A former Soldotna High School teacher is appealing his criminal conviction after being found guilty of more than two dozen charges of sexually abusing and exploiting a former student while she was a minor.
In December, a Kenai superior court judge sentenced 37-year-old Nathaniel Erfurth to 77 years and one month in prison, with most of that suspended. He’s serving his active term of 20 years and one month at Wildwood Correctional Center. After that, he could serve the suspended time if he violates the conditions of his probation. His sentence came after a multi-week trial last summer that put more than a dozen witnesses, including Erfurth and the former student, before jurors.
Erfurth has long said he was wrongly accused and, later, wrongly convicted. He filed his appeal last month.
“Nathaniel Erfurth maintains his innocence and continues to believe that serious mistakes occurred in his case,” his lawyer, Eric Derleth, wrote in a statement shared with KDLL after sentencing. “He placed his trust in the jury and in the court system, and he now turns his focus to the appellate courts, trusting that the errors made at trial will entitle him to a new trial and a fair opportunity to clear his name.”
For his appeal, Erfurth is being represented by Susan Orlansky, a former Alaska public defender who specialized in criminal appeals. Orlansky said Thursday it’s too early for her to comment on the case. She wasn’t Erfurth’s trial lawyer, so she says she needs time to review the trial transcript and court record.
On Thursday, Kenai District Attorney Dan Strigle, who helped prosecute the case, acknowledged Erfurth’s right to appeal, but otherwise declined to comment.
It’s been almost three years since Alaska State Troopers arrested Erfurth after one of his former students said he escalated a paternal relationship into a sexual one while she was still a minor. At the time of his arrest, Erfurth was serving as president of the local teachers’ union, the Kenai Peninsula Education Association.
At trial, the State of Alaska argued Erfurth abused his good standing in the community to groom and later abuse the student, who he communicated with via encrypted messaging applications. Erfurth’s trial lawyer argued he was a victim of false allegations by a troubled youth to whom he’d been a father figure and who had no physical evidence proving a sexual relationship had occurred.
The next court date associated with Erfurth's appellate case is later this month.
