Alaska’s Revolving Door Justice at Work: Convict Charged in Elderly Couple’s Murder, Infant’s Rape

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Photo Credit: AP/ADNIn 2009, Jerry Andrew Active was charged with multiple felony counts surrounding a sexual assault on an eleven year old girl. With the blessing of Judge Vanessa White, a Murkowski appointee, he pled out his case and received three years to serve for attempted felony sexual abuse of a child. Additionally, he was convicted of felony assault on a child as well as criminal trespass.

Judge White also imposed four years of suspended time on the condition of Active’s compliance with all probation terms, including good behavior.

In Alaska, a defendant is only required to serve two-thirds of his sentence as long as he doesn’t get in trouble while incarcerated. After Active was released in 2012, he managed to violate his probation on multiple occasions. The State of Alaska filed petitions to revoke his probation and a new judge, Gregory Miller, required Active to serve 120 days of his suspended sentence in January. When he violated conditions again, Judge Miller required Active to serve an additional 150 days in March.

Because Active received credit for time served, he was out of jail again this month. And here’s what allegedly happened:

A man who has been charged with killing an elderly Alaska couple and raping their 2-year-old great-granddaughter is a registered sex offender convicted of breaking into a home and assaulting an 11-year-old girl four years ago.

Jerry Andrew Active, 24, was convicted in 2010 of assaulting the girl near Dillingham, Alaska, while her family slept.

Authorities say that on Saturday, Active broke into the apartment home of Touch Chea, 71, and his wife Sorn Sreap, 73, and beat the couple to death. He also raped Sreap, police said.

He was still inside the residence when their grandson, his pregnant wife and son arrived. The grandson, Von Seng, fought Active, but the assailant managed to flee. He was arrested nearby only wearing boxer shorts, authorities said.

“He took the old, the innocent,” Seng told the Anchorage Daily News. “Come face me.”

The Daily Mail reported that the injuries sustained were gruesome:

The two-year-old was taken to hospital for a forensic physical examination, and it was discovered that she had also been physically assaulted.

She was taken to a hospital where she underwent surgery for her injuries.

Investigators were affected by the brutality and the ages of the victims, police department spokeswoman Anita Shell said.

‘They said this was the worst thing they had ever seen in their lives, and these are seasoned detectives,’ Shell said.

Alaska GOP Coup a Bad Sign for National Party’s Future

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The Republican Party of Alaska has become a perfect microcosm for everything that is wrong with the Republican Party today. It has all the problems that have cropped up in other state GOP organizations gathered together in one state and taken to their worst extreme.

Abuse of power, disenfranchisement of grassroots members, misappropriation of funds, purges of members, negation of the electoral process and what amounts to a full-scale coup have all been used to keep an established party elite in power against the will of the people.

A backlash against these tactics is inevitable.

The Alaska GOP refused to properly seat elected Chairman Russ Millette and subsequently attempted to remove Vice Chair Debbie Brown when she assumed the Chairmanship. This past week, the takeover of the party was confirmed when the Central Committee rejected appeals from Millette and Brown, reaffirming the unelected installation of establishment favorite Peter Goldberg as the new party Chairman. Goldberg will be the fourth Chairman the party has had in a year, a very unhealthy sign for any organization.

In the interim, they also carried out purges of party members from other leadership positions, including declaring the entire elected membership of their District 12 Executive Committee to essentially not exist. From the lowest Precinct Committeeman to the District Chairman, the entire District was unseated with no due process, not even a hearing, at the whim of party leaders who didn’t like having an entire District in disagreement with their actions.

Read more from this story HERE.

Shoelaces Used to Restrain Unruly Airline Passenger on Alaska Air

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Photo Credit: InSapphoWeTrustA passenger on a commercial flight from Alaska to Oregon was arrested Monday after he reportedly tried to open the emergency exit door while the plane was preparing to land.

Passengers and crew aboard the Alaska Airlines flight from Anchorage to Portland told authorities that 23-year-old Alexander Michael Herrera made “unusual statements” before trying to open the exit door, FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said.

Mr. Herrera set off an alarm by pulling the door handle. “I put him in a choke hold and brought him down to the ground,” witness Henry Pignataro told KGW-TV.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Talks Liberty Featuring Dave Nalle, Robby Wells and Mystery Guest from Fairbanks AK

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Russ Millette, host of Alaska Talks Liberty, will be featuring Dave Nalle of the Republican Liberty Caucus and political reporter for the Washington Times. Additional guest Robby Wells; 2016 Presidential Candidate, along with a mystery guest from Fairbanks Alaska. They will be discussing the corruption in the Alaska Republican Party. Tune in to his radio show Tuesday May 28th at 3 PM AK Time.

