Crime & Courts

Petersburg’s police chief and his employer, the Petersburg Borough, have officially resolved a lawsuit over his statements during the COVID-19 pandemic with a $70,000 out-of-court settlement.

That means the remaining claim about Chief James Kerr’s First Amendment rights will not go to trial this summer.

Kerr testified against enforcing a masking mandate during a fall 2021 borough Assembly meeting. He said he was speaking as a private citizen.

This ultimately snowballed into a multi-year legal battle between Kerr and the borough.

In the months following his testimony, Kerr told the borough he had become the subject of retaliatory harassment and intimidation by two Assembly members. The borough hired legal counsel to look into the matter, and the investigation’s findings did not favor Kerr.

After KFSK reported a story in summer 2022 with information about the investigation and a statement from the borough, Kerr’s supervisor, Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht, asked that Kerr submit any future public statements to him for prior review, noting that community members might conflate Kerr’s personal views with official borough positions due to his occupation.

Kerr maintained that he was speaking only as a community member, not as chief of police, when he testified against the masking mandate. He took issue with the borough’s actions and how the legal situation was explained to the public, and he filed a lawsuit in state court to seek reparations. The defendants — the borough and its manager — moved the case to federal court. By then, it had been nearly two years since Kerr’s initial testimony.

Kerr’s lawsuit claimed that the borough defamed him, portrayed him in a false light, and that the borough’s policy limited his speech and violated his constitutional First Amendment rights. In March, a federal court in Juneau ruled in favor of the borough on most of the claims. For the remaining claim regarding the police chief’s free speech rights, the court granted the borough manager immunity, but ruled the verdict would be better determined by a jury trial in August or for the parties to settle through mediation.

The two sides gave mediation a try in June, and the borough emailed a short press release announcing they’d reached a settlement: The borough’s risk pool insurance will pay Kerr $70,000 as part of the agreement.

According to the release, the parties believe that it’s important for borough officials to work well together and that settling the case is what’s best for the public. It said both sides made compromises, but it didn’t provide any specific detail and no clarification was given by either party when asked. They’ve also agreed not to comment further publicly about the settlement.

The borough’s attorneys did not respond to multiple requests for clarifying information, including questions about the “concessions” made by each party. Kerr’s attorneys also did not provide clarification or answers about any potential changes in policy they were seeking.

The parties reached the settlement agreement on June 11. The case officially closed in court July 2, with all of Kerr’s claims against the defendants formally dismissed.

A Juneau man has pleaded guilty to killing a one-month-old infant in his care last year. 

Superior Court Judge Amy Mead took a plea deal earlier this week for 45-year-old James White, who was charged with second-degree murder. In an agreement with the state, prosecutors dismissed three lesser charges. 

Mead will sentence White later this year to serve between 20 and 99 years in prison, but he can only serve a maximum of 40 years of active jail time. 

Juneau police arrested White in November. His arrest came seven months after emergency responders were called to a hotel in Juneau last spring following a report that an infant wasn’t breathing.

Bartlett Regional Hospital later pronounced the baby girl dead due to “significant physical injuries to the head.” An autopsy showed blunt force injury to the head as the cause of her death. 

White was the infant’s caregiver at the time of the incident and was at the hotel with other children when responders arrived. He denied any wrongdoing at the time and was not arrested.

A spokesperson for the Juneau Police Department said it took a months-long investigation to gather enough probable cause to eventually arrest him for the infant’s death. 

White was already being held at Lemon Creek Correctional Center for a prior alleged domestic violence assault when he was charged. He’s since been transferred to Goose Creek Correctional Center in Wasilla and is not allowed bail leading up to his sentencing. 

Clarification: Judge Mead can still decide to reject White’s plea at a later date. 

A Juneau man who pleaded guilty to stabbing his neighbor to death at a senior and disabled housing facility in 2020 was sentenced on Tuesday, nearly five years after his arrest. 

Superior Court Judge Amy Mead sentenced 34-year-old Joshua Allen Shaff to serve 70 years with 35 years suspended. That means after 35 years, he may be released on probation under a number of conditions. 

He was charged with the murder of Majid Sateri, 69, also known as Mark Humford. In 2020, the victim’s family called for Shaff to serve the maximum penalty in prison, which was 99 years.

The sentencing comes after Shaff pleaded guilty last year to first-degree murder in an agreement with the state. Prosecutors dismissed two second-degree murder charges. 

