Recent News

Memorial Day observances were held in three locations around Juneau on Monday.

The community of Hoonah will be without ferry service for two weeks in June as renovations are made to the transfer bridge and dock at the terminal.

Simone Kim was killed in August of 2006 at the Juneau Fred Meyer store by a rifle obtained by Jason Coday at a nearby gun shop. Kim’s family believes that the owner of Rayco Sales is liable for Kim’s death.

Known as the grand dame of Alaska politics, Katie Hurley is 90 today (3/30/11).

Hurley needs little introduction to most Alaskans. The chief clerk of Alaska’s Constitutional Convention, a former legislator, chair of the state education board – the list is long, and she’s still actively involved in her community and state.

She’s been honored in events this past week in Juneau and Palmer, where at a birthday party on Sunday she was crowned Alaska’s Sweetheart.

Basketball is king in rural Alaska, and nowhere is that more evident than Juneau’s annual Gold Medal tournament now in its 65th year.

Organized by the Juneau Lions Club, the annual Spring Break competition brings together teams from all over Southeast – from Metlakatla in the south to Haines in the north. Over the years intense rivalries have formed between villages, as well as larger communities like Juneau and Sitka. But behind the rivalries, the players have genuine respect for each other.

Casey Kelly reports.

Ask a Gold Medal old timer who some of the best players in tournament history are, and you’re likely to get a rapid fire response.

“Guys like Scudero and Stigen, my brother Mike,” says Jim Jensen from Yakutat, who’s playing in his 41st Gold Medal tournament.

In case you missed it, the guys he mentioned were Jerry Scudero from Metlakatla, Greg Stigen from Haines, and Mike Jensen from Yakutat. All three have been inducted into the Gold Medal Hall of Fame. And for tournament fans, they might as well be Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

“The only time we get to see a lot of these guys is here at Gold Medal,” says Jensen. “It’s just a great tournament. Myself, I think it’s the best in Alaska.”

Years ago, State Senator Albert Kookesh from Angoon was quoted as saying “Muslims go to Mecca, Tlingits to Gold Medal.” A 1993 inductee into the Gold Medal Hall of Fame, Kookesh played in the tournament for 29 years. Bad knees forced him to give up basketball a few years ago – a result, he jokes, of too much dunking the ball when he was a kid. But he still tries to go as many Gold Medal games as he can.

“People yelling, ‘Hoonah, Hoonah, Hoonah,’ or you know ‘Angoon’ or ‘Kake.’ I mean there’s just enthusiasm,” says Kookesh. “I’ve gone to a lot of tournaments in my life, but you don’t see the enthusiasm in the hall where you’re almost rocking the gymnasium off of its foundation when people get excited.”

Kookesh says his favorite tournament was 1983, when Angoon beat Klukwan to win its first championship. At the time he says it was unusual for two village teams to make it to the championship game, which was usually dominated by larger communities like Juneau and Sitka.

“We just had a group of young guys from our village and everything just clicked,” says Kookesh. “And we shot good and we played good defense and everything just worked.”

He says what he enjoyed most about playing in the tournament – and misses most now – is the competition.

“The rivalry is intense,” he says. “You don’t want to get beat by Yakutat if you’re from Angoon, and you don’t want to get beat by Hoonah if you’re from Kake.”

Of course, all good sports rivalries need crazy fans.

“I’m just rooting with the crowd right now,” shouts Tracey Turnbull of Juneau. “Go Yakutat!”

Turnbull has been to more than a dozen Gold Medal Tournaments, and says it has the best sports atmosphere in Alaska.

“It brings people from all over Southeast Alaska and families from different communities and friends, you know people play basketball together high school, and they just continue to play with each other and against each other,” she says.

Championship games for this year’s tournament will be played over the weekend, and Yakutat’s Jim Jensen says it may very well be his last Gold Medal. He’s not getting any younger, and after 41 years it’s harder to get up and down the court. Then again…

“I threatened to quit last year, because it’s just too hard on my body,” Jensen says. “But they start practicing and I show up, you know?”

Twenty-one teams in three different brackets are playing in this year’s Gold Medal Tournament.

Proceeds from ticket and merchandise sales go to the Juneau Lions Club’s scholarship program, as well as local charities. Each team also gets a little travel money.

