A Homer man accused of sexual abuse of a minor led police on a foot chase before being arrested last week.

Cim Joel Blair, 34, was arrested Friday in Homer and has been charged with one count of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, according to court documents and an online Alaska State Troopers dispatch. The minor, who was under age 13 at the time of the incident, is the daughter of a woman Blair had been dating, according to an affidavit written by Trooper Peter Frederick.

When troopers first tried to arrest Blair at his home on June 8, he took off on foot “into heavy brush behind his residence,” Frederick wrote in his affidavit, and troopers were not able to find him. While evading arrest, Blair contacted the woman he had previously dated, according to the affidavit.

“Cim relayed to (her) suicidal statements about wanting to commit suicide by cop,” Frederick wrote.

The troopers and the Homer Police received tips from the community as to Blair’s whereabouts. They first looked for him at a residence on Kay Court and eventually caught up with Blair on Crestwood Circle, said Megan Peters, an Alaska State Troopers public information officer. He was arrested Friday and held at the Homer Jail without bail, according to the trooper dispatch.

“Troopers would like to thank the citizens who called and the Homer Police for their assistance in locating Blair,” troopers wrote in the dispatch.

The investigation started in January when Anchor Point troopers and the Alaska Bureau of Investigation in Fairbanks began looking into “a report of harm involving a juvenile female while she was staying at a residence in the Homer area,” troopers wrote in the dispatch.

The minor, who stays in Fairbanks for school, spent the latter part of her winter break with her mother in Homer. It is during that time that the alleged abuse took place, according to the affidavit.

The girl alleged Blair touched her inappropriately twice in the same night.

When troopers questioned Blair at his home in March, he said he, the girl and her mother had been watching a movie in the mother’s bed. The mother and daughter fell asleep, and Blair said he went to sleep on the couch and denied touching the minor, Frederick wrote in the affidavit.

Blair’s arraignment took place Saturday and Monday at the Kenai Courthouse and Homer Courthouse. His next court appearance is scheduled for June 21 in Homer.

According to online court documents, Blair was charged with failing to register as a sex offender in February.

Reach Megan Pacer at megan.pacer@peninsulaclarion.com. Reach Michael Armstrong at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.