A tearful Ryan West was arraigned in Juneau Superior Court yesterday (Thursday), where he pleaded not guilty to second degree murder in connection with the death of 19-year-old Gabriel Carte.
The 25-year-old West was indicted by a Juneau Grand Jury a week ago. Public Defender David Seid entered the plea on West’s behalf.
“I’d ask the court to accept a not guilty plea and we would request a jury trial,” Seid said.
On June 6th, West and Carte were riding in a truck that flipped over multiple times at Mile 35 Glacier Highway. Carte was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. West was treated for minor injuries. Juneau Police said alcohol and excessive speed were factors in the crash, but at the time of the preliminary investigation it wasn’t clear who was driving.
The grand jury indictment charges West “did knowingly engage in conduct that resulted in the death of [Carte] under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
District Attorney David Brower asked for bail to be set at 500-thousand dollars. He noted that West was already on probation stemming from an earlier case where a 19-year-old woman was seriously injured after being dragged by West’s truck.
Judge Phillip Pallenberg agreed.
“I would make the comment that the amount of the bail is high not only because of the nature of this offense, but because of the nature of the previous offense in that it involved a person who was very seriously injured as a result of the operation of Mr. West’s vehicle,” Pallenberg said.
Pallenberg set a two-week trial to begin December 5th. The case was originally assigned to Judge Patricia Collins, who’s now retired. It will instead be presided over by incoming Judge Louis Menendez.
Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 200 picketed at Marine Park in Juneau today (Monday) while the cruise ship Westerdam was anchored in Gastineau Channel.
Union members say cruise lines have repeatedly broken the law by not calling a contract stevedoring company to perform dock work – such as tying up tender boats and loading cargo – when vessels are anchored offshore. Tender boats are used to ferry passengers to and from shore and to load cargo when cruise ships anchor in port rather than tie up to the docks.
Dennis Young is president of ILWU Local 200 Unit 16 in Juneau. He says the cruise lines have been using crew members from the ships – some of whom aren’t US citizens – to perform the long shore work. Young says the union is working with US Customs and Border Protection and Alaska’s Congressional delegation to end the practice.
“They can continue to stall spit and sputter, but we will be taking this as far as we have to to protect our U.S. long shore workers’ rights,” Young says.
Alaska Cruise Association President John Binkley says the cruise lines are complying with federal law by using U.S. citizens to perform the work.
“I’m certainly not an attorney, but I don’t know of any federal law that requires you to use a specific union to do work,” Binkley says.
He says the longshoremen don’t have a right to the work under their contract.
“My understanding is that through the collective bargaining process, they’ve agreed not to do the work on the tenders and the smaller vessels and that was bargained away for other wages or benefits over the years,” says Binkley. “And now I think they want to go outside the collective bargaining system to try and take over that work.”
Young says that’s simply not true.
“They’re picking and choosing how to follow the contract when they hire a stevedoring company to perform U.S. long shore work, and they’re picking and choosing how they’re going to follow immigration act law,” Young says.
The longshoremen picketed at Marine Park until the Westerdam left Juneau. They plan a similar protest in Sitka tomorrow (Tuesday) and Ketchikan at some point in the future. They were joined this afternoon by nurses at Bartlett Regional Hospital – who are also represented by the ILWU – as well as members of other unions, including state employee unions and the Inland Boatmen’s Union.
The captain of the Westerdam notified passengers of the protest by letter. Most ignored the picketers, who did not try to engage them.
