Man faces five sexual assault counts

JOSHUA EVANS: Police say Anchorage man met Valdez 14-year-old on the Internet.

(Published: September 19, 2003)

A 24-year-old Anchorage man has been arrested and charged with five counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old Valdez girl he met on the Internet, Anchorage police said Thursday.

Joshua D. Evans is being held at the Anchorage Jail in lieu of $15,000 bail.

According to charges filed in court Thursday, the girl told police she met Evans in March. She said Evans located her through postings she had made on the Internet. The girl told detectives that she and Evans were aware of each other's ages, and had sex three times.

Police found out about the relationship in July from a woman who lived in Vancouver, Wash., the charges say. The woman told police she had been talking to Evans for about two years on the Internet and had recently had a "disturbing" chat with him, about how he was having sex with a 14-year-old.
Anchorage police launched an investigation and tracked down the juvenile, with the help of the Valdez Police Department. The teen told detectives that she had intercourse with Evans in his room at his mother's house in Anchorage.

Detectives interviewed the teen's mother, who said she was aware her daughter knew a person in Anchorage named Joshua, but had been told he was 17, charges say. The mother said her daughter communicated daily with Joshua on the computer, usually early in the morning, around 2:30 a.m. She said her daughter had recently been to Anchorage multiple times to visit relatives. The mother should have had some sort of monitoring program in place on the computer so this could have been avoided. What a nightmare.

In August, police got a warrant to record a computer chat conversation between the teen and Evans. Police say the girl told Evans that she'd divulged his age to her mother. Evans "asked her several questions about why she had told her," charges say, and then told the teen they were now just friends.
After the chat, police interviewed the 14-year-old a second time. The girl told police Evans was into "amateur porn" and had pornography stored on his computer, charges say. The teen "did not know if he had any 'child porn' on his computer, but said he likes younger girls," the charges say.

Police got a warrant for Evans' residence in South Anchorage. On a computer in his bedroom they said they found a list of "buddies" who were currently online, one of which was the teen from Valdez. They also found letters from the Washington woman, charges say.

Evans was present during most of the search and told police he wanted to talk to an attorney before making any statements, charges say.

Police spokesman Ron McGee said detectives found pictures of young girls on Evans' computer, and they believe there could be other victims. They are asking anyone who has chatted with Evans online to contact them. He frequently used the chat nickname "Grinnmn," police said.

"This is becoming all too frequent in our city," McGee said. "The point of this thing is parents need to be aware what's going on with their children. There are predators out there looking for children. Parents need to be aware what their kids are doing on the Internet."

Evans has no criminal convictions in Alaska, charging documents say. Each charge he faces carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in jail and a $100,000 fine.