Crime & Courts

A civil lawsuit aimed at preserving a historic neighborhood in the capital city is set for trial next summer. Juneau’s city government, meanwhile, plans to demolish the neighborhood before then.

At a hearing on Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Amanda Browning set the trial date for August 2026. Three longtime tenants of the city-owned Telephone Hill neighborhood filed the lawsuit in October. It seeks to both stop the city’s demolition and reverse the evictions of renters. 

City Attorney Emily Wright said, as it stands legally, nothing is holding the city back from continuing with demolition. 

“There’s nothing stopping forward movement,” she said. “Right now, the timeline that the city manager’s office is working on is a March demo.”

After years of public debate, the Juneau Assembly approved demolishing the homes on the hill this spring to redevelop the area into newer, denser housing. The Assembly says the plan is necessary to address Juneau’s lack of housing. 

But, the tenants’ lawsuit claims that the city improperly evicted people on the hill, illegally phased the redevelopment and the project fails to comply with federal and state historic preservation acts. The city has repeatedly denied these claims.

Following Wednesday’s hearing, the tenants’ attorney, Fred Triem, said he intends to file a motion to prevent the demolition pending the outcome of the August trial. Judge Browning will decide whether to accept or deny it. 

“We want to save the old buildings — that’s the object of the suit,” he said. “We will move forward in the court system with our efforts to protect the buildings while we await the trial presently scheduled for August.”

At the hearing, Judge Browning also ruled on a couple of the eviction cases the city filed against remaining tenants who refused to vacate by the city’s Nov. 1 deadline. While Browning ruled in favor of the city’s right to evict two residences, she gave different eviction deadlines to the tenants because of their personal circumstances. A third eviction case is still pending. 

Alaska State Troopers said in a bulletin Monday that Dr. Ryan McDonough died in a weekend fire at his home in Wasilla.

At the time of the fire, McDonough — a cardiologist formerly with Mat-Su Regional Medical Center — was on $50,000 bail after being arrested on Dec. 11 and accused of owning child sexual abuse images.

The alleged crimes, and the bail posted by McDonough’s wife, were reported by the Anchorage Daily News on Friday, a day after the medical center fired him.

The fatal fire at McDonough’s home took place Saturday; McDonough was initially listed as missing after the fire, but firefighters found human remains at the site, and preliminary testing later identified McDonough’s body.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, and the other people who lived at the home were unharmed.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed McDonough to the state medical board in August. That month, he joined other members of the medical board in voting to impose restrictions on medical care for transgender youth in the state and to recommend that Alaska lawmakers end legal access to abortion in the late stages of pregnancy.

McDonough subsequently appeared to drop off the board; he attended its August and September meetings but was absent from its October and November ones, public records show.

Because of absences and unfilled seats, the board — which regulates doctors and other medical professionals in Alaska — has had problems finding a quorum needed to do business.

McDonough’s name was removed from the board’s roster in November. A spokesperson for Dunleavy told the Anchorage Daily News that the governor’s office found out about McDonough’s alleged crimes on Friday and was not aware of any investigations at the time of his appointment.

According to an affidavit submitted in Palmer courts by a Department of Homeland Security officer, the online file storage company Dropbox sent a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on July 31.

That tip led to the investigation of a Dropbox account linked to McDonough that contained a video of a child being sexually abused. A second tip followed another video on Aug. 10.

The Anchorage Police Department, in charge of investigating tips like those received by the National Center, obtained a search warrant for McDonough’s Dropbox, GCI and Google accounts. Subsequent searches found additional suspect videos, and McDonough’s computer was seized during a search warrant on Dec. 11, shortly before his arrest.

The Alaska Beacon typically publishes copies of court affidavits but is not doing so in this case because of their graphic contents and because they describe acts of sexual violence against children.

McDonough’s next court appearance was scheduled for Jan. 31.

A federal grand jury has indicted two Alaska State Troopers shown on body-camera video beating, tasing and pepper-spraying a Kenai man in a case of mistaken identity.

Former Trooper Sgt. Joseph Miller and Jason Woodruff are each charged with violating the man’s civil rights. Neither were arrested following the federal indictment.

In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s office says 50-year-old Miller had no legal justification for the violent arrest. Prosecutors say 43-year-old Woodruff illegally used his police dog to bite the man when he did not pose a threat. The arrest was captured on body cameras. The state brought charges against Miller and Woodruff last summer after a routine use-of-force review.

State prosecutors say body camera footage shows Woodruff and Miller tasing, pepper-spraying, beating and having their police dog maul Kenai man Ben Tikka during an arrest at Kenai’s Daubenspeck Park. The state charging document says troopers did not ask for Tikka’s name during the arrest, and did not learn until later that the man they’d arrested was Ben, and not his cousin, Garrett.

Garrett had an outstanding warrant for failing to appear for a 10-day jail sentence for driving with a revoked license.

The lawyer representing Ben Tikka in the state case says he underwent more than $40,000 worth of medical procedures as a result of the arrest, which left him with a concussion and a broken clavicle.

