006 when the girl told Alaska State Troopers that Joel Larson, 57, also of Palmer, had molested her since she was 11 or 12 years old, according to an affidavit filed by Alaska State Trooper Rick Manrique.

After the allegations were filed, the girl said her mother pressured her to change her story, Manrique wrote.

The girl, “said she did so to save the family and faced charges of filing a false report,” Manrique wrote.

The girl was sentenced on that charge, Manrique wrote.

She told Manrique the ongoing abuse had consisted of fondling but also of her providing Larson with oral sex.

The sex, Manrique wrote, mostly stopped after the 2006 report, but the fondling did not.

It wasn’t until Aug. 25 of this year that the girl re-asserted her charges against Larson, who is employd at Palmer Correnctions Center. She told Manrique she was at a gathering, “in which persons present expressed a great deal of admiration for [Larson],” the trooper wrote.

That, Manrique wrote, was enough motivation for the girl to ask the case be re-opened and finally, “do something about it.”

On Sept. 3, a week after interviewing the girl, Manrique got a warrant to tape a phone conversation between her and Larson.

According to Manrique’s affidavit, that conversation yielded little evidence.

On Wednesday he sent the girl to meet with Larson at the Palmer Carrs, armed with a hidden recorder and transmitter. In that taped conversation, Larson recounts with the girl the fondling and two specific incidences of oral sex.

On Thursday, Manrique called Larson and asked him to come to the Palmer trooper post to talk about the allegations.

The interview was brief, Manrique wrote, and ended without any admissions when Larson invoked his rights.

Larson was then arrested and jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility charged with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and five counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor. As of Monday afternoon, jail records showed he’s been moved to the Anchorage Correctional Complex.

Court records show he appeared before Magistrate David Zwink on Friday where he pleaded not guilty and his bail was set at $50,000. He will need to find someone to look over him before he can be released.

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