ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) A former Alaska woman who was
sexually abused by her paternal grandfather and then, as an adult, downloaded
and traded videos of child exploitation has avoided any jail.
Brittany Alexandra
Robinson, 25 was the first woman in Alaska to be charged with possessing and
distributing child pornography, according to Anchorage police.
A former day care
worker at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Robinson received a prison-free sentence
on Thursday. Superior Court Judge Kevin M. Saxby agreed with Robinson’s public
defender that three years in prison, with three suspended, and five years of
probation was appropriate.
“I do find good
prospects for rehabilitation here based on the evaluation that was provided to
me and the testimony I have heard, including Ms. Robinson’s short, but I’m
convinced, heartfelt, expression of remorse,” Saxby said before imposing the
sentence.
Prior to hearing
her sentence, Robinson addressed the court, wiping tears from her eyes and
taking deep breaths before speaking.
“I’m deeply sorry
that this has happened. I understand the severity of the situation. And I
recognize that I need to heal from the trauma that I experienced in life. I
know that with the support of the people around me I can move forward in a
positive direction to ensure that nothing like this happens again,” said
Robinson, who now lives out of state and is the mother of a three-year-old
child.
The case stems from
an undercover investigation by Anchorage police in March 2013 in which
detectives discovered Robinson was using file-sharing software to view graphic
images and videos of children being sexually abused.
Adam Alexander, an
attorney with the state Office of Special Prosecutions, told the court on
Thursday that Robinson downloaded “a pretty significant" amount of “pretty
terrible images of child exploitation.”
Nothing excuses the
fact that Robinson -- “in an awful case of irony” -- was responsible for
perpetuating the sexual exploitation of children in a way that was “very
similar to some of her own experiences,” Alexander said.
Robinson and her
younger sister were victimized by their paternal grandfather, Roger Paul Ward,
for many years, according to public defender Jonathon Torres.
Ward was recently
released from prison in Nevada after a lengthy prison sentence for sexually
abusing his granddaughters. Robinson told her parents about being raped by her
grandfather but her parents did nothing about it, Torres said.
The family’s coping
strategy was to keep silent about the abuse, Torres told the judge.
The sexual
exploitation of Robinson’s younger sister was so bad that the child was
eventually hospitalized with serious injuries. Authorities realized soon
afterward that Robinson had suffered years of abuse, Torres said.
Ward was convicted
of two counts of sexual abuse and received 20 years of prison time on each
count, Torres said.
When Anchorage
police discovered Robinson was downloading and trading child pornography, they
seized numerous computers and digital media from her JBER home. A forensic
analysis of the equipment resulted in Robinson being charged with 12 felony
counts of distribution of child pornography and 18 counts of possession of
child pornography.
A warrant was
obtained for her arrest on June 24, 2013, but she was able to quash it by
posting bail prior to her arrest, police said at the time.
In October 2015,
the defense and prosecution reached a plea deal in which Robinson agreed to
plead guilty to a single count of indecent viewing of photography.
Alexander said the
case presented prosecution challenges because Robinson was both “a victim as a
child and an offender as a young woman "in fairly short order.”
“This gives us the
opportunity to understand in a very direct fashion the long-term consequence
that an adult’s exploitation of a child has on that child as the child grows
older, and that’s what we’re seeing here with Ms. Robinson,” Alexander told the
court.
Saxby said
Robinson’s behavior was compulsive and wrong. But he said the evidence showed
that the defendant’s acquisition of child pornography was not for her own
gratification but rather “it was more exploratory.”
That’s how her
public defender described the behavior too.
“Ms. Robinson
wasn’t looking at these images for sexual gratification. It was more that she
identified with the victims in the case,” Torres said.
Contact KTUU reporter Paula Dobbyn at pdobbyn@ktuu.com, 907-762-9242, or
@pauladobbyn
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