Three girls abused; one man to prison

PALMER — A Wasilla man was convicted Friday of sexually abusing three children.

The jury found Mark Anderson, 61, guilty on 10 of 11 counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree.

The pre-teen girls were abused over a 16-month period in 2006 and 2007.

During the trial, the jury heard that the incidents started when Anderson was working at car dealership in Wasilla. He became friends with a female co-worker who had a 6-year-old daughter. He would go over to their house where the girl would play with Anderson and sit on his lap.

The girl would later accuse Anderson of touching her inappropriately, describing it first to a teacher and then to a police investigator.

Anderson was a frequent visitor to a house in Big Lake of a single dad with two young girls. Over the course of the next six months, Anderson played with the girls both at their house and his.

In August of 2007, the younger sister told her day-care provider that Anderson was touching her and making her touch him. The day-care provider asked the older sister about this, and she said it was happening to her too.

Each child gave a detailed description of what happened, Assistant District Attorney Rachel Gernat said. The details have changed very little in the years since, and the one girl has never met the two sisters, she said.

Defense attorney Bill English said the adults involved in the case have construed every fact and every nuance against Anderson. The investigator is a professional at trapping people accused of sexual abuse, he said, and this whole case started from a leading question.

“Just as you find the source of the Mississippi River to be just a little trickle, the trigger of this incident was the teacher asking (the first girl) ‘Tell me who touched you inappropriately, and I will fix your problems,’” English said.

“The fact that the genesis of all the indictments was a leading question taints all the indictments,” English said.

In her closing argument, Gernat dismissed the argument that any sexual contact was incidental from the playing Anderson often did with the three girls. One time is an accident, she said, multiple times is not.

“Grown men do not accidentally touch multiple girls on multiple occasions,” Gernat said.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 4.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.