Miller is no longer employed by the State of Alaska. Jason Woodruff remains employed by the department but has been on leave since the botched arrest. The union contract that covers public safety employees says employees charged with a crime over professional conduct will be put on unpaid leave. The police dog involved in the arrest was also released from the department.

If convicted in the federal case, Miller and Woodruff each face up to 10 years in prison.

James Cockrell is the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety. He was quick to condemn Miller and Woodruff’s conduct after reviewing the body-worn camera footage last year. In a statement to KDLL, Cockrell called the alleged civil rights violations deeply concerning and contrary to the department’s values.

“While this is an unfortunate day for the Alaska State Troopers, the alleged actions of these two individuals do not reflect the professionalism of the hundreds of State Troopers and DPS employees who serve Alaskans with integrity every day, often in the most challenging conditions in the United States,” he said.

Cockrell said the department continues to cooperate with state and federal prosecutors. A spokesperson for the Alaska U.S. Attorney’s office said she was not aware of any prior instances in which an Alaska State Trooper faced federal charges as a result of their conduct on duty.

Woodruff’s attorney declined to discuss the case. Miller’s did not respond to a request for comment.

Tuesday’s announcement comes as Woodruff and Miller await trial in their respective state criminal cases. They are each facing first-degree assault charges. In September, a judge declined a request from Miller to dismiss the state’s case against him. Miller and Woodruff are scheduled to go to trial next year.

Three months after a trial against a former Juneau chiropractor accused of sexual assault ended in mistrial, the new public defense team is asking for more time to review the case before a second trial.

Fourteen former patients accused Jeffrey Fultz of sexual assault under the guise of medical care. They say the incidents took place during medical appointments between 2014 and 2020 while he was employed at Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium in Juneau.

In September, his trial ended in a hung jury on 14 counts of felony sexual assault, and two not guilty counts. One of the 14 counts has since also been dismissed. The state is attempting to retry the remaining charges that are eligible to be considered again.

The court assigned Fultz a public defender in October, Juneau’s Nico Ambrose. Private attorney James Christie represented Fultz for the last two years, and through the trial this summer. Ambrose appeared in court Wednesday for the first time since taking over Fultz’s representation.

Ambrose requested the next hearing date to be in April, which will mark five years since Fultz’s initial arrest. 

“There are just so many things in this case that need to be dealt with before we’re ready for trial,” he said. 

Ambrose said he has to review trial proceedings, which lasted six weeks this summer, and hasn’t yet received transcripts from the trial. Ambrose is Fultz’s third defense attorney since his 2021 arrest. 

Earlier this year, the Alaska Supreme Court issued a ruling that would limit delays in old cases, and while this case falls into that window, Ambrose said he doesn’t think it was written with a case like this in mind. 

“This case has not sat around for 5 years waiting to go to trial,” he said. “It has gone to trial.”

State Prosecutor Krystyn Tendy disagrees with scheduling the next hearing so far out and said the case has taken years, regardless of the recent trial. Some of the alleged crimes happened more than a decade ago. 

“We have seen how this case has dragged out and can drag out,” she said. 

Tendy said the court needs to set a new trial date, and should schedule a hearing in February. 

Ambrose said having hearings sooner than April — six months after he was assigned to the case — would be a waste of the court’s time.

Judge Larry Woolford scheduled the next hearing for this case on Feb. 11 at 11:30 a.m.

This article was reported and published in collaboration between the Chilkat Valley News and the Alaska Beacon.

Skagway’s former paramedic is alleging wrongdoing by the Southeast Alaska town, saying in a newly filed lawsuit that she was illegally fired after submitting a grievance against the city’s fire chief and deputy fire chief.

In a lawsuit filed Nov. 20 at Juneau Superior Court, Samantha Philemon — the town’s lone licensed paramedic for much of her employment since 2023 — alleges she was fired due to disputes over recordkeeping and the department’s decision to purchase an all-terrain vehicle known as an Argo.

According to Philemon’s complaint, at the time of her firing, Skagway officials said she was being let go due to violations of HIPAA, the federal medical-privacy law. Philemon’s attorney says in the complaint that the accusation “was a sham.”

Philemon filed a formal complaint against the chief and deputy and was fired by Skagway’s deputy borough administrator the day after the complaint was resolved.

“We’re excited to have our day in court, so to speak, and we think that a jury who hears Sam’s story is going to do the right thing and understand what happened here, and we’re just looking for this to never happen again,” said her attorney, Miye D’Oench of the Anchorage-based Northern Justice Project.

Philemon said her firing has left Skagway, a town of roughly 1,100 year-round residents, without a trained paramedic.

“There are firefighters with EMT 1 and EMT 2 and some (EMT) 3 training, but there are no paramedics, and that harms the community because paramedics are trained and licensed to do things that EMTs are not,” she said.

Neither Fire Chief Emily Rauscher nor Borough Manager Emily Deach responded to requests for an interview that would allow them to respond to Philemon’s complaint.

The borough denied a public records request by the Chilkat Valley News. Robert Blasco, the city