WASILLA -- Oregon authorities say Zebulon Whisler, the 24-year-old Wasilla bowling alley cook facing 15 rape charges, was convicted of three sexual offenses as a teenager in that state in 1999.
Whisler was released from Oregon court custody in November 2002, five days after he turned 18. According to charges filed against him Thursday, his first offense in Alaska took place just four months later, when he allegedly forced a woman to have sex with him.
Karen McClintock, the Coos County district attorney who prosecuted Whisler's case in 1999, said Whisler was 15 years old when he was convicted of sodomy -- a charge that is defined to include oral sex -- sexual abuse and attempted sexual abuse. The victims were ages 10 and 9.
McClintock said the incidents happened while Whisler was playing hide-and-seek with the two girls. She couldn't recall on Friday further details of the case.
After that trial wrapped up in November 1999, Whisler was sent to a residential facility where he spent 18 months in a sex-offender treatment program, according to Oregon Youth Authority probation and parole supervisor John Walton. Whisler was later released to the custody of his parents and returned to school in North Bend but was required to report to weekly counseling sessions, Walton said.
Whisler's parents, Dean and Tina Whisler, fought the Oregon charges from the start. They appealed the court's decision that their son was guilty, based in part on an argument that he didn't fully know what he was doing because he has learning disabilities linked to Klinefelter's syndrome, a genetic disorder. They lost their appeal in 2003, after Zebulon Whisler was already out of Oregon custody.
The family moved to Alaska in 2003. Dean Whisler said Friday that before they moved to the state, Alaska authorities said his son was not required to register as a sex offender because his crime was committed while he was a juvenile. Oregon authorities said if Whisler still lived in that state, he would be required to register for life because he was convicted of a Class A felony.
Palmer district attorneys last month and this month charged Whisler with 15 counts of first- and second-degree sexual assault after a woman on Jan. 23 reported that Whisler had taken her on a date the night before. She told Alaska State Troopers that after stopping at a Palmer bar, Zeb Whisler took her stargazing on Lazy Mountain, where he touched her inappropriately and forced her to have sex.
While investigating the initial report, troopers found five other women who said Whisler had inappropriately touched them or had raped them between 2003 and 2009. Whisler was arraigned on those charges Thursday and is awaiting an April 20 trial. His cash-only bail is set at $50,000.
Dean Whisler on Friday said the Oregon charges were bunk and so are the Alaska charges. So are, he added, claims by the state that he and his wife interfered with the state investigation into his son's activities last month. Dean Whisler, a state corrections officer and Coast Guard veteran, said Alaska State Troopers failed to identify themselves and otherwise acted inappropriately.
Whisler said he and his wife have power of attorney for their son because of the genetic disorder. Klinefelter's is a condition in which males are born with two X and one Y chromosome instead of the typical XY pair.
His parents said he has delayed learning and sometimes doesn't understand social cues because of the disorder. It also explains Zeb's height -- he's 6 feet 8 inches tall.
As to why six girls have told troopers Zeb Whisler either touched them inappropriately or had sex without their consent, Dean Whisler said the girls are all part of a group of friends who hang out together and plotted to get Whisler in trouble.
"They went out with him to set him up. A couple mentioned (in the indictments) did not even actually go out with him," he said.
Walton, the Oregon parole supervisor, said he was surprised to hear Whisler had allegedly reoffended. Oregon's juvenile treatment program is pretty successful, he said.
"We may have 1 percent of sexual offenders that reoffend. They may do burglaries or property crimes, but rarely do they commit another sexual offense," he said.
Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call her in Wasilla at 907-352-6709.
By RINDI WHITE
rwhite@adn.com