The Bethel District Attorney’s Office has filed new criminal charges against former Bethel principal Christopher Carmichael. On April 13, Carmichael was arraigned in state court on two counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree. The charges are based on incidents from 2017 and 2018, when Carmichael was the principal at Gladys Jung Elementary School.
The first charge is from 2018, when Bethel Police received a report that Carmichael touched the breast of an 11-year-old girl while she was holding Carmichael’s office door open for him. No charges were filed when the incident was initially reported on Feb. 12, 2018, but the Bethel District Attorney’s office reopened the case after Carmichael’s arrest in December 2019.
The second charge is for Carmichael touching a different underage girl around the same time. In June 2019, Bethel police received a report that Carmichael had touched a seventh-grade inappropriately between 2017 and 2018. The charges stated that he would regularly take the girl into a closet or his office to avoid the view of cameras.
Carmichael was arraigned today in Anchorage on the new state charges. His next federal court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 5. He currently resides at Norris House, a transitional living facility in Anchorage. His probation officer, Alexandra Johnson-Stewart, reports that he is engaging in therapy and has been compliant with his location monitoring program.
