Last week a small $500,000 lottery to help raise funds for Stand Together Against Rape (STAR) was won by a sex offender. With Alaska leading the nation in domestic violence against women the odds of this happening are quite good.

The events after the winner was identified have been pretty well covered by KTUU TV news and the Anchorage Daily News. Once the winner's name was announced a member of the public notified KTUU that he was a registered sex offender for assaults against minors (extemely common in the Native Alaskan community). The TV news folks found him collecting his payout check at the lottery office, where he admitted his criminal history and stated that he would give $100,000 of his $350,000 in take home winnings to STAR. Has he done this yet? It has not been announced by anyone. No one is saying how much STAR will make directly from the fundraising lottery event.

In later interviews, the winner admitted that he had a difficult childhood filled with physical abuse and became an alcoholic while still a teenager. He now relies on religion to see him through difficult times.

The father of the first two victims thinks he should pay restitution for all the therapy his daughters have had to go through. They would have to sue the winner and the legal fees would eat all the money up leaving all parties where they started. Since all the crimes were over 8 or more years ago the statute of limitations might be in effect making a civil suite not likely to move forward.

On Tuesday the winner was attacked by a man from California who appears to have been up here hiding from recent felony warrants back home. Did he fly up here just to beat up this guy? Not likely. Alaska is well known to be a safe haven for folks on the run.

The ADN has a good synopsis of the events as they have occurred over the last week.

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