A prosecutor with the Anchorage office of the Alaska Department of Law, Criminal Division, has taken over review of a September 2012 sexual assault of a teenage boy at an East End Road drinking party. Anthony Resetarits, 22, and Joseph Resetarits, 20, had been charged with second-degree assault in that incident, but in August Superior Court Judge Carl Bauman dismissed without prejudice those charges. 

A Kenai grand jury in October 2013 indicted the brothers, alleging they had assaulted with an object a teenage boy at the party. The brothers pleaded not guilty and were released on bail. After charges were dismissed, bail was exonerated and conditions of release removed.

The Anchorage prosecutor is reviewing additional information in the case, said John Skidmore, director of the criminal division.

“I wanted to try and inject more vigor into this. We’d like to see this case move forward at a more rapid pace than it had been. In order to do that, I asked another attorney to review it,” he said. “There’s a great deal of public interest — as there should be — and we take it seriously.”

Citing the confidentiality of information not on the public record, Skidmore declined to say what new information prosecutors had received. 

“Without prejudice” means prosecutors can refile charges. Second-degree sexual assault is a class B felony, and there is no statute of limitations for class B felonies, Skidmore said. 

Skidmore said he anticipated an indictment might happen within four weeks, but said he couldn’t say for sure. 

A Kenai grand jury will be the jury considering the case.

In charging documents, Alaska State Troopers alleged the brothers sexually assaulted the boy at the September 2012 East End Road drinking party. The victim had passed out drunk and also had his head and eyebrows shaved. People also wrote on him with markers. Troopers learned of the assault when the boy’s mother took him to South Peninsula Hospital and nurses reported the assault.

A boy then age 16 also was charged with second-degree sexual assault and referred to the Office of Juvenile Justice. The juvenile defendant’s case was referred to the Division of Juvenile Justice.

From 60 to 80 teenagers and adults were at the 2012 party, including members of Homer High School sports teams. Joseph Resetarits was then a member of the Mariners football team, but was taken off the team after the charges were filed.

Bauman dismissed the indictment after defense attorneys for the Resetarits brothers filed motions to dismiss, saying there had not been sufficient evidence to support an indictment and that hearsay evidence presented prejudiced the grand jury. 

One witness had been unavailable to testify, and the defense lawyers claimed it was hearsay when an Alaska State Trooper testified about what that witness told him.

At the August court hearing dismissing the indictment, Bauman made a point of saying that there is a victim in the case.

“I say victim because I believe there’s a victim,” Bauman said. “It’s not an alleged victim, it’s a victim — which is not to say who is responsible for that victim, but there’s clearly a victim in the court’s view.”

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.