Western Alaska teacher sentenced for attempted possession of child pornography

Jul. 30—A instructor in Stebbins was sentenced this week to almost two years in federal jail for exchanging sexually specific messages with who he thought was a 16-year-old lady.

Lon Dean Gillas, 67, was arrested in 2020 and pleaded responsible earlier this yr to a federal cost of tried possession of kid pornography. Gillas obtained a 21-month jail sentence Thursday in federal courtroom, in keeping with courtroom data.

Gillas repeatedly engaged in sexual conversations with somebody he thought was a 16-year-old lady who lived outdoors Alaska, soliciting nude pictures of her and asking her to carry out sexual acts, in keeping with federal costs. The messages have been despatched utilizing his Bering Strait College District Google account, costs mentioned.

The FBI had already been trying into Gillas as a result of a 20-year-old girl who had been dwelling with him as a part of “a contractual grasp/slave relationship” reported acts of sexual violence, in keeping with a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors. No costs have been filed associated to these allegations and the lady left the state earlier than Gillas started contacting the opposite social gathering, the memorandum mentioned.

Investigators discovered these messages throughout that first investigation, the memorandum mentioned. A faculty superintendent mentioned on the time that he had additionally alerted Alaska State Troopers after receiving messages the week prior from group members that raised purple flags about Gillas.

After Gillas was indicted, investigators found he had not truly been speaking with a 16-year-old lady, however an grownup man who had been posing because the lady as a part of his personal “fantasy function play,” a memorandum written by a federal public defender mentioned. The person was not affiliated with legislation enforcement.

Gillas taught store class to college students in grades seven by means of 12 on the Tukurngailnguq College and had labored for the district for 9 years.

Earlier than Gillas was employed in Alaska, his instructing license was revoked in Oregon in 2010 after he was reprimanded a number of occasions for viewing sexually specific supplies on the faculties the place he labored.

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Gillas didn’t disclose the revocation when he utilized, former Superintendent Robert Bolen mentioned on the time. He mentioned Gillas’ actions would have precipitated concern for the district and that he “fell by means of the hole.”

The district depends closely on fingerprinting executed by the state training division throughout licensing to level out any potential legal exercise. Gillas doesn’t have any earlier legal historical past, and whereas the revocation from Oregon is public, there isn’t any nationwide database for reprimands or actions taken on academics’ licenses.

Bolen mentioned on the time that there was no indication Gillas had harmed any college students on the Stebbins faculty.

The present Bering Strait College District superintendent didn’t reply to a message Friday asking for particulars about Gillas’ employment standing.

Gillas’ instructing license stays lively in Alaska however is ready to run out in October. It was not clear whether or not there was an ongoing investigation into his conduct from the state training division.

“All Skilled Educating Practices Fee investigations are confidential till the Fee takes official motion in opposition to an educator, or the accused elects to have a listening to,” Grant Robinson, a spokesman for the Alaska Division of Training and Early Growth, wrote in an e mail.

Gillas is one in a string of academics in rural Alaska who’ve been charged with intercourse crimes lately. One other Bering Strait College District teacher was arrested in 2016 and abused greater than a dozen ladies on the Wales faculty. The district paid $12.6 million in a ensuing civil lawsuit.

Gillas’ legal professional requested a sentence of 5 years’ probation within the protection’s sentencing memorandum, citing his lack of prior legal historical past.

He was sentenced to 21 months in jail, adopted by 10 years of supervised launch. As a part of a plea settlement, costs of tried receipt and manufacturing of kid pornography and tried coercion of a minor and tried intercourse trafficking have been dismissed.