A registered sex offender turned himself in to Barrow police after he restrained and sexually assaulted a woman, according to court documents. The rural Alaskan city situated above the Arctic Circle is oftentimes the scene of booze-fueled crimes.
Fifty-nine-year-old Andrew Kagak has been charged with kidnapping, beating and sexually assaulting the woman.
In the early morning hours of Wednesday, North Slope Borough Police Department officers got a call from a woman who said the victim in the alleged assault had returned home beaten up with a swollen face. Officers responded and found an intoxicated woman in the arctic entry way of the residence, according to the officers' account filed at the Barrow Courthouse.
Officers reported the woman's eye was swollen shut and both her upper and bottom lips were "extremely" swollen and bloody. The victim told police Kagak punched her several times and said he would kill her if she refused to "let him rape her," according to the account.
Kagak allegedly put his arm around the victim's throat, causing her to nearly faint. She was unable to leave a home on Kiogak Street and Kagak proceeded to sexually assault the woman, who later told police "she began praying, because she was not sure she was going to get out of the current situation." But she broke away from the man and out of the house wearing only a tee-shirt and jeans. The rest of her clothes -- underwear, boots and a green parka -- were left behind, according to the account.
Police reported she ran barefoot to get help from her sister.
While the police were interviewing the victim, dispatch informed the officers Kagak had walked into the police department's lobby to turn himself in for the sexual assault. He admitted to assaulting a woman but said he didn't know who she was. Kagak also allegedly admitted to "beating the hell out her too." Police reported the man was drunk at the time and he blew a .19 blood-alcohol level. Communicating with him was difficult -- he's reportedly deaf and wasn't wearing a hearing aid.
An officer went to the scene of the alleged assault and found the door ajar. Inside, he spotted the woman's belongings in the living room, as well as fresh blood on the floor and on a coach, according to the account.
Kagak is a registered sex offender in the State of Alaska. He is identified as Andy Kagak on the state's sex offender list. Authorities required the man to register as a sex offender in 1996, when he was charged with attempted sexual assault.
A public defender has been assigned to Kagak but no bail set. A preliminary hearing is set for November 4 in Barrow.
Contact Jerzy Shedlock at jerzy(at)alaskadispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter @jerzyms.