Former St. Paul police chief found guilty of sexually abusing teen
Sep. 27—A former St. Paul police chief was convicted by an Anchorage jury on Tuesday for sexually abusing a teenager in 2015.
The trial for Nicholas Hunnicutt was initially scheduled for 2020 but delayed because of the pandemic, according to a statement from the Alaska Department of Law. Hunnicutt, now 43, was accused of inappropriately touching a 14-year-old in the Pribilof Islands village. He was off-duty when the abuse occurred, according to John Darnall, deputy chief of the Office of Special Prosecutions.
Hunnicutt worked for various municipal and county law enforcement agencies before he became a police officer in St. Paul in 2014, Darnall said. He was appointed chief in July 2015 and moved to Arkansas for family reasons that November, Darnall said. Hunnicutt was then hired as a police officer in Danville, Arkansas, Darnall said.
The Alaska State Troopers investigated the case against Hunnicutt, and a charge of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor was filed in 2017. The trial began Sept. 13 in Anchorage Superior Court.
Hunnicutt is scheduled for sentencing in January and could face up to 15 years in prison. He was in custody Wednesday afternoon at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.
The attorney who represented Hunnicutt during the trial did not immediately respond to a message Wednesday.
