Matt Miller

The Juneau woman convicted of neglecting seventeen cats is still trying to appeal her case — filing motion after motion — in an effort to obtain justice and eventually regain ownership of the animals. The latest motions filed by 54-year old Christen Blake allege judicial misconduct and ask for more time to submit documents supporting her appeal.

Blake appears to have given up with her civil suit seeking custody of the cats. That case was essentially thrown out June 1st, but Blake continued filing motions as much as seven weeks after the judge tossed out the lawsuit.

She’s forging ahead in the appeal of her criminal case by acting as her own attorney and producing numerous filings. Many motions are multiple pages in length and some filings include a mix of pages produced on both a manual typewriter and a computer.

After a conviction by a jury in April, Blake was sentenced to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. But the jail time and fine were both suspended and probation was set at five years. As part of her sentence, she was also forced to give up the cats that she collected and confined in her van at the Auke Bay harbor parking lot last winter. Another condition of her sentence makes any future possession of animals contingent on her compliance with mental health treatment.

The original charge of cruelty to animals in the form of neglect is a misdemeanor normally handled at the District Court level. But the case was eventually handled by Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg of Juneau partly because another judge had recused himself. District Court criminal cases can usually be appealed to Superior Court or the Alaska Court of Appeals. Superior Court Judge David George of Sitka is currently considering the appeal, but it’s unclear yet whether he plans on hearing any oral arguments. CBJ attorneys said they’ll wait to file a response until they know for certain which judge will consider the case.

Meanwhile, as part of her effort to get the cats back, Blake has threatened to sue the trial judge in federal court. In a short letter recently sent to Judge Pallenberg and copied to the local media, Blake said there was never any evidence that she was hurting the cats and alleges that the Gastineau Humane Society is euthanizing all of them. She wants Pallenberg to be found guilty of cruel and unusual treatment.

One cat was returned to its previous owner. Aside from three cats that were considered feral, the rest were put up for adoption. Shelter officials said shortly after the jury trial at that least seven cats were quickly placed in new homes.

The Alaska Permanent Fund is no longer worth over $40 billion after a suffering a $3.1 billion decline in value for the first three months of the fiscal year.

Fund managers say investments returned a negative 8.3 percent for the first quarter of the fiscal year. That was largely attributed to slow growth, and political and economic difficulties around the world.

Most of the decline in the fund’s value because of the recent drop in stocks. August was a particularly rough month with equity markets plunging as much as 19 percent in just days.

Chief Executive Officer Michael Burns said when they reported more than a 20 percent return for the last fiscal year, he said his enthusiasm was tempered because bull markets don’t last forever.

Burns said in a written statement issued Wednesday that they don’t chase returns or take a reactive approach to investing. Instead, he said they build an all-weather portfolio that doesn’t change to reflect market conditions.

Stocks may have declined, but Burns said their real estate holdings remained essentially flat and they had modest returns on their bond holdings. Burns said that’s how such a portfolio is supposed to work.

The statutory net income for the quarter, used to calculate dividends, totaled about $468 million.

Alaska State Troopers have released the name of the helicopter pilot killed in a crash outside Iliamna in southwest Alaska.

Troopers say 66-year-old William Zeman of Douglas was a senior pilot for Era Helicopters. He was killed in the crash Saturday near the village on Iliamna Lake.

The helicopter had been used for seismic work in Nome.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Clint Johnson said the helicopter was headed to Anchorage.

Zeman had made refueling stops in Unalakleet and Bethel and planned to spend the night in Iliamna.

Era’s GPS and web-based tracking system received a final signal from the helicopter at 8:02 p.m. Saturday.

Helicopter wreckage, with Zeman’s body inside, was discovered by searchers at about noon Sunday six miles southwest of Iliamna.