A Kipnuk man has been sentenced to serve 79 years in prison for possession of child sex abuse material.
According to a press release from the Alaska Department of Law, 68-year-old Joseph Kashatok was convicted in February of retaining images of child sex abuse material on a USB device in 2019.
Kashatok initially faced a presumptive sentence of 99 years in prison due to prior felony convictions, but Bethel Superior Court Judge Nelson Traverso reduced this sentence based on Kashatok’s cooperation with law enforcement.
The investigation that led to Kashatok’s conviction was conducted by the Alaska Bureau of Investigations Technical Crime Unit, alongside Bethel-based troopers and the Penning County Sheriff’s Office in South Dakota.
While the Alaska Department of Law referenced “child pornography” in the case against Kashatok, this story uses the term “child sex abuse material” to reflect a push in the Alaska Legislature to make this term the legal standard.
