Sexual abuse suspect facing charges over child pornography

April 19, 2005

KATE GOLDEN/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - A Wasilla man charged with sexually abusing a young girl many times over the past five years has now also been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

A grand jury on Thursday indicted Glen Ogletree, 46, on the two additional counts two months after the first grand-jury indictments, for five counts of sexual abuse of a minor, unlawful exploitation of a minor, first-degree burglary and violation of a domestic-violence restraining order.

The earlier grand jury also said the case's seriousness was aggravated because Ogletree should have recognized the girl's vulnerability; because the multiple penetrations of which he was accused are among the most serious in the definition of the offense, and because he was charged with committing the crime against a member of his own household.

Charging documents stated that at the time of the abuse, Ogletree was the mother's live-in boyfriend. He has since been living in Anchorage.

He was arrested Feb. 19 after the girl, now 15, told her mother he had been sexually abusing her since she was nine or 10 years old. The mother called the Wasilla Police Department.

She also successfully petitioned for a domestic-violence restraining order. Charging documents said he violated it by leaving the girl a note in a DVD player and also sending the mother an e-mail.

She told Investigator Ruthan Josten, from the Mat-Su Child Abuse Investigation Unit, that she had discovered child pornography on her computer.

The girl told the investigator Ogletree had taken nude photographs of her.

With an electronic search warrant, Josten recorded Ogletree admitting to taking the photographs.

First-degree sexual abuse of a minor is an unclassified sexual offense punishable by a maximum of 30 years in prison for a first conviction and a maximum fine of $75,000.

An attempt of this crime is a class A felony punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison for a first conviction and $50,000.

Ogletree is being held at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in lieu of $100,000 bail. A pre-trial hearing with Palmer Superior Court Judge Eric Smith is scheduled for

April 21.

Contact Kate Golden at 352-2284 or kate.golden@frontiersman.com.