An Anchorage man has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison and will serve 10 years on supervised release for failing to register as a sex offender in Alaska after moving to the state in 2021.
According to court documents, in 1995, Norman Otto, 61, was convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old and sentenced by a court in Nebraska to three years in prison. He was released from custody on May 15, 1997.
Just over a year after his release, Otto sexually abused another 13-year-old. He was sentenced to 15-20 years in prison and was released in August 2008.
In 2020, Nebraska law enforcement began investigating Otto again after receiving information that Otto began abusing yet another minor victim shortly after his 2008 release. In April 2021, however, Otto disappeared from Nebraska, and his whereabouts were unknown.
Law enforcement discovered Otto was residing in Alask,a and he was arrested in January 2024. During the three years he absconded, Otto never registered as a sex offender in Alaska or any other state.
Otto never disclosed his prior child sexual abuse convictions to the owner of a hostel where Otto lived. Otto spent time with young teenagers, including the hostel owner’s minor child, claiming he was a math tutor.
On May 23, 2024, Otto pleaded guilty to one count of failing to register as a sex offender. In handing down the sentence, the court commented that “people in communities need to be aware of the predators among us” and that this sentence should deter other sex offenders from evading their registration requirements.
Upon his release from custody, Otto must comply with court-ordered conditions of supervised release aimed at preventing his unsupervised contact with children.
“Mr. Otto is a recidivist sex offender who preyed on innocent victims for many, many years by using deceit and grooming behavior to get close to children,” said U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman of the District of Alaska.
Heyman added, “This is a significant sentence under the statute for the crime at hand, and I want to thank the investigators and prosecutors who brought this case to justice. Although child predators might think the Last Frontier is a place to vanish, they are wrong. Law enforcement will find them, and we will prosecute.”
“The U.S. Marshals Service will continue to enforce the requirements of the Sex Offender Registry as one of our primary tools to help ensure the safety of our community from sex offenders in Alaska. We are committed to enhancing the protection of the public from sex offenders, abductors, and sexual predators,” said U.S. Marshal Rob Heun.
