Defendant Evaded Registration for Four Years after Moving to Alaska

Anchorage, Alaska – U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced that Donald Eugene Phillips, 37, of Chugiak, was sentenced today by Sr. District Judge Ralph R. Beistline, to serve nine months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for failing to register as a sex offender. In July 2019, Phillips was charged with one count of failure to register, and he subsequently pleaded guilty without a plea agreement.

According to court documents, in 2010, when he was 27 years old, Phillips was convicted of a sex offense in Oregon stemming from abuse of a 15-year-old girl who became pregnant with his child. Phillips has been required to register as a sex offender ever since, but prior to the filing of charges in Alaska, the last time he registered was in Oregon in July 2015. This last registration came shortly before he fled an Oregon arrest warrant and moved to Alaska. As a result of Phillips’ sex offense conviction in the State of Oregon, he was required under federal law to register as a sex offender for a period of 15 years. While in Alaska, Phillips knowingly failed to register as a sex offender as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

Phillips’ longstanding failure to register was discovered after an Oregon law enforcement officer, who suspected Phillips had moved to Alaska, contacted the Alaska Sex Offender Registry office and reported Phillips was not in compliance.

At Phillips’ sentencing hearing, Judge Beistline noted the importance of deterring other sex offenders from failing to register, explaining that, “the law has to have backbone.”

The United States Marshals Service (USMS) conducted the investigation, with assistance from the Alaska Department of Public Safety and the Oregon State Police, leading to the successful prosecution of this case. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Allison O’Leary.

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