Matt Miller

Sentencing is planned for December 8th for the Juneau man who attempted to rob a bank and then promptly gave up.

66-year old Kenneth Montoya pled guilty on Wednesday to a single count of robbery in the second degree. He was originally charged with theft and robbery in the first degree.

Juneau Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg carefully and methodically explained to Montoya the rights he’d be giving up by changing his plea.

Defense attorney David Seid says his client is legally competent, but he intends to explain at the sentencing hearing how “mental health issues influenced his conduct.”

Montoya was arrested minutes after he allegedly used a toy or fake gun to rob a teller at First National Bank on Front Street minutes after it opened for business on May 31st. He allegedly asked bank employees to call police during the robbery.

During a court hearing following his arrest, Montoya repeatedly maintained that he did not need or want a lawyer.

The maximum sentence for robbery is ten-years in prison with a $100,000 fine. But Montoya will likely be ordered to served one- to three-years in prison and will spend fifteen-years on probation.

Stories include PFD deposits and mail-outs starting today and plastic bag initiative supporters moving beyond Tuesday’s election.

Stories include the latest unofficial results from Tuesday’s municipal election.

We have more details in this section devoted to the election and various campaigns.

A preliminary groundbreaking was held Monday morning for the Alaska State Museum project in Juneau. State officials, historians, and lawmakers used a golden shovel to dig up the grass sod at one of the driveway entrances to the museum.

Linda Thibodeau, director of the state Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums, says they already have $32 million dollars for the $124.5 million dollar project. A formal groundbreaking is planned for some time next year when the project is fully-funded.

Formerly called SLAM – for State Library, Archives, and Museum – the expansion project would incorporate all of Juneau’s facilities in a single building.

Thibodeau says the current Alaska State Museum building no longer meets code and has many problems. She says they determined that it would be more practical to demolish and rebuild the structure, rather than renovate and add on to it. Space is running out on the eighth floor of the State Office Building for the Library and Historical Collections, while the Archives building located below the SOB is literally splitting in two.

Louis Menendez, the former defense attorney and prosecutor, took the oath and participated in a ceremonial robing on Friday as the newest Superior Court Judge for Juneau. It was largely for the benefit of Menendez’s friends and family; A childhood friend and his brother, daughter and young grandson came up to Juneau to participate in the ceremony. The event was videotaped for Menendez’s mother back home. Menendez’s father, the son of Spanish immigrants, passed away earlier this year, but after hearing news in May that Menendez had been appointed to the bench.

Menendez has actually been working as a judge since he took the oath in small, brief ceremony administered by Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Walter Carpeneti on September 9th.

Last Friday afternoon, Carpeneti was accompanied by every other sitting state judge in Southeast Alaska for a public version of the event. Several retired judges, clerks and staff at the Dimond Courthouse, and attorneys packed a courtroom to standing room only. Menendez joins Juneau District Court Judge Thomas Nave and Sitka Superior Court Judge David George on the bench. All three were formerly private attorneys that simultaneously occupied offices in a house on Seventh Street, just a few blocks up the hill from the Dimond Courthouse. They earned the nickname of “Boys on the Hill” — in part — because of the ‘legal firepower’ that was concentrated there.

Menendez applied for the seat vacated by retiring Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins.

Menendez earned his law degree from University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco with graduate work at New York University. The start of his law career includes working as a federal public defender in Texas, in civil law in Juneau, and as a state prosecutor in various Alaska communities — interspersed with stints caring for family in Monterey, California and attending New York University Film School. Since 1995, Menendez has made his mark as a private defense attorney, sometimes taking on high profile criminal cases.

Stories include an a preview of Tuesday’s municipal election.