Four men accused of raping a homeless teenage girl in an Eagle River apartment in March 2013 have all pleaded guilty to felony coercion, a charge filed Wednesday during a routine status hearing that replaced the state's original indictment.
Each of the defendants received 23 months in prison after agreeing to plead guilty to the new charge. No probation will follow their sentences.
Jesse James Contreras, Alexander Metzger and Ryan Poole originally faced various charges, including multiple first-degree sexual assault counts and a single count of kidnapping, among other alleged crimes. Joseph Sanford faced two counts: first-degree sex assault and attempted sex assault.
The men were 19 to 21 years old at the time of the alleged rape. The victim in the case was 17, the charges say.
The information replacing the original indictment comes after months of back-and-forth between prosecution and defense.
Contreras' attorney John Murtagh said during the comprehensive hearing -- which included changes in charges and pleas and the handing down of jail terms -- that the resolution came out of "three principal factors," according to court records.
There were "proven false statements by the complaining witness," "lack of thoroughness of police investigation," and the alleged victim had previously made a false allegation of sexual misconduct, said Murtagh.
Murtagh did not immediately return a request for comment.
According to the original charges, police said the 17-year-old girl needed somewhere to stay the night of March 16, 2013, a Saturday night, and an acquaintance and another man picked her up in downtown Anchorage in front of the Atwood Building on Seventh Avenue.
The men, Metzger and Poole, drove her to an apartment where they met Contreras. The three were accused of raping the girl in the early morning hours of March 17, holding her down during the assault. They were joined by Sanford the following night and sexually assaulted her again, the charges say.
Metzger, Poole and Contreras allegedly forced the girl to drink hard liquor and threatened her to keep her there.
In an interview with police, the girl told a detective she wanted to leave after the first night but couldn't find her cellphone. She also said she didn't know where to go, the charges say. On the second night, she said, all four men pointed knives at her from a distance when she refused to drink with them. The men said they would kill her if she did not drink, the charges say.
According to the charges, detectives served a search warrant at the apartment about a week later. They found her ID and a black bra pinned on a wall between the living room and bedroom. Contreras' wife described it to a detective as a "trophy" taken from a girl who stayed at the apartment.
Metzger admitted to the detective in a subsequent interview that he thought the girl probably did not want to have sex with him and the other men, according to the detective's statement in the charges. Metzger said Poole had been aggressive and forceful during the assaults, the charges say. Metzger said the victim probably took his threat with the knife seriously, at least partially because of his self-proclaimed affiliation with the Hells Angels.
In his own interview with detectives, Contreras also made references to the sexual assaults, the charges say. He corroborated much of the girl's story about the rapes both nights and described Poole's actions as "very rough."
Poole admitted buying the alcohol both nights but denied having any kind of sexual contact with the girl, according to the charges. He said the three others had group sex with her and that he did not see any rough behavior from any of them.
Contreras, through his attorney Murtagh, filed a motion with the aim of conducting a private review of the alleged victim's mental health records.
Alaska defense attorneys are required to meet evidence rules established in a state rape case late last year. Defendant David Standifer was charged with violently sexually assaulting a woman identified in charging documents as N.G. She successfully kept her medical records out of the defense's reach after a prolonged court battle.
Murtagh's motion alleged that if allowed, records would show "ample evidence" that his defendant's accuser has a mental health condition. Defense investigator John Parrish wrote that he'd spoken with an adult couple the girl previously stayed with.
The girl told the couple she'd just been released from North Star Behavioral Hospital in Anchorage, and she was diagnosed as bipolar, had been prescribed medication, and was not taking it, according to Parrish.
Such evidence, the defense attorney argued, may have determined "if there is relevant admissible evidence, perhaps related to chronic lying, hypersexuality, or significant memory errors that would be vital to a defense."
The coercion charge the men pleaded guilty to states they compelled the girl to have sex with them by making her fear that if she didn't, she may have been physically hurt.
Deputy District Attorney Clint Campion said state prosecutor Jason Gist and a supervisory team carefully examined the case and decided it was going to be difficult or impossible to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
"We analyzed the issues, and we wanted to hold these guys responsible for their conduct and reach a resolution that was fair in light of the evidence we had," Campion said.
The resolution was reached in consultation with the central Department of Law office in Juneau, he said.