See flyer below for details:

The Alaska Republican Party Coup Saga Moves to Homer

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Photo Credit: dmcdevitThe State Central Committee (SCC) of the Alaska Republican Party will be meeting in Homer Alaska on Saturday May 25th for their quarterly leadership meeting. It should be a lively one.

This saga all began back in April of 2012 at the Republican State Convention where the state delegates elected Russ Millette as the new chair and Debbie Brown as the new vice chair. This represented a tremendous values shift away from the established party leadership that has ruled for over a decade.

From that moment on, the old guard has been working feverishly to nullify the state convention election results and keep their established leadership cabal in power indefinitely. Back in January, chair-elect Russ Millette was ousted by the smaller State Executive Committee (SEC) on the charge of failure to raise money just two hours before he was to be seated. Debbie Brown then advanced to party chair. She was likewise purged in a similar manner in April on the charge of failure to raise money. Both are appealing their removal from office at the upcoming SCC meeting in Homer.

In the meantime, a few of the individual political districts such as Districts 8 (Palmer), District 10 (Big Lake), and District 12 (Eagle River) have rejected this leadership usurpation by issuing individual district resolutions pledging to follow their duly elected leadership despite the noise and political machinations of those that have dug into the political system like Tennessee ticks.

As the meeting in Homer rapidly approaches, a new twist has been added in the form of an individual district resolution from District 30 (Kasilof & Homer) that proposes that the SCC confirm Peter Goldberg (or someone else) as interim chair until the September SCC meeting, at which time a new chair and vice-chair would be elected by the SCC. While on the surface this may look a lot like a compromise to promote unity within the Alaska GOP, in reality it would divide it like the Colorado River cutting through the sandstone of the Grand Canyon.

First of all if this resolution is adopted, the SCC would legitimize the coup d’état by confirming Peter Goldberg or someone else interim party chair. Secondly, this would disenfranchise the several hundred elected state delegates who voted at the 2012 Republican State Convention. Thirdly, this would sanction a “do over” election in a much smaller and controllable SCC venue. Lastly, this would upend and go-around any appeal that may be made by Russ Millette or Debbie Brown to keep their elected positions.

The crux of this issue really exceeds intraparty personality bickering. This is about something much larger and scarier that can affect every Republican and eventually every American. This is about the sacred respect for the succession of political power by majority vote. The U.S. Constitution and our Republican form of self-government are all built on the same foundation stone — the respect by both the winning and losing parties for the results of free and fair elections. In the past this mutual respect has provided for the orderly transfer of political power and has prevented many civil wars. The ARP is about to set a horrible precedent by nullifying a statewide election that if left unchecked, could spread like a cancer throughout our entire political system and eventually threaten the very foundation of our republic itself. We cannot allow this to happen.

The Republican State Central Committee (SCC) is composed of all of our elected state and federal legislators, the governor and lieutenant governor, as well others such as district chairs and bonus votes. Make your voice heard as to which direction you wish the Alaska Republican Party to go. It is my firm belief that the despite our current challenges and individual drifting, the Republican Party platform still rings closest to that of our Founding Fathers proclamation of individual liberty and limited government. It is up to us — you and I as rank and file Republicans, to dip our torch back into the pitch of freedom, relight it, and use it to guide the path of our footsteps much as it successfully guided our ancestor’s through two centuries of the darkest and stormiest nights into the green valleys of the greatest prosperity the world has ever known.

Fishermen Found Guilty, Although Court Agrees Subsistence Salmon Fishing is Religious

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Photo Credit: Alaska PublicNearly 50 fishermen were cited for illegal salmon fishing last June. Half of them pled not guilty and have been fighting it in court ever since.

In recent weeks, the fishermen had been waiting to hear a decision on whether they have the religious right to subsistence fish, even during state closures.

The trial resumed May 20 in Bethel and the fishermen packed into the courtroom with some people left standing in the hallway. It was a trial by judge and Judge Bruce Ward, in a gentle voice, said the court found that the state’s need to restrict King salmon supersedes the fishermen’s right to religious practice.

