Anchorage Daily News

A man who troopers say molested a string of boys in Western Alaska has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Kay "Bussy" Attie, a 22-year-old from the Yup'ik village of Kipnuk, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual abuse of a minor and was sentenced Friday in Bethel, attorneys in the case said this week.

That's a fraction of the crimes a grand jury indicted Attie for in late 2007, when he was charged with 22 counts of sexually abusing seven different boys in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta villages of Kipnuk and Chefornak.

Attie admitted to molesting and performing oral sex on a 13-year-old in Chefornak in 2006, when Attie was 20. He couldn't remember the boy's name -- only his Yup'ik name -- Attie told troopers, according to an affidavit filed in court. Another boy told a child advocacy center that Attie touched him while the two were sitting on the couch playing video games.

After the indictment, more potential victims emerged, said assistant attorney general Gregg Olson. "I know that there were at least three more."

But Superior Court Judge Leonard Devaney dismissed 12 of the charges in July based on improperly gathered evidence or a lack of evidence, Alaska Newspapers Inc. reported this summer.

Prosecutors agreed to a plea deal -- which kept the case from going to trial -- partly to keep the victims from being forced to relive the abuse in court, Olson said.

"One of my goals was to help avoid trial and putting them through that again."

Attie's lawyer, public defender John Cashion, said Attie wanted the same thing. "He didn't want anyone to be forced through the court process either. He was trying to accept responsibility and he wanted to express his remorse for what occurred."

Attie was sentenced to 45 years in prison with 25 suspended. He can shave off a third of that time with good behavior.

When Attie gets out, he'll be on probation for 20 years, Olson said.

Western Alaska accounted for 48 percent of sexual assault and sexual-abuse-of-a-minor cases reported to troopers in 2003-04, according to a 2008 study by the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center.

ADVERTISEMENT