Sateri and Shaff were neighbors in the Mountain View Apartments. According to reporting at the time, Shaff called the police and reported the murder himself from the downtown Juneau apartment complex. 

Shaff initially waived his right to a speedy trial. Half a decade later, he’s been sentenced for stabbing Sateri multiple times while experiencing a mental health crisis. This criminal case is one of many in Alaska that have faced delays in part due to a backlog that formed during the pandemic. 

Shaff is currently being held at Lemon Creek Correctional Facility. 

Editor’s note: This story originally reported the trial would begin Monday, July 14 due to a clerical error on the court system calendar. It actually begins Tuesday, July 15. 

A new trial date has been set for the 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. His trial is scheduled to start next Tuesday.

This is Fultz’ third trial date. It comes after nearly 50 hearings and numerous postponements. But at a pre-trial hearing Tuesday, the state prosecutor, judge and Fultz’s defense attorney all said they plan to avoid further delays. 

A final pretrial hearing is scheduled for Friday. 

Police arrested Fultz in 2021 based on seven initial accusations that he had assaulted patients while he was a chiropractor for Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. Fultz now faces 15 felony sexual assault charges and one misdemeanor harassment charge. 

Fultz has been living in Colorado since posting bail four years ago. He has made one in-person appearance in Juneau court since.

One of Fultz’s accusers, a woman the courts are identifying as C.E.L., said that she is relieved and grateful this case may finally go to trial. 

“So many of us have lived in this limbo, and we’ve been unable to fully heal, because the system that promises accountability has kept stalling,” she said.

Several factors contributed to the delay. The investigating Juneau police officer died. The first judge assigned to the case retired. Fultz’s first attorney was deemed “mentally unable” to continue with the case. 

Fultz hired his current attorney, James Christie, in January of last year.

Fultz’s case was first scheduled to begin trial in February of this year but was delayed as the court continued to process and release outstanding records. Then, it was scheduled for a trial date in April but was delayed yet again when a member of the defense team experienced serious health issues.

Some of the charges Fultz faces date back to 2014. 

“Once we get into trial, what we’ll see is that some of the victims, the harm happened to them 11 years ago,” C.E.L. said. “Like, that’s when Obama was in office.”

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica reported early this year that felony cases in Alaska often face years of delays requested by defense attorneys and approved by judges.

Due to new limitations established by the Alaska Supreme Court, cases filed before 2023 now have a limit of 270 days before they must go to trial starting in May. 

The order says the defense and prosecution are each allotted 90 days of delay requests, and a further 90 days is included for “other periods of delay for good cause.”

C.E.L. said long delays can take a toll on alleged victims of assault.

“This idea that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ is absolutely true, and that every delay reinforces the idea that harm against victims isn’t urgent, isn’t serious,” C.E.L. said. 

The trial is scheduled for a five-week time period, starting next Tuesday and lasting into August. Judge Larry Woolford will be presiding. 

The public may attend proceedings in person in Courtroom A at Juneau’s Dimond Courthouse, or by phone.  

In early 2021, the Indian Health Services established a hotline for callers to report suspected 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.

People who suspect they may be the victims of sexual abuse in Juneau can also call AWARE at (907) 586-1090.

The Eklutna Tribe has operated its new casino outside Anchorage under the shadow of two separate lawsuits. A federal judge has dismissed one of those, filed by a group of property owners near the tribe’s casino in Birchwood.

With approval from the U.S. Interior Department, the tribe opened its Chin’an Gaming Hall on a Native allotment in February.

The property owners argued that the casino harmed the rural character of their neighborhood and claimed it would increase traffic, noise and raise the risk for water pollution. Their attorney, Don Mitchell, also challenged the Native Village of Eklutna’s status as a federally recognized tribe.

“Congress has never allowed a middle-ranking employee of the Interior Department to just wave a magic wand and create 200 Indian tribes, either in Alaska or any other place,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell is referring to Ada Deer, who served as Assistant Secretary of Interior during the Clinton administration. In 1993, she included Eklutna in a list of Alaska tribes to eliminate any doubt that they have the same status as tribes in the Lower 48. Numerous court cases have tried and failed to invalidate this decision. In a ruling on Friday, June 27, U.S. District Judge James Robart said the Eklutna lawsuit should be dismissed in “equity and good conscience.”