“The court wants all parties to know that this was a very difficult decision to make,” Ward said. “This was not easy.”

The fishermen were challenging the state based on a free exercise clause of the Alaska constitution, arguing that subsistence fishing is a religious practice and that when they fished last summer during closures, they were practicing their religion.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Volcano’s Ash Prompts Flight Cancellations

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Photo Credit: APAn Alaska volcano eruption is prompting regional airlines to cancel flights to nearby communities, including a town that reported traces of fallen ash.

Pavlof Volcano released ash plumes as high as 22,000 feet over the weekend, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Clouds obscured the volcano Monday, but U.S. Geological Survey scientists said seismic instruments at the volcano show continuing tremors.

“Seismically, it’s been pretty steady over the last 12 hours,” geologist Chris Waythomas said late Monday morning.

The abrasive ash has not risen enough to threaten international air traffic passing over the volcano-rich Aleutian arc, Waythomas said. Ash emissions have gone high enough, however, to affect flights of some smaller planes.

Anchorage-based regional carrier Penair has canceled a dozen passenger and cargo flights to several remote communities since Sunday afternoon. The communities include Sand Point, which reported a dusting of ash Sunday.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Talks Liberty Topic: The Future of The Alaska Republican Party

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Russ Millette, host of Alaska Talks Liberty, will be featuring various guests this week. They will be discussing The Future of The Alaska Republican Party. Please tune in to his radio show Tuesday May 21st at 3 PM AK Time.

See flyer below for details:

Judge Shafts Joe Miller in FNSB Case

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Photo Credit: KTUUIn yet another dubious move by the Alaska Court System, Judge Stephanie Joannides awarded the news blog Alaska Dispatch an inordinate sum totaling almost 100K in legal fees from the Miller v. FNSB court case. Joe Miller was ordered to pay 85K, this despite the fact that the majority of the fees were billed either before Miller intervened in the case or after they were a relevant party to the case.

The Alaska Dispatch remained party to the case long after the Anchorage Daily News and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reasonably withdrew, and had agreed not to petition the court for legal fees.

To any remotely objective observer, the Dispatch had no legitimate reason to remain party to the case outside of the source material they may have been able to gain through first-hand observation of the Borough depositions, a raw profit motive, or perhaps prurient interest.

In fact, Dispatch attorneys even admitted that they had no reason to be in the case, given that Mr. Miller had filed no action against them. Yet they still sought fees long after the case was decided in their favor, and from actions they had unilaterally undertaken, dating all the way back to Sept. 2010, weeks before Miller intervened in the case.

How is Miller responsible for expenses accrued by the Dispatch’s lawsuit against the Borough before he chose to intervene? Or for the debts accumulated long after they ceased to be a relevant party to the case?

Following is the breakdown of the fee schedule stated in Mr. Miller’s appeal:

“According to Alaska Dispatch’s counsel, he billed 123.1 hours of attorney’s fees from September 9, 2010 through October 19, 2010, when Mr. Miller intervened in this lawsuit; 34.6 hours from October 20, 2010 through October 26, 2010, when Alaska Dispatch obtained its relief; and 291 hours after October 27, 2010, while the cross-claims and third-party claim between Mr. Miller and FNSB/Whitaker were being litigated.”

Equally troubling is how Judge Joannides was assigned to the case in the first place, and subsequent revelations that she had a financial relationship with a Dispatch employee.

Under normal circumstances a judge would be assigned through a random selection process. However, in the FNSB case, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court intervened and hand-picked Judge Joannides. This is a very rare move, perhaps unprecedented outside of this particular case.

Moreover, Judge Joannides had rented her basement apartment to an Alaska Dispatch employee, but claimed that the fact was irrelevant to the case. This begs the question of whether it was a random coincidence. Does the Judge have further relationships with other folks at the Dispatch?

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Tom is author of the blog ‘It’s a Kwazy Life: Analyzing the Sanity in Politics That Control Our Lives’ and is also a Construction worker in Anchorage Alaska. This story first appeared at his blog HERE.

Anchorage Sets New Record for Longest Snow Season

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Photo Credit: cb6379232 days – it took over 30 years for Anchorage to set a new record for the longest snow season on record.

The National Weather Service measured 2/10ths of an inch just after 9 p.m. Friday and 1/10th Saturday morning – breaking the old record of 230 days set in 1981-1982.

Read more from this story HERE.