A 53-year-old man has been convicted of 11 counts of sexual assault and sexual abuse of minor by a Juneau jury. He was acquitted on six other charges.<\/p>\n
A Juneau jury found Brian Kurtzman guilty on April 23, following a two-week trial. He was found guilty of three counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, one count of sexual assault in the first degree, four counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree, one count of sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree, one count of solicitation of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree and one count of solicitation of sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree.<\/p>\n
The jury acquitted Kurtzman on one count of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, two counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree, one count of sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree, one count of solicitation of a sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree and one count of solicitation of sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree.<\/p>\n
Following the verdict, Kurtzman was remanded and is being held without bail pending sentencing.<\/p>\n
His next court date for sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11.<\/p>\n
Kurtzman faces a sentencing range between 32.5 and 495 years to serve.<\/p>\n
The conviction stems from a sexual assault and abuse of a child that occurred from 2013 to 2014, a press release from the Alaska Department of Law says. The child participated in the Junior Raptor program at the American Bald Eagle Foundation in Haines, where Kurtzman worked as a raptor handler.<\/p>\n
Kurtzman was fired from the American Bald Eagle Foundation in 2014.<\/p>\n
The victim only came forward to report the sexual abuse in 2022.<\/p>\n
She testified at the trial of years of grooming and sexual abuse by Kurtzman.<\/p>\n
Kurtzman, who testified in his own defense, said that a friendship began with the victim when she was 12 years old and he was 39. However, he said he did not start a sexual relationship with her until she was 18 years old.<\/p>\n
The release says he further testified that the messages he sent the victim when she was 13 years old, where he called her “baby” and told her he loved her and that he would be dreaming about her, were to prevent her from engaging in self-harm.<\/p>\n
Juneau Police Department investigated the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The crimes occurred while Brian Kurtzman worked as a raptor handler at a foundation in Haines <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3361,"featured_media":132559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1077],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n