Crime & Courts

The Juneau Police Department has placed an officer on administrative leave following a violent arrest on Wednesday that led to a man being medevaced out of town for a head injury. 

City and tribal officials have expressed concern about the incident after a witness posted a video online. But that witness said he felt protected by the officer’s actions.

Juneau’s City Manager Katie Koester released a statement on Friday responding to the incident and public outcry that has followed. She said the city acknowledges the “deep community concern” over the incident and is taking steps to review the department’s policies and procedures. 

According to Koester, the Juneau Police Department has requested an independent investigation by an external agency to review the use of force by the officer. Following the investigation, the state’s Office of Special Prosecutions will then review the case to determine if the officer was justified in his response. 

Koester said the city will also conduct an internal investigation of the case to examine the incident and whether the officer’s actions aligned with the department’s current policy. Body camera footage of the incident will be released to the public within 30 days of the incident. 

“We appreciate our community’s outreach and shared concerns, and are taking steps to review our own policies, procedures, and practices to ensure they are consistent with JPD values to preserve human life while meeting its mission to protect public safety,” the statement said. 

Police have not named the officer or the injured man – nor have they shared his current condition.  

According to the department, the incident took place after officers responded to a report of a woman fighting with a man outside of the Douglas Library. Police say the woman threw water in the man’s face and made racial comments. 

According to the department, an officer was attempting to place her under arrest and into a vehicle when a friend of hers appeared and continued to yell at the man. Police say the man then aggressively approached an officer. 

Police say the officer attempted to place the man under arrest and into handcuffs, but he resisted and was “taken to the ground.”

Ibn Bailey was the man initially harassed by the woman and who recorded the video of the incident that has circulated online. He said he was surprised by the community reaction to the video and said he felt protected by the officer’s actions.

“The officer was able to respond in the manner and the quickness in which he did, in what I can only describe as the most professional manner, given the circumstance,” he said. 

The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, based in Juneau, has also responded to the video with a statement. In a social media post, President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson said the tribe is “deeply concerned” about the incident, which he said involved a tribal citizen. 

Peterson said the level of force used during the arrest raises serious questions and asked the mayor and police chief for several actions, including a meeting with tribal leadership and an independent review of the incident.

A Juneau man was medevaced to Seattle this week after being slammed to the ground by a Juneau police officer. 

According to a press release from the department Thursday afternoon, the incident took place Wednesday evening. Police say the man is 49 years old, but did not name him.

According to the department, the incident took place after officers responded to a report of a woman fighting with a man outside of the Douglas Library. It says the woman threw water in the man’s face and made racial comments. 

According to police, an officer was attempting to place her under arrest and into a vehicle when a friend of hers appeared and continued to yell at the man. Police say the man then aggressively approached an officer. 

Police say the officer attempted to place the man under arrest and into handcuffs, but he resisted and was “taken to the ground.”

A video of the incident has circulated online. It shows an officer arresting a woman, before panning to a man and another officer in front of a vehicle. 

The officer stands behind the man who is leaning over the vehicle. After a few seconds, it appears the officer wraps both arms around the man and slams them both to the ground. The video shows the man’s head hitting the concrete sidewalk. He remains there unmoving for the duration of the video. 

Police say the man was initially brought to Bartlett Regional Hospital with a head injury before being transported to Seattle. Police did not share the man’s current condition.

The department did not immediately respond to requests for more information. According to police, the incident is currently under investigation. 

Content warning: This article includes mentions of sexual assault and abuse that may be uncomfortable for some readers. Resources are available at the bottom of this post.

After 10 days of jury selection, lawyers read opening statements Tuesday in the trial of a former Juneau chiropractor arrested four years ago on multiple sexual assault charges. Jeffrey Fultz is accused of assaulting more than a dozen women under the guise of medical care while he worked at Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium.

While the charges against Fultz have been public for years, this was the first chance to hear from his defense.

One of Fultz’s defense attorneys, Wally Tetlow, opened with arguments that Fultz provided legitimate care to the witnesses.

“The evidence in the case is going to show that during legitimate medical treatment, Dr. Fultz did make contact with sensitive areas of the body, but he did not make any contact with sensitive areas of the body without consent,” Tetlow said.

He said while the women accusing Fultz of assault may have been uncomfortable during their treatment, that does not mean he committed assault. 

He also argued the investigating officer Daniel Darbonne — a former Juneau Police officer who died in 2023 — told women they were assaulted without reviewing the medical records himself.

“They didn’t know at all whether it’s legitimate medical treatment or not, but it was,” he said. “But Darbonne tells them it’s not, and they believe him.”

The defense attorney ended with a plea to the jury. 

“At conclusion of the evidence in this case, we’re going to ask you to find Mr. Fultz not guilty on all of the charges,” he said.

The Fultz trial comes after years of delays, and will decide whether he perpetrated the crimes more than a dozen Juneau women accuse him of. He could face years in prison.

Judge Larry Woolford read instructions to the 16 jurors seated.

“This is a criminal trial, and the fundamental obligation of jurors in a criminal trial is to apply the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. “The defendant, although accused of a crime, begins trial with a clean slate with no evidence favoring conviction.”

State prosecutor Jessalyn Gillum opened the state’s case against Fultz by outlining what he’s accused of. 

