A judge has dismissed six child pornography charges in the ongoing child sex abuse case against the former head of the Kenai Peninsula teachers union. Nathaniel Erfurth, 35, of Soldotna, still faces 55 counts in the case and filed his own civil complaint against his accuser on Monday.
According to charging documents, state troopers arrested Erfurth in May of 2023 after a former student reported that she and Erfurth had a sexual relationship while she was a minor. A grand jury indicted Erfurth on 61 criminal counts including second- and fourth-degree child sex abuse, unlawful exploitation of a minor and possession of child pornography.
At the time of his arrest, Erfurth was serving as president of the Kenai Peninsula Education Association, the local teachers’ union. Prior to that, he taught history and government at Soldotna High School. After his arrest, Erfurth was fired by the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and removed as head of the union.
In January, Erfurth’s attorney, Eric Derleth, filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, claiming a state investigator had given the grand jury false testimony and that prosecutors purposefully omitted key evidence. He also argued the state didn’t have any evidence of child pornography from Erfurth’s electronic devices.
Superior Court Judge Kelly Lawson agreed with that last argument. In her ruling on the motion to dismiss, dated Saturday, Lawson found there was insufficient evidence to support the indictments for Possession of Child Pornography. Lawson said in her ruling that state prosecutors should have told the grand jury that, and she dismissed the six counts.
Lawson disagreed with the other arguments about the investigator’s testimony and the alleged omission of evidence.
A key argument in the case is over the audio quality of one of four secretly recorded conversations between Erfurth and his accuser. State prosecutors argue Erfurth confessed to a sexual relationship on one of the recordings. Erfurth disagrees.
In her ruling on the motion to dismiss, Judge Lawson wrote the quality of the recordings makes their content open to interpretation. For that reason, she didn’t think the investigator intentionally misled or was negligent while speaking to the grand jury.
Erfurth and his attorney had also argued prosecutors failed to provide jurors with exculpatory evidence — evidence favorable to the defendant. Derleth, the attorney, says that evidence is the multiple instances during the recorded conversations that Erfurth denies a sexual relationship.
Judge Lawson ruled the state did what it was required to do. Even though prosecutors didn’t tell jurors about Erfurth’s previous denials, they did tell jurors that they were only hearing excerpts from one of four recorded conversations, and that Erfurth’s description of events contradicted that of his accuser.
Last week, Erfurth filed a defamation lawsuit against his accuser in the sexual abuse case, claiming intentional infliction of emotional distress and demanding punitive damages. The suit says Erfurth’s former student has a history of mental illness, and claims Erfurth sought to fill a caregiver-type role in her life.
The lawsuit suggests the initial police report leading to Erfurth’s arrest was the result of an ultimatum the accuser was given by a separate partner. Erfurth’s suit seeks more than $100,000.
Derleth on Wednesday initially declined to comment on the civil suit, but later said via email that a person who is defamed in Alaska has two years to sue for harm caused. It’s been more than one year since Erfurth’s accuser made the initial police report.
Derleth said there’s “no question” Erfurth’s criminal case will go to trial.
