Valley man accused of molesting 11-year-old

WASILLA — A 32-year-old man has been charged with sexually molesting an 11-year-old girl.

According to documents Alaska State Trooper Gary Cox filed in the case against Arthur I.F. Demers, the case came to light at 11:35 p.m., Nov. 5, when troopers got a call that Demers was threatening suicide.

The girl’s mother told troopers that she noticed when Demer came out of the girl’s bedroom his demeanor was strange. The girl’s demeanor was similarly unfamiliar, Cox wrote. She talked to the girl, who told her that Demers had touched her under her clothes when he’d come to say goodnight.

“She returned from (the girl’s) bedroom and found Arthur Demers in the dining room holding a loaded .454 revolver and threatening to kill himself because he had too much to drink and he didn’t know what was going through his head,” Cox writes.

The woman didn’t talk about the molestation, but instead talked about the gun, convincing Demers to unload it and pass it to her. She locked it up and took the bullets out of the gun safe.

“She stated she later saw Arthur Demers carrying a hammer while he was despondent,” Cox wrote.

The girl told troopers that when she told Demers to stop and tried to get away from him, “he pushed her back onto the bed which caused her pain. She stated Arthur Demers placed her in fear that he would injure her if she told anyone about what Arthur Demers had done,” Cox wrote.

She also said he’d touched her when she was playing around in the kitchen a week prior.

Troopers arrested Demers on charges of sexual abuse of a minor and assault. He was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility. As of Saturday afternoon he was still lodged there.

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