A Soldotna man has been arrested in connection with photographing women and girls at the Skyview Middle School pool in 2021. Isaac Andrew Davis, 33, was arrested on Oct. 14 on four counts of indecent viewing or production of a picture, one count of attempted indecent viewing or production of a picture and one count of tampering with physical evidence related to incidents at multiple facilities around the central Kenai Peninsula.
The initial complaint against Davis, who was employed as a general maintenance operator by the Kenai Peninsula Borough, was made on July 12, 2021, by a 12-year-old girl who told school staff that she saw a cellphone “sticking out from around the corner,” while she was showering at the Skyview Middle School pool. That’s according to an affidavit from Alaska State Trooper Kevin Gill.
Gill’s affidavit includes information gathered and investigated by former Alaska State Trooper Benjamin Strachan, who was the first to investigate the report. About three months after Strachan launched his investigation into the incident, he was arrested on seven child sexual abuse charges.
Gill writes in his Oct. 13 affidavit that he completed many of the investigative steps and interviews previously conducted by Strachan to “independently authenticate the information.”
The 12-year-old who spotted the cellphone was encouraged to tell pool staff by another woman who was also showering. Two pool lifeguards then located Davis after also reporting the incident to the pool manager, who reported it to Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Assistant Superintendent Kari Dendurent. Dendurent then contacted troopers and preserved video footage captured on school security cameras.
According to Gill’s affidavit, Davis told lifeguard Jacob Dye that he had “turned the wrong corner and accidentally went into the wrong locker-room.” Davis denied taking any photos and later told the pool manager that he had been on his phone and not paying attention when he went into the girls’ locker room.
The video footage preserved by Dendurent, Gills wrote, was found to be “inconsistent” with Davis’ claims and showed him “making repeated trips into the locker room, manipulating his phone, and appearing to hide from view.” The same footage shows Davis entering the female locker room “approximately 15 (times) within a one-hour timespan.”
“The video depicts Davis lurking and appearing to intently listen outside the locker-room,” Gills wrote. “Almost every time Davis enters, he has the cell phone in his hand (in fact, he can be seen withdrawing the phone as he enters the women’s locker room).”
Davis was put on administrative leave and resigned from the Kenai Peninsula Borough about two days after the incident prior to an administrative inquiry. The Kenai Peninsula Borough is responsible for maintaining Kenai Peninsula Borough School District facilities.
Further investigation by Gill found that Davis had filmed women on multiple other occasions, apparently without their knowledge, including at Ninilchik School, Nikiski Middle/High School and the Nikiski pool, and in his home. Additional security footage provided by the district further showed Davis engaging in “arguably similar behavior” at Skyview Middle School about a week before the incident on July 12, according to the affidavit.
Per the affidavit, search warrants obtained by troopers for Davis’ cellphone and computer revealed internet searches such as “How Do Police & Forensic Analysts Recover Deleted Data From Phones?” and “permanently deleting pictures from iphone” as well as pornographic “web history events.”
That search history was in addition to further pictures, videos and screenshots of “surreptitiously” taken photographs.
“The device was found to contain scores of photographs of clothed females appearing to have been taken surreptitiously,” Gill wrote of Davis’ iMac. “Many of the subjects of the photographs appear to be juvenile females.”
Also among the information found on Davis’ devices were pictures of females in bathing suits at the Nikiski pool, video footage taken in a Nikiski school hallway where multiple “juvenile females in shorts” were practicing soccer, screenshots of those videos in which females are “in the apex of compromising positions,” and a video of a juvenile female wearing “tight-fitting pants inside a school workshop.” Additional imagery of women in Davis’ home and of teenagers walking on the street was also located, Gill wrote.
Davis, when interviewed by troopers earlier this year, denied photographing the girl at Skyview Middle School but admitted to previous instances of similar behavior, dating back at least 10 years. When asked by troopers whether he ever intentionally photographed teenaged girls during his employment, Davis said, “Not to my knowledge,” according to court documents.
Editor’s note: Jacob Dye, one of the lifeguards named in Gill’s affidavit, is a general assignment reporter at The Peninsula Clarion.