In a statement, Aaron Leggett, the president of the Native Village of Eklutna called the ruling a significant step forward, because it affirmed an important principle to the tribe — that its rights are firmly rooted in the land.

Tribal legal experts like Michelle Demmert says even one challenge to an Alaska tribe’s legitimacy threatens them all. They also consume time, energy and precious dollars, she says.

“Time and time again, the law is clear in these areas that continue to be challenged,” said Demmert, an attorney in the Tribal Governance Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “If the argument was that the Eklutna tribe is not a tribe, there’s legal precedent. There’s federal law that says, ‘They are.'”

Mitchell disagrees that the federal law and courts have been clear on tribal jurisdiction in Alaska.

Depending on what the neighboring property owners decide, Mitchell says an appeal could be the next step, because the judge delivered a second blow to his case on Monday. Mitchell had asked the judge to reconsider his ruling, a motion he quickly rejected.

The tribe also faces another federal lawsuit, this one brought on by the Alaska Attorney general. It also aims to shut down the casino and contests the tribe’s authority over the land the gaming hall was built on land that was conveyed to the Ondola family under the Alaska Native Allotment Act of 1906.

The Chin’an Gaming Hall sits on about eight acres near the Birchwood Airport, which the tribe has leased from the heirs of the Ondola family. During the Biden administration, the Interior Department reversed course on an earlier decision that said Native allotments in Alaska could not be considered “Indian Country.” This step cleared the way for the casino’s approval.

Since the gaming establishment opened, it’s seen brisk business, sometimes with long lines waiting to enter. Chin’an means thank you in the Dena’ina language. For now, it’s a small gambling operation in a temporary building limited to electronic gaming. The Native Village of Eklutna hopes to build a permanent facility, so it can add restaurants and expand its operations. The tribe hopes to use the money to create jobs for its members and fund social and economic development programs.

Earlier this week, a man arrested for the 2022 murder of a Juneau woman was released from prison in Wasilla.

In early June, a judge dismissed charges against Anthony Michael Migliaccio based on a lack of evidence. On Monday, Juneau’s District Attorney Whitney Bostick decided not to refile charges.

“At this time, the State no longer believes it can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Bostick said as part of her statement. “While this decision may be painful, it reflects our legal and ethical responsibility under the law.”

The Department of Law said the decision was based on new information, but declined to say what that new information was or elaborate beyond the initial statement.

Migliaccio was arrested two months after Faith Rogers was found dead on a popular Juneau hiking trail in September 2022. Migliaccio was indicted on charges of murder and manslaughter.

Since his release Monday, some Juneau residents have questioned this outcome. They have been posting their frustrations and fears online. A Reddit post contains a video allegedly posted by Migliaccio talking about planning to get away with murder. And on Facebook, commenters say they aren’t sure if it’s safe to walk trails alone in Juneau.

Betsy Holley from the Department of Corrections says Migliaccio declined transport back to Juneau, and was released to a pre-trial facility in Palmer with no supervision.

Migliaccio maintains his innocence and his attorney, Nico Ambrose, says his client has no plans to return to Juneau.

Ambrose issued a statement Thursday saying police arrested the wrong person. Ambrose argues that public pressure to make an arrest led to this outcome.

“I think the record bears out that the pressure to close the case led the police to cut corners and rush their investigation with the result that they charged the wrong person,” his statement reads.

Ambrose said he doesn’t know why the state stopped pursuing the case, but he offered a few speculations in the emailed statement. He points to a lack of physical evidence.

Police found no blood or DNA from Rogers on Migliaccio when they contacted him hours after her death. He was allegedly wearing the same clothes described by witnesses who saw him near the scene of the crime.

Ambrose said police also lost possible evidence obtained via a search warrant for Rogers’ phone backups, though police say the department re-obtained the evidence. Ambrose also said the police didn’t investigate a conflict she was having with family members.

In an email Thursday, Juneau Deputy Police Chief Krag Campbell defended the department. He said JPD’s investigation showed that Migliaccio was the sole suspect in the case after speaking with multiple people associated with Rogers and the investigation into her death.

“The investigation showed enough evidence to form probable cause that Migliaccio was the suspect in the murder of Faith Rogers,” he said. “And it was determined that he posed an active threat to the community.”

Campbell said JPD stands by the investigation it conducted in 2022.

He said Migliaccio remains the primary suspect in Rogers’ murder and the case currently has no active leads, though JPD will investigate any new information.