Crime & Courts

The FBI arrested a cruise ship employee in Juneau on Tuesday afternoon, the day after he allegedly stabbed multiple people with scissors aboard the Norwegian Encore. 

Ntando Sogoni, 35, of South Africa was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

In an interview, FBI Public Affairs Officer Chloe Martin said the agency continues to investigate the case. 

“This was an isolated incident, and there’s no threat to other passengers,” she said. 

According to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice and a criminal affidavit filed in federal court, cruise ship employees noticed Sogoni trying to deploy a lifeboat while on the ship late Sunday night. Ship security then brought him to the ship’s medical center for an assessment. 

It’s there early on Monday morning that authorities say Sogoni physically attacked a security guard and nurse in an examination room. He then moved to a different room where he grabbed scissors and stabbed a 75-year-old woman who was being examined, along with two other security guards. 

Officials say the injuries were not life-threatening. 

Sogoni was later detained and held in the ship’s jail before his arrest upon arrival in Juneau Tuesday. 

Authorities say location data provided by the crew of the Norwegian Encore shows the ship was outside the jurisdiction of any U.S. state at the time the incident took place.

In a statement, Norwegian Cruise Lines told KTOO the company will continue cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation.

“We condemn violent behavior of this nature and are committed to the safety and security of all crew members and guests on our ships,” the statement reads. “We commend the onboard security team for their brave actions.”

This story has been updated. 

Three men are charged in federal court for illegally transporting Alaska crab to sell in Washington. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Alaska says Kyle Potter and Justin Welch caught crab in Southeast Alaska this spring and moved them to Seattle at the direction of Potter’s dad, Corey.

The federal indictment says Corey Potter owns the two fishing vessels involved, which were run by his son, Kyle, and Welch. One of the boats is the 97-foot Arctic Dawn, which has been docked in Petersburg this spring but is registered to a Kodiak residence.

The two captains participated in the Southeast Tanner and golden king crab fisheries in February and March, harvesting over 7,000 pounds. Corey Potter allegedly directed the two captains to transport the crab to Seattle to fetch a higher price. By the time they arrived, a lot of the king crab was already dead and about 4,000 pounds of Tanner had to be thrown out because of bitter crab syndrome. Bitter crab is a common parasite and is sorted out at Alaska ports when fishermen sell their catch. It causes the crab to taste bad but isn’t harmful.

The federal indictment says Kyle Potter and Welch never recorded their harvests at an Alaskan port, which is required by state law. And they took the undocumented crab through Canadian and Washington waters, which is against a federal law called the Lacey Act.

Corey Potter is being charged in federal court with two counts of unlawfully transporting fish or wildlife. Kyle Potter and Justin Welch are being charged with one count each of the same thing. Their first court appearance is set for May 2 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew M. Scoble in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.

In February, Justin Welch was fined $1,000 in Petersburg court for using king crab pots that don’t allow smaller crabs to escape. He was put on probation for one year. Back in 2016, Corey Potter and his family, including Kyle, were rescued from their 74-foot tender boat “The Ambition” when it sank near False Pass in the Aleutian Islands.

Attorneys for the men are not listed in the federal indictment. The U.S. Attorney’s office would not make further comments.

A Superior Court judge sentenced a Washington man Tuesday to 99 years in prison for murdering a prominent Ketchikan surgeon.

Judge Michael Wolverton handed down the maximum possible sentence to 39-year-old Jordan Joplin for the murder, saying it was one of the most “brazen and craven” acts he’d seen in his 40 years on the bench.

The front row of the courtroom was packed with Eric Garcia’s family and friends. They wore shiny, maroon ribbons pinned to their chests.

Eric’s brother, Saul Garcia, was the first to take the stand.

He described Eric as a loving brother and skillful surgeon. He remembered being approached at a Mexican restaurant in town by a group of Spanish-speaking workers after Eric’s death. They said his brother had provided them medicine when they couldn’t afford it.

“They recounted how comfortable they felt to have access to a Spanish-speaking medical professional, that related to their culture. They were worried about the future of their medical care, as they didn’t feel comfortable speaking English,” Saul said.

Garcia was a prominent surgeon in Southeast Alaska. He lived in Ketchikan but performed surgeries for smaller communities in the region. Last year, Joplin was found guilty of murdering the surgeon.

The two men were in a romantic relationship in the years leading up to Garcia’s murder. In 2017, Joplin administered a fatal dose of morphine and other drugs to Garcia and loaded three large shipping containers with nearly 2 tons of Garcia’s expensive personal belongings to send back to the lower 48.

Saul Garcia said in the six years since his brother’s death, the family has been swimming through a disorienting fog of grief.