Championship games for this year’s Gold Medal Tournament start at 4 p.m. Saturday. First up is the “M” or Master’s bracket game, followed at 6 p.m. by the “C” bracket game, and the “B” bracket championship at 8 p.m. All games are played in the Juneau Douglas High School gym.

One-million dollars bail set for the Hoonah man accused of shooting and killing two police officers.

John Marvin, Jr., 45, appeared in Juneau District Court on Tuesday. He was escorted by a state trooper and a judicial services officer, and dressed in red prison pants and shirt, and slip-on shoes with his hands & feet cuffed and chained.

District Attorney Doug Gardner says he doesn’t routinely ask for such a high bail amount. He justified it by saying the shooting of Officers Tony Wallace and Matt Tokuoka was an “unprovoked slaying.” Both officers did not even contact Marvin Saturday night and were — instead – socializing with their own family members. Tokuoka was off-duty, and had his two children with him. Wallace’s mother, Debbie Greene, was doing a ride along with her son as he patrolled Hoonah’s streets.

Marvin also has a criminal record including a conviction for sexual abuse of a minor in 1993.

Magistrate John Sivertsen attempted to explain to Marvin his rights. but Marvin did not appear to be very responsive.

At least twice he blurted out “I’m John McMartin Royal.”

Then, after Magistrate Sivertsen read the charging documents, Marvin repeatedly asked “Who’s treating Officer Wallace?”

In what appeared to be a brief moment of partial frustration, Magistrate Sivertsen replied “I don’t know. I think he’s dead.”

Marvin was appointed a public defender who did not immediately oppose the high bail amount.  Assuming that Marvin can come up with the million dollars, he will also likely have a third-party custodian appointed.

Sivertson advised Marvin that, if convicted, he would face a minimum of 99-years in prison for each charge of murder of a police officer.

Tuesday’s court hearing was also attended by sullen members of the District Attorney’s office – a few of whom were visible upset —  plus half-a-dozen Juneau police officers, state troopers from the Juneau post, and other courthouse staff.

Marvin’s next court appearance in Juneau District Court is September 8^th unless a grand jury returns with a bill of indictment. Then, Marvin will be arraigned in Juneau Superior Court.

In what may be a ironic twist of fate, an apparent act of conciliation by Officers Wallace and Tokuoka may have been repaid with the loss of their life.

District Attorney Doug Gardner explained in court Tuesday that Marvin last had a run-in with the very same officers as they responded to a call of an intruder in August of last year. Marvin was charged with criminal trespass, resisting arrest, and two courts of assault on a police officer. Those charges were later dismissed –Gardnersays – at the request of Wallace and Tokuoka. Marvin had already spent four months in jail waiting for his case to move forward and the officers felt it was time to “move on.”

Marvin’s criminal history goes back nearly 20-years. He was ticketed for set of traffic offenses last January in Hoonah, including driving a vehicle without an operator’s license and failing to license and register his vehicle. He pled no contest to those violations.

Court records indicate that he also pled no contest to furnishing alcohol to a minor in Hoonah in July of 2006.

Marvin also had a dust-up with Juneau Police in July of 1991. He pled no contest to a domestic violence assault charge for dragging his then-separated wife by the hair across the street at Front andFranklin. Then, he tried to pull a responding officer to the ground by grabbing his arm. For that, Marvin pled no contest to an additional charge of disorderly conduct.

Perhaps the most significant is the conviction for sexual abuse of a minor in 1993. Marvin was convicted of abusing his stepdaughter over the course of four years. She was 9 years old when it finally stopped. Marvin was sentenced to 10-years in prison with 4-years suspended. His probation was to last 5-years. Part of Marvin’s sentence included sex offender treatment at the Hiland Mountain-Meadow Creek facility in Eagle River. But court records indicate that he stopped going two months after his entered the program. Years later, just before Marvin was scheduled to be paroled, prosecutors apparently discovered that he had not been following through on his sentence, and moved to revoke his probation. That motion was dismissed the following year after prosecutors were apparently convinced that he returned to treatment and had followed through.

Marvin is not listed in the state’s sex offender registry database since his conviction was before Alaska’s law was enacted in August of 1994.

Gardner said in court Tuesday that he could not be specific, but both short and long guns were reported found by investigators in Marvin’s residence.