newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — An Allakaket man is accused of sexually assaulting a mentally and physically handicapped woman at least twice over a period of several months, impregnating her twice.

Leonard Vent, 44, has been charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of second-degree sexual assault.

In October 2007, Alaska State Troopers received a call from a health care worker in Allakaket that the 32-year-old woman was being airlifted to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital to give birth. None of the woman’s caretakers had any idea that she was pregnant until she began having stomach pains that morning, according to a criminal complaint filed in court.

When the woman was questioned by troopers, she said that Vent had sex with her many times against her will.

Troopers questioned Vent the next month, and he claimed the sex was consensual, though he felt it may not have been right because of the woman’s disabilities. In May 2008, a paternity test confirmed he was in fact the father of the child.

In July, troopers received a report that the woman was pregnant again, and that Vent was again the father. This time Vent denied there was any possibility he was the father.

This time the pregnancy was terminated. A test of the tissue could not rule out the possibility that Vent was again the father, according to a criminal complaint filed in court.

Bail has been set at $100,000 and the condition of a third-party custodian if Vent is released.