“I felt guilty by not knowing Eric had been suffering from domestic abuse. How did I not not know that? How did I not pick up on it? Why didn’t I call more frequently?” He asked.

He then turned to Joplin.

“Joplin, you’ve made your decision,” Garcia said. “You have chosen your fate. I’m here today to seek justice for Eric and collect on all of your failed gambles. To ensure your unconscious wish of becoming imprisoned for life becomes a reality. I’m here for that.”

Eric Garcia’s sister wasn’t present in the courtroom but delivered a statement through District Attorney Mark Clark. She described their upbringing in a small town in Puerto Rico and Garcia’s life in Ketchikan.

“Eric didn’t have a lot of time for himself – he was working more hours than he could physically deal with,” she wrote, outlining the time when Joplin entered her brother’s life. “At this point in his life, he was very lonely, working many night shifts.”

She and Saul said that their brother was a romantic partner, friend, and protector to Joplin. During the trial, the prosecution presented evidence that Garcia had paid for Joplin’s child support, mortgage, and legal fees, as well as jointly leased a car to help Joplin build credit.

The only person who took the stand to support a lower sentence for Jordan Joplin was Blake Joplin, the defendant’s half-brother. He painted a different picture of Jordan. Blake said he met Jordan 13 years ago, when the pair were connected on Facebook. He said they have the same father but weren’t raised together. They eventually connected in person and Blake said that the brother he met wasn’t someone capable of murder.

“Jordan is loving. He’s just a generally really happy individual, very positive,” Blake Joplin testified.

The elder Joplin said he and his half-brother had talked regularly for 13 years.

Jordan Joplin was also given the opportunity to testify for himself, which he did through his attorney.

“Mr. Joplin has asked me to note that he acknowledges Dr. Garcia’s death and the effect it had on the family and Dr. Garcia’s friends and the community of Ketchikan and that he maintains his innocence of the crime,” defense counsel Lars Johnson read.

Prosecuting attorney Erin McCarthy asked for the greatest sentence possible though.

“The domestic, intimate relationship Mr. Joplin fabricated between himself and Dr. Garcia is not only a factor to consider, but it is as much the murder weapon as the poison Mr. Joplin ultimately used to kill the man who loved him. Perhaps the most horrific part of this crime is how Dr. Garcia wholly gave his heart to Mr. Joplin. While for Mr. Joplin, Dr. Garcia was disposable,” McCarthy said in her final comments, adding that the amount of malice and forethought in this crime was chilling.

Wolverton agreed. He paused for a long time before delivering his statements. He also disagreed with the defense’s position that the community impact shouldn’t be factored into sentencing in this case.

“The community condemnation both from this courtroom today, throughout the community of Ketchikan and all the way up to Anchorage and throughout Alaska calls for imposition of a significant sentence,” Wolverton said.

He then addressed Joplin directly, saying that his actions were inexplicable. “You had access to Dr. Garcia’s wealth,” he said. “He wasn’t withholding.”

The judge also gave him two years for the theft, to be served concurrently. As Joplin was fingerprinted and led out of the courtroom, Garcia’s family and friends cried and exchanged hugs with prosecuting attorneys.

People who were aboard a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet whose door plug was explosively expelled after departing an airport in Portland, Oregon in January are being contacted by the FBI about a criminal investigation.

“I’m contacting you because we have identified you as a possible victim of a crime,” the letter from a victim specialist with the FBI’s Seattle Division begins.

The message, a copy of which was shared with NPR by Mark Lindquist, an attorney representing passengers, lists an investigative case number and tells the passengers they should contact the FBI through an email address set up specifically for people who were on the flight.

“We are pleased the DOJ is investigating,” Lindquist said. “We want answers, accountability, and safer planes. Pressure from the DOJ should help.”

Lindquist, who represents 27 of the 171 passengers on the Boeing airliner, says his clients will speak to federal investigators if they’re asked.

When asked about the investigation and the letters to potential victims on Friday, a spokesperson for the FBI’s office in Seattle told NPR, “Per DOJ policy, the FBI does not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.” A Boeing representative said the company also declines to comment.

News emerged earlier this month that the Department of Justice was opening a criminal investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which took off from Portland shortly after 5 p.m. PST on Jan. 5, bound for Ontario, California.

The plane climbed above 16,000 feet, but a rapid decompression from losing the large panel terrified passengers and sucked phones and other items out of the gaping hole in the fuselage. The flight returned to the airport and made an emergency landing almost exactly 20 minutes after it took off.

At least two groups of passengers have filed lawsuits against Boeing and Alaska Airlines alleging negligence and other failures. Plaintiffs in one lawsuit include Huy Tran, who was seated one row behind the door plug.

