The former executive director of an Anchorage tutoring company, who also taught at an Anchorage charter school, has been charged with several counts of child pornography-related charges, as well as sexual abuse of a minor, and police say there could be additional victims.
According to complaint filed Tuesday, Evan Vance Fischer, 35, was executive director of Frontier Tutoring and also provided tutoring for the Anchorage School District's Family Partnership Charter School.
ASD spokeswoman Heidi Embley confirmed Fischer was a "vendor" for the school district, but not employed by it. Frontier Tutoring CEO Brian Franklin confirmed Fischer was the executive director of the company until his recent departure, but said he is no longer affiliated. APD said the tutoring company is cooperating with the investigation. The complaint said he told the tutoring company of the investigation last week.
"The safety and well-being of our students and their families is always our top priority, and we are in the process of reaching out to our customers and partners. We are proud of the community of educators and families we have brought together as an Alaska-grown business upholding the highest standards of integrity, and we are confident we will all pull together to get through this," Franklin wrote in a statement.
In the complaint, Mark Thomas, an APD crimes against children detective, said that between Oct. 31 and Nov. 9, he received several videos of child pornography. APD said Thomas was working undercover.
Thomas was then able to trace the IP address back to Fischer's Meadow Street home, the complaint said.
Last week, a search warrant was served and Fischer was interviewed. Fischer admitted to police he watched pornography of children as young as infants to about 10 years old.
The complaint also said Fischer admitted to downloading child pornography about 10 years ago when he lived in Arizona, using the Limewire website.
"He said he used the same search terms to find it in the past and that the videos he received now, 10 years later, were some of the same videos he had seen back then," the complaint said. "He said his preference is 'pre-teen girls that are having sex with adults.'"
"He said he feels guilty about viewing the material, and he wished he didn't get 'turned on by it,'" the document said. He also claimed he had thought about seeking treatment, but because of his line of work he decided against it, the complaint said.
APD seized his cellphone, laptop and other digital devices. Police found 65 videos on his computer.
Fischer also told detectives he had intercourse with a 15-year-old student in 2013. The girl later told police in an interview he was her English literature tutor at the Anchorage charter school. She told police they had intercourse six times in his apartment.
Fischer was charged with one count of sexual abuse of a minor, six counts of distributing child pornography and three counts of the possession of child pornography.
Police are concerned there could be additional victims. Anyone with information is being urged to call APD's cybercrimes unit at 786-8500.