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More than a year after being convicted for raping four women while on duty during 2008 and 2009, former Anchorage police officer Anthony Rollins was sentenced to 87 years in prison Friday.
District Court Judge Philip Volland sentenced Rollins to a total of 151 years and six months in prison on numerous counts of sexual assault and misconduct, with 87 remaining to serve. Volland said that the sentence means Rollins won't be eligible for parole until his early nineties -- 57 years into his 87-year sentence.
Speaking for his daughter, the father of Rollins’ final victim addressed the court earlier Friday during Rollins' sentencing hearing.
“She can’t sleep alone after being raped by an officer on duty,” he said.
Pleading for a maximum sentence -- described by prosecutors Friday afternoon as 224 years -- he recalled Rollins’ emotional state when he was found guilty by a jury in February 2011 on 18 counts of sexual assault and misconduct, including second-degree sexual assault of a fifth victim and criminal use of a computer.
“What I saw was a man who wasn’t sorry for what he did, but the realization he had finally been caught,” the father said. “He’s a serial rapist, plain and simple.”
Six women testified that Rollins sexually assaulted them between 2006 and 2009, mainly at the now-closed Mountain View police substation. Rollins was found not guilty on charges related to the sixth alleged victim.
Prosecutors said Rollins not only assaulted the women while in uniform, but also looked up their personal information and repeatedly called them.
Assistant District Attorney Sharon Marshall spoke for the rest of the victims, reading their impact statements.
“I cannot help but be scared when I hear a police siren,” one victim wrote.
Another victim wrote, “I feel a pain so deep it’s unexplainable.”
“What he did was wrong, and shows what kind of predator he is -- one who thinks he’s above the law,” a different victim wrote. “I can only surmise he blames his victims for his current state.”
A common theme among the letters to District Court Judge Phillip Volland was victims’ fear of police officers.
On Monday, Mayor Dan Sullivan said APD’s supervisory and disciplinary policies would undergo an independent inspection by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in the wake of the Rollins trial. While Sullivan noted that APD quickly initiated the criminal probe that led to Rollins’ convictions, he deemed an external review necessary to bolster public confidence in the police force.
“Nothing we do will ever erase the emotional scars,” APD Chief Mark Mew said to the victims, as he read his impact statement. “We’ve lost the public trust. We know it will be a long uphill battle.”
APD Deputy Chief Steve Smith echoed that sentiment, telling Rollins that officers “must continue to do their jobs under the cloud of your crime.”
The APD representatives, along with all victims, asked Volland to give Rollins a maximum sentence.
“Anthony Rollins, you may be going away -- but many of us are stuck in the wreckage of your crime,” Mew said.
Rollins pleaded not guilty, testifying during the trial that the incidents were consensual and not sexual assaults.
The emotional moments followed the fired APD officer’s attorney objecting to quotations included in the pre-sentencing report, which states facts surrounding his conviction.
