Crime & Courts

The Alaska U.S. Attorney’s Office is the subject of a Department of Justice investigation related to a federal judge’s sexual misconduct, Sen. Lisa Murkowski has revealed.

Former U.S. District Court Judge Joshua Kindred resigned in early July ahead of a report by the 9th Circuit’s Judicial Council that he had inappropriate relationships with two federal prosecutors, one of whom had previously been one of Kindred’s law clerks and another who sent him nude photos.

Kindred created a hostile work environment in his office by making sexual remarks to clerks and pursuing a sexual relationship with the former law clerk, including unwanted sexual contact and also lied to the Judicial Council about some of his behavior, the report said.

Kindred’s relationships with the federal prosecutors, who were involved in cases before him, have called his impartiality into question and resulted in the review of at least 40 cases.

The U.S. Judicial Conference has asked the U.S. House to consider impeaching Kindred, which would bar him from holding future office, but Republican congressional leadership have said impeachment is unlikely, given that Kindred has already resigned.

As reported by Bloomberg Law, the U.S. Attorney’s Office was prompt in informing the Judicial Council about the complaints against Kindred, but the former law clerk later alleged that she had been retaliated against for acting as a whistleblower.

The scandal has apparently triggered a review of how the U.S Attorney’s Office in Alaska handled the matter. Sen. Murkowski said in a Sept. 17 social media post that she was aware of an investigation by the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which Murkowski said she hoped would move quickly.

“We must send a message that there is zero tolerance for this reprehensible behavior in our judicial system or any workplace in this country,” Murkowski wrote.

Both the DOJ and the Alaska U.S. Attorney’s Office have declined to confirm the existence of such an investigation.

Meanwhile, Murkowski on Wednesday announced she had cosponsored legislation to ensure protections for federal judicial employees against sexual harassment, retaliation and other forms of workplace misconduct, including discrimination.

The two law enforcement officers who shot and killed a Juneau man who they say lunged at them with a knife during a standoff earlier this summer will not face criminal charges.

The state’s Office of Special Prosecutions released a letter Tuesday clearing Juneau Police Department Sgt. Chris Gifford and Alaska Wildlife Trooper Sgt. Branden Forst in the July 15 shooting of 35-year-old Steven Kissack.

In an interview with JPD Chief Derek Bos, he said he was not surprised with the state’s findings. 

“Ultimately it was not the outcome we all want, but Steve Kissack was the one who dictated the circumstances and he’s the one who had the final say as to how it turned out,” he said. 

Three other JPD officers were also present at the incident but did not fire their weapons. JPD also released the officers’ camera footage from the incident on Tuesday. All of the officers returned to duty in Juneau following a short administrative leave after the shooting. 

Kissack was a member of Juneau’s unhoused community and well-known by many people downtown. He was often seen with his dog, Juno. According to social media posts by Juneau Animal Rescue, Juno has since been adopted by a new owner.

According to JPD, Kissack was first approached by a police officer on July 15 when he was sitting in a doorway on Front Street. Police say the officer questioned Kissack about an alleged assault he was involved in that had happened the day before. Officers deployed non-lethal rounds at Kissack before he was ultimately shot as he moved towards one of the officers holding a knife. 

“When Mr. Kissack, with the knife still in hand, quickly moved towards an officer who attempted to retreat, it was objectively reasonable for Sgt. Forst and Sgt. Gifford to believe that he posed an imminent threat of death or serious physical injury to that officer, and other officers and civilians,” the state’s letter reads. “It was also reasonable to believe that Mr. Kissack presented a danger to others if he was not arrested or stopped.”

Kissack’s death sparked public outcry, vigils and protests by Juneau residents. His interaction with police happened on Front Street in downtown Juneau in the middle of the day, and multiple videos of the incident were shared on social media at the time. 

Since then, residents have called on the police department and Juneau Assembly for more accountability and to increase support for mental health services for unhoused people. 

The release of the body camera footage comes 57 days after Kissack’s death. The Anchorage Police Department recently announced a new policy that body camera footage of police shootings must be released within 45 days. That decision came after a string of officer-involved shootings.

Right now, JPD’s policies do not have a timeline for when body camera footage is released to the public. But, Bos said JPD wants to update its policies in the next few months. 

“I would very much like to get body camera footage released faster. This was a bit of a challenge because there was multiple agencies involved and trying to navigate that,” he said. 

Juneau City Attorney Emily Wright said the Juneau Assembly would then need to approve the change for it to go into effect. 

JPD had previously said Kissack’s family would review the footage before it was released publicly. Three of his siblings visited Juneau last month from Florida, where he was originally from. They said at the time that they wanted more information from police about the circumstances that led to their brother’s death.

In a statement shared with KTOO by his sister, Dawn Kissack, the family asked for space.

“Our family needs time to process all this and we need time to collect ourselves and our thoughts,” she wrote.

This story has been updated with additional information from the Juneau Police Department and Steven Kissack’s family and a copy of the letter from the Office of Special Prosecutions. 

The Juneau Police Department announced Friday that it will release the body camera footage from a deadly July shooting next week at the same time that the Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions will deliver its findings from the investigation into the incident. 

The announcement comes more than 50 days after law enforcement officers shot and killed Steven Kissack, a man who lived on the streets downtown. Police say he had lunged at officers while holding a knife and made violent threats during a confrontation on July 15. 

The shooting happened on a busy downtown street in the middle of the day, with dozens of witnesses. Cell phone footage taken by bystanders at the time showed various angles of the incident from a distance. 

According to the Alaska State Troopers and JPD, only two of the officers involved in the confrontation fired their guns during the incident – Alaska Wildlife Trooper Sergeant Branden Forst and Juneau Sergeant Chris Gifford. Gifford was also involved in a non-fatal police shooting in 2016. 

All of the officers involved were placed on administrative leave after the shooting before returning to active duty.

JPD hadn’t previously given a date when they would make the body camera footage public. Then, on Friday, JPD said that it would release the footage later that day. In an 11:57 a.m. email to local media, JPD Public Safety Manager Erann Kalwara wrote that the department would release the footage along with a press release “late this afternoon or early evening.”

Kalwara emailed again at 2:36 p.m., saying the department had decided to postpone the release to coincide with the state Office of Special Prosecutions report on the shooting. 

JPD did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

City Attorney Emily Wright said the city had been communicating with the Alaska Department of Law about its plan for the footage. The department informed the city on Friday that it planned to release the report on Tuesday. 

“The decision was made to wait and release the video at the same time as the report from the Office of Special Prosecutions. That way the most amount of information can come out all at once,” Wright said. 

Wright did not know whether there would be a press conference on Tuesday, but said Steven Kissack’s family will be given the opportunity to watch the footage before it is released publicly. She said JPD Chief Derek Bos spoke with the family on Friday.

Tuesday will mark 57 days between Kissack’s death and the footage being released. The Anchorage Police Department, which has had a string of officer-involved shootings, recently announced a new policy that body camera footage of police shootings must be released within 45 days. 

Wright said the timeline for releasing body camera footage from past Juneau police shootings has been varied. In some cases it took as long as six months. 

“CBJ, we don’t have an official policy, and that may be something we need to look at,” she said. 

The report from the Office of Special Prosecutions will include analysis of the Alaska Bureau of Investigations’ findings about the incident and if use of force was justified.

Ketchikan Police Chief Jeffrey Walls has agreed to retire in exchange for state prosecutors dropping five misdemeanor assault charges against him.

The charges stem from a 2022 altercation at the Salmon Falls Resort north of Ketchikan. During the incident, Walls allegedly shoved a Washington state man headfirst into a wall, leaving him bloodied, and then put him in a chokehold. The man had allegedly bumped or fallen into Walls and his wife twice before the altercation.

The City of Ketchikan had placed Walls on paid administrative leave while it conducted an internal investigation but reinstated him in Sept. 2023 after a felony assault charge against him was dropped.

Walls’ trial had been scheduled for Sept. 10, but in an agreement filed in Ketchikan Superior Court Wednesday, Walls agreed to retire effective Sept. 9 and relinquish his right to work in law enforcement in Alaska or seek law enforcement employment anywhere else in the country.

Walls has maintained his innocence of any wrongdoing.

This story has been updated to reflect that Chief Walls has agreed to “retire” as opposed to “resign.”

Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of the ADN story.

“Japan Threatens China With War,” blared the banner headline on the Feb. 11, 1919 issue of the Alaska Daily Empire out of Juneau. Other front-page-worthy articles included news on boxer Jack Dempsey, fallout from the First World War, discord between Portugal and Spain, the ongoing Russian Revolution, and a fire in a local laundry. In all, war and labor strife were the dominant themes of the page, as there were also articles about strikes in Seattle, Arizona and London. The brutal murder of a woman in town was removed to the second page of an eight-page newspaper.

Myra Schmidt was a prostitute, a sporting girl, a sex worker. She was many other things besides, but in the social climate of Alaska then, her vocation unfairly defined her, most definitively in death. Rare was the article that did not describe her as a woman of the underworld, the more common term for sex workers of the day. In fact, the first article about her death called her a “woman victim” and “woman of the underworld” before offering her name. Had she been a waitress, her profession wouldn’t have been as integral to her identity. Had she been a waitress, perhaps her violent death in a small community might have made the front page.

Schmidt, also known as Molly Brown and Molly Smith, was last seen alive in the early morning of Feb. 8, 1919. Locals saw her leave a Japanese restaurant on her way back to the isolated cabin that was her home and workplace. That was Saturday. She was around 22 and had only been in Juneau for about six weeks. Like most prostitutes in Alaska then, she was her own boss, without pimp or enforcer. And she was successful. Her safety deposit box at a Juneau bank contained $410, roughly $8,000 in 2024 money, and a receipt for a sealskin coat. Bought in Seattle, the high-quality coat cost $305, roughly $6,000 in 2024 money.

Prostitution had an uneasy quasi-legitimacy in the larger Alaska towns. It was illegal for sure but typically allowed within limits. Many local officials encouraged such activity amid copious winks, nudges and bribes. In 1914, a Juneau city council motion to close every “bawdy house” in town failed for want of a second. Not a failed vote but a failed motion before a vote could be held. In 1915 Anchorage, railroad official Andrew Christensen built a convenient road to the red-light district just outside town.

When brothel houses and sex workers became too public, or too hesitant with their official donations, they could be and often were shut down. Likewise, there were periodic reformers who forced wider closures. Anchorage red-light neighborhoods were closed upon official order no less than five times between 1915 and 1942 alone. Still, they always came back. Officially allowed brothel districts — both called The Line — in Fairbanks and Seward lasted until federal intervention in the early 1950s. Seasoned Anchorage residents will well remember the massage parlors of the 1970s and their whisper-thin veneers of legitimacy.

After Schmidt missed several meals, a couple of female acquaintances dropped by her cabin. On Monday afternoon, Feb. 10, 1919, they discovered the hasp on her door broken, the lock dangling off. The glass windows were smashed, and the screen door damaged. Blood marked most of the surfaces in the small room, the telltale signs of a final struggle. Personal belongings had been searched, alternately scattered or taken. Schmidt’s body was on the bed next to a scarlet-stained towel that had been used to choke her. The killer pushed the towel down her throat, choking her to death.

As noted by several Alaska newspapers, Schmidt was one of several Alaska “women of the underworld” murder victims in recent years. There had been Rose Selberg in 1918 McCarthy and a woman in Douglas just a few months earlier. Over six months later, William Dempsey killed Marie Lavor in Anchorage and tossed her body down a well.

That same Monday evening, 56-year-old John “Whiskey Jack” Gaslow boarded the steamship Estebeth bound for Skagway. He was short, stout and rough-looking, worn by years in the north and with a drinking habit to fit the nickname. His nose and face bore the scars of countless boozy brawls. He had been in Juneau for about a month and had previously borrowed money to eat. Yet, before leaving town, he was coincidentally able to pay his debt and buy a new hat, all besides the steamer ticket itself. He also bore a fresh scratch on his face.

While purchasing a ticket, he dropped a yellow suitcase, which opened to reveal women’s clothing. Stumbling in his conversation with the agent, Gaslow admitted the bag wasn’t his. Instead, he claimed a woman in Juneau had asked him to deliver it to Skagway. The awkward, impromptu lies piled on themselves, including an improbable fake name that still incorporated his actual surname: Gaslow Florentine. Then, Gaslow sealed his fate. He told the agent, “When you return to Juneau, tell an officer about this grip and that it does not belong to me.”