“We are here because the defendant engaged in sexual contact with his patients under the guise of legitimate medical treatment,” she said. “He violated their trust and he violated their bodies. ” 

She read the list of witnesses and what they sought treatment for in chronological order, beginning with when they started treatment. 

“Upon these allegations becoming public, additional women stepped forward,” Gillum said.

Gillum outlined what witnesses will say: women who sought care for injuries in their hands and arms would find Fultz spending extensive time on their buttocks and breasts. In some instances, they claim he touched their vaginas. They said that Fultz didn’t leave the room when women undressed and that he ignored “no” and dismissed uncertainty from his patients. 

The jury will hear from expert witnesses and alleged victims in the coming days. The trial is expected to last for at least another two weeks.

The Indian Health Services established a hotline for callers to report suspected child abuse or sexual abuse by calling 1-855-SAFE-IHS (855-723-3447) or submitting a complaint online on the IHS.gov website. The hotline may be used to report any type of suspected child abuse within the IHS, or any type of sexual abuse regardless of the age of the victim. The person reporting by phone or online may remain anonymous.

Locally, people can call AWARE in Juneau at 907-586-1090.

After an 8-month investigation, the law enforcement officers arrested multiple Juneau residents this week for their roles in an alleged organized drug distribution ring. 

According to a press release, the investigation began last fall and involved multiple law enforcement agencies in Alaska and California, where the drugs allegedly originated before arriving in Juneau.

In total, seven people — both Juneau and California residents — were arrested and indicted for charges related to the distribution of about 7 kilograms worth of methamphetamine.

The Alaska Bar Association’s board of governors is considering whether to recommend the disbarment of former federal judge Joshua Kindred and will vote on the issue next month.

Kindred, appointed by President Donald Trump to the U.S. District Court of Alaska, resigned in 2024 after investigators found that he had a “sexualized relationship” with a clerk who became a prosecutor and lied about it to a senior judge and investigators, and maintained a hostile workplace for law clerks.

Kindred’s Alaska law license is listed as “inactive” in the ABA database; disbarring him would mean that he is unable to practice law in the state.

A final decision on disbarment would come from the Alaska Supreme Court, which makes the final decisions on attorney discipline in the state, said Annette Blair, legal secretary of the discipline section for the bar association.

No current or former federal judge has ever been disbarred in Alaska.

According to documents made available ahead of the bar association’s August meeting, someone filed a complaint against Kindred in January, requesting a discipline hearing.

Kindred did not attend that hearing, which took place in June.

“Based on the uncontested facts, the (area hearing) committee agrees with, and adopts, the legal analysis set out in the petition as well as in the memorandum that disbarment is the appropriate sanction for Mr. Kindred’s misconduct,” the hearing report states.

In a footnote, the committee recommended that Kindred be given a path to restoring his law license after at least five years of disbarment.

“We enter our decision not with any joy. It is our collective hope Mr. Kindred can recover emotionally, financially and physically notwithstanding the hardships Mr. Kindred confronts,” a footnote states.

The bar association’s board of governors is scheduled to meet Aug. 21 by Zoom, with the vote on action against Kindred expected in the afternoon.

If the board approves disbarment, that recommendation will be sent to the Alaska Supreme Court for final action, to be taken at an as-yet-unscheduled date.

Former state Rep. David Eastman has won his lawsuit against Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state of Alaska, successfully challenging the governor’s decision to allow a bill to become law last year.

In the suit, Eastman — a Republican from Wasilla — challenged the constitutionality of Senate Bill 189, citing a clause of the Alaska Constitution that requires lawmakers to limit bills to a single subject.

In the final hours of the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers combined several other bills into SB 189. Dunleavy and the executive branch had no role in the crafting of the bill, but because the governor allowed the bill to become law without his signature, the suit named him as a defendant.

On Tuesday, Juneau Superior Court Judge Larry Woolford signed an order declaring that the bill “was passed by the 33rd Alaska Legislature in violation of Article II, Section 13 of the Alaska Constitution and is therefore void.”

Woolford’s order also awards Eastman $20,250 in costs and attorney fees. Eastman was represented in the suit by attorney Joe Geldhof.

The legal victory has limited immediate impact because lawmakers this year re-passed all the bills that were combined into Senate Bill 189. Woolford’s order “does not address and has no effect on subsequent legislation repealing and reenacting the provisions of SB 189.”

Its biggest impact may be to constrain current and future legislators, preventing them from repeating the kinds of legislative logrolling that have become commonplace in the final days of each two-year legislative cycle.

Because bills die at the end of the legislative cycle and few bills pass both House and Senate, it has become common for lawmakers to make last-hours amendments that combine bills in an effort to speed them across the legislative finish line.

“We are pleased to have resolved the Eastman v. Dunleavy case, which challenged a bill on the grounds of violating the single subject rule,” Attorney General Treg Taylor said by email on Tuesday.

“Following the filing of the lawsuit, the Department of Law sought to provide the Legislature with an opportunity to rectify this by breaking the bill into separate pieces of legislation. Fortunately, the Legislature successfully completed their work prior to the conclusion of the case, avoiding confusion on the laws enacted,” Taylor said.

No appeals are expected.