“It’s not like when somebody bumps your car on the freeway,” Huy recently told Portland TV station KPTV. “It’s like you almost died and the feelings that come with that.”

The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report found that four important bolts were missing from the Boeing plane — bolts that were meant to prevent the door plug from sliding upward, the agency said.

The debacle is the latest black eye for Boeing, whose reputation was already tarnished by deadly crashes of its 737 Max 8 jets in 2018 and 2019. The Max 8 version of the 737 is around 9 feet shorter than the Max 9.

The door plug failure has put new scrutiny on the deal Boeing reached with the Justice Department to settle a criminal charge related to those crashes, which killed 346 people. The deal angered many families who lost loved ones in the crashes, who said it was too lenient and failed to hold the company and its employees accountable.

Boeing had been accused of engaging in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration, as the regulator evaluated its 737 MAX airplane.

“Federal prosecutors say key Boeing employees ‘deceived the FAA,’ misleading the safety regulators about a new flight control system on the 737 Max called MCAS,” as NPR reported in January of 2021.

The deferred prosecution agreement had been set to expire three years after it was filed on Jan. 7, 2021. But the agreement also allows the DOJ’s Fraud Section to extend its heightened scrutiny for up to an additional year if Boeing is found to have failed to fulfill its obligations — including the airplane company’s promise to strengthen its compliance and reporting programs.

While the deal was set to expire on Jan. 7 of this year, that doesn’t mean the charges would be automatically dismissed on that date.

“Six months after the Agreement’s expiration,” the agreement states, “the Fraud Section shall seek dismissal with prejudice of the Information filed against the Company … and agree not to file charges in the future against the Company based on the conduct” related to the prosecutors’ allegations.

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Law enforcement officers can’t use binoculars or telephoto lenses when flying over Alaskans’ property unless they have a warrant, according to a Friday ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court.

The case involved a Fairbanks man who was arrested after Alaska State Troopers photographed his yard from the air. The case started in 2012, when troopers got a tip that John William McKelvey III was illegally growing marijuana on his property. After flying over the property and taking pictures with a telephoto lens, the troopers obtained a search warrant.

The validity of that search warrant is central to the case, but moreso whether the troopers’ use of aerial photography violates either the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution or the Alaska Constitution’s right-to-privacy clause.

“It should have a significant impact on law enforcement going out and just roaming around looking at people’s properties without a reason.  It’s going to require that they first present to a judge the evidence they have to go out there, and obtain a warrant,” said Robert John, the Fairbanks attorney who argued the case for McKelvey.

The case was featured on the Supreme Court Live demonstration at a public assembly at Lathrop High School in November 2022. The Supreme Court has heard 15 prominent cases in front of high-school audiences since 2010.

Justice Dario Borgesan wrote the main decision for the court, saying Alaskans have a reasonable expectation that authorities will not examine their homes from aircraft with high-powered optics.

The opinion focused on using technology, but John says there was more.

“The opinion leaves open the question of whether flying over people’s property and trying to look at things with your naked eye (is constitutional),” he said.

Two justices, Chief Justice Peter Maassen and Justice Susan Carney, concurred with Borgeson — but wrote a separate opinion saying the court should have gone further, and that warrants should be required for any kind of looking from above. John says that view would likely include drones.

“(The court’s) actually kind of paving the way with protections right now before we get to the point that you’d have to make a decision about drones. It’s basically said, ‘We are not going to make our rights subservient to technology. Our rights prevail,’” John said.

The Alaska Beacon reported that Department of Public Safety communications director, Austin McDaniel wrote in an email message that the department doesn’t believe the ruling will impact its operations.

“DPS has had a small drone program in place for nearly 5 years and since day 1, we have operated under the same confines as the Supreme Court ruling outlined,” McDaniel said.

The ruling states the Alaska Constitution requires law enforcement to get a warrant before taking pictures of private property from the sky.

Read the full Alaska Supreme Court ruling in the case here.

A former top-level employee at Juneau’s city-owned hospital who was accused of stealing $108,000 has accepted a plea deal. 

Bradley Grigg, the former chief behavioral health officer at Bartlett Regional Hospital, pleaded guilty to a lesser felony theft charge last month, allowing him to avoid prison time. 

Grigg was originally arrested in 2022 on two counts of first-degree theft after an investigation by the City and Borough of Juneau discovered he had made fraudulent travel claims and online purchases over several years. Those felony charges each carry potential jail time of up to 10 years.

Grigg worked at the hospital for four years before abruptly resigning in 2021 just hours after the resignation and firing of former CEO Rose Lawhorne. 

In February, Grigg was sentenced to three years in prison with two years suspended. He received a year’s credit for house arrest and is out on probation in supervised custody.

He was also ordered to pay $108,844 in restitution.