If the suggestion was a bluff, it was ill-advised, given both the recency of the crime and his restricted movements aboard a steamer. An eroded conscience does not a smooth criminal create. The agent followed the murderer’s suggestion and sent word to marshals in Juneau. Detective skills were not as sophisticated in 1919 as they are now, but officers were immediately suspicious of the man fleeing Juneau with a woman’s belongings on the same day a robbed and murdered woman was discovered in Juneau.

At Skagway, the Estebeth was quarantined due to the influenza pandemic. Before the passengers could be cleared to disembark, officials there arrested Gaslow. He initially refused to let them search the suitcase, which was later identified as belonging to Schmidt. The case’s contents included a mink cape, mink hand muff, silk garters, silk panties, two pairs of women’s shoes, a bra and several other feminine articles, 77 of them in all. A sealskin coat matching the receipt from Schmidt’s safety deposit box was also present. Still, the most damning item was a picture of Schmidt, whom Gaslow maintained he had never met.

In short order, Gaslow was bound over for a grand jury while under a $5,000 bond, which he naturally could not pay. As he never learned when to shut up, he talked continually during his time in the Juneau jail, about the murder and anything else that happened to come up. On March 27, the grand jury returned an indictment.

The trial commenced on Sept. 15, but the intervening months had not been sufficient to provide the defendant or his court-appointed attorneys with a functional defense strategy beyond denying every fact in sight. For example, Gaslow never produced evidence of how he might have legitimately been handed the yellow suitcase. He also never explained his newfound wealth: the money for food, hats and steam tickets.

As might be expected by this point, Whiskey Jack was not the best witness to his innocence. When first arrested, he claimed that a delicate manicure set in the yellow suitcase was for trimming horse hooves. At the trial, he claimed they were for an unidentified “lady friend” in Dawson, an illusory Canadian girlfriend. Months later, he said he was referring to a pair of scissors, still inadequate for horses.

At 11 p.m. on Sept. 23, the case went to the jury, which met until 3:45 in the morning before returning with their decision. Despite the lack of direct evidence — witnesses of the crime or a confession — the jury found Gaslow guilty of murder in the first degree. On Oct. 10, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. His tour of this nation’s prisons took him from McNeil Island to Leavenworth to Seagoville, Texas, where he died in 1948. He maintained his innocence throughout his penitentiary tenure, thus ensuring a bond with his fellow inmates, most of whom were also ever so innocent, at least if you asked them.

Key sources:

“Death Caused Choking is the Verdict Given.” Alaska Daily Empire, February 13, 1919, 8.

“Evidence of Murder Found; Woman Victim.” Alaska Daily Empire, February 11, 1919, 2.

“Gaslow is Put on the Stand in Own Defense.” Alaska Daily Empire, September 20, 1919, 5.

“Jack Gaslow Under Arrest at Skagway.” Alaska Daily Empire, February 15, 1919, 8.

“John Gaslow is Found Guilty of Murder Charge.” Alaska Daily Empire, September 24, 1919, 8.

“John Gaslow is Given Life in Penitentiary.” Alaska Daily Empire, October 10, 1919, 8.

Longenbaugh, Betsy. “Forgotten Murders from Alaska’s Capital.” Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press, 2022.

This column was republished with permission from the Anchorage Daily News. 

Two Alaska State Troopers are being charged with misdemeanor assault for using unreasonable force while arresting a person in Kenai who they thought was someone else, according to criminal charges filed Wednesday.

Joseph Miller Jr. and Jason Woodruff, both state troopers based in Soldotna, are facing one count each of fourth-degree assault. Both have served as troopers for more than a decade.

During a news conference on Thursday, Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell said he was “totally sickened” by the incident. He said it’s rare for troopers to face criminal charges for use of excessive force in the field.

“I’ve been with this department 33 years and I’ve never seen any action like this before by an Alaska State Trooper,” Cockrell said. “Let me be clear, the action of these two individuals is not acceptable to me, not in the line of our training and our policy and I know it’s not acceptable to the Alaskans that we serve.”

