Sex offender wins $500,000 Alaska lottery

[WriteDown]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- An Alaska lottery held to raise money for a group that helps sexual abuse victims had a surprise winner: a convicted sex offender.
Alec Ahsoak in an undated photograph.

Alec Ahsoak in an undated photograph.

Alec Ahsoak, who according to the state sex offender registry was convicted in 1993 and 2000 for sexual abuse of a minor, came forward Saturday with the winning ticket for the $500,000 Lucky Time Pull Tabs jackpot.

Proceeds of the lottery help Standing Together Against Rape in Anchorage, a nonprofit group that offers support to sexual assault victims among other services.

"It's not how we had envisioned the story going," Nancy Haag, the group's executive director, told CNN Radio.....

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/13/sex.offender.lottery/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

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Somebody tell me about karma again. :eyes:

[Phillycat]

1. Kind of makes you wonder what the hell kind of sick game God is playing up there.

I mean, if I believed in God.

[MADem]

2. Now he can afford to buy himself a place FAR AWAY from any victims. NT

[crikkett]

3. It's actually very funny. The group could turn this into a big and good thing.

[John Q. Citizen]

4. Maybe he bought the ticket as an act of atonement. Does gamblers anonomous sell pull tabs to raise

funds too?

[rurallib]

5. Next Palin will appoint him the state Head of Public Safety

[2Design]

6. love the irony n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. This is a valuable lesson on how Life, the Universe, and Everything work:

Chance doesn't give a flying fuck.

[IADEMO2004]

8. Odds are in AK's favor for sex offenders

http://www.swivel.com/graphs/show/27362183?limit_modifier=all&graph%5Blimit%5D=51&commit=%3E

[Blue_In_AK]

20. This is true,

and my guess is that Mr. Ahsoak was far from the only sex offender (registered or unregistered; convicted or never been caught) who bought a ticket for this lottery. My personal feeling is that he's done his time, he's in counseling, and the money he bought his ticket with was as good as anybody else's. There is no reason why he shouldn't be entitled to the proceeds. See my post below for follow-up on this story.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

9. Good... suggests the lottery is honest

[WatchWhatISay]

10. Maybe now his victims can sue him?

Wonder how long the statute of limitations run?

[Solomon]

18. Good Point!

Or as a preacher would say: "God works in mysterious ways". (Course he could have let the vicims find a bunch of money instead of going this route)

[Ian David]

11. Money is how Jesus tells you he loves you. n/t

[LeftishBrit]

12. Not one of the Palin family, I hope!

[TrogL]

13. It perhaps shows the sex offender is making amends

...by contributing to the lottery by taking part.

He's probably as surprised by this turn of events as anybody else.

[sakabatou]

14. Oh, the irony!

[moggie]

16. Speaking of irony

Alaska has the highest per capita number of rape cases in the United States, according to FBI statistics.

"With a ranking that high, it's ironic that the person who wins is a convicted sex offender," Haag added.

I think Ms Haag's grasp of irony is as flimsy as Alanis Morissette's.

[Qutzupalotl]

15. Wonder what he'll spend it on? nt

[moggie]

17. Enrol in Catholic seminary, perhaps? n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

19. The follow-up on this story is that Mr. Ahsoak was severely beaten

with a tire iron a couple of days after he won the lottery, and a 21-year-old Californian is now in custody. Apparently, the motive was strictly vigilantism since no robbery occurred.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/652748.html

<snip>

"Oh my God, I was so afraid something was going to happen to him," said Nancy Haag, executive director of Standing Together Against Rape, the nonprofit that benefited from the lottery. "I'm just very sorry to hear that this has happened. ... Nobody deserves to be a victim of any kind of violence, and that's our stand."

<snip>

One victim, who was molested in the early 1990s while Ahsoak, a family friend, was staying at her home, said Tuesday she thinks Ahsoak should not have gotten the money. But it was out of her hands and she doesn't think she'll sue, said the woman, who is not being identified because she is the victim of sexual abuse.

"I'm in shock that happened. That's terrible," she said upon hearing of the attack. "I don't wish that on anybody. The only thing I wished for him is that he would get better. ... I just think it's crazy the way that everything happened."

And more here.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/654547.html

In addition to the current case, Hughes is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail on California charges of violating felony probation and possessing a dangerous instrument. At the hearing Wednesday, Alaska State Troopers Sgt. Henry Kozloff told the judge California officials planned to extradite Hughes when the case against him here is finished.