A 20-page charging document against the troopers, signed by Assistant Attorney General Daniel Shorey, lays out what prosecutors say happened.

According to the charges, Soldotna’s 911 dispatch center received a call on May 24 from someone asking about public camping. Dispatchers believed the call was placed by Garrett Tikka, who had an outstanding arrest warrant, and reported it to local law enforcement. The warrant was for not showing up to serve 10 days in jail for driving with a revoked license.

Charging documents say dispatchers gave law enforcement a description of a vehicle “associated with” Tikka. The Kenai Police Department later located the vehicle near Daubenspeck Park in Kenai. The charges say Miller, who was on duty at the time, waited to contact the man in the vehicle until additional law enforcement arrived and called Woodruff, who had a police dog with him.

Charges say Miller told Woodruff he’d like to have the dog nearby in case Tikka tried to flee.

According to charging documents, video footage from a Kenai police officer’s body-worn camera shows troopers ordering a person inside the vehicle to come out. Then, they break one of the vehicle’s windows and pepper spray inside. The person inside exits the vehicle and gets on the ground.

Law enforcement didn’t ask the person for their name, the charges say, and didn’t learn until much later that the person was not the man they were looking for, but instead his cousin, Ben Tikka.

The incident was recorded on Miller’s camera and the Kenai officer’s camera. Cockrell said Thursday that Woodruff’s camera was not activated during the incident because it had run out of battery power.

The charging documents say the camera footage shows Miller kicking Ben Tikka in the shin, punching him in the back of thr head and pushing him to the ground. Miller then steps on his head, tases Tikka from less than a foot away and puts the end of the Taser directly against his body, according to the charges. While tasing Tikka for a second time, the charges say, Miller incidentally hits one of the other troopers on the scene.

The charges say the dog starts to bite Tikka while he’s on the ground and being tased while trying to get away from the dog. Woodruff gives the dog a bite command and Tikka is bitten multiple times while Miller tases him.

The documents say body camera footage also shows Miller raising his foot and bringing it down quickly near Tikka’s head, Tikka “bleeding profusely” from the face and head while rolling on the ground and Tikka telling troopers he can’t breathe.

A still image from the Kenai officer’s body camera footage shows Tikka on his back and bleeding from the face. To the left, Miller stands over Tikka, tasing him. To the right, Woodruff holds the K9 unit’s leash while the dog bites Tikka.

Charging documents say troopers requested emergency medical services after Tikka said he needed to go to the hospital. Another trooper who arrived on scene after the altercation rode with Tikka to the hospital and learned en route that the victim was Ben Tikka and not Garrett Tikka.

At the hospital, Ben Tikka was interviewed by troopers about his dog bites. Investigators later learned that Tikka underwent surgery after the incident and that he suffered a bite on his arm, a fractured scapula and lacerations on his arm and head.

Troopers later opened a criminal case against Tikka, in which he was charged with three counts of fourth-degree assault, disorderly conduct and resisting or interfering with arrest. That case was later dismissed by the Kenai District Attorney’s office.

While looking into the troopers’ use of force, the Alaska Bureau of Investigation found discrepancies between what Woodruff and Miller wrote in their reports of the incident and what was shown on body camera footage.

The report concludes that Miller and Woodruff’s use of force in the incident was “objectively unreasonable” and that “aspects of their reports are inaccurate and contain omissions.”

Miller is a 14-year veteran of the department and most recently served as a night shift supervisor. Woodruff has been with the department for 16 years and most recently worked as a K-9 officer. Cockrell said both officers are on administrative leave, but said he could not say whether that leave is paid. The police dog is not currently in service.

Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore said in his 25 years of working at the Department of Law, he’s seen charges associated with excessive use of force brought one time, against a police officer in Bethel.

Cockrell said the department is reviewing some of Miller and Woodruff’s previous cases as a result of their conduct in the May 24 incident.

He said it was an “unfortunate day” for the agency and that he hopes Alaskans will continue to put their trust in troopers.

“It’s hard for me to equate how this has affected me and other troopers that wear this uniform,” he said.

Woodruff and Miller are scheduled to be arraigned at the Kenai Courthouse on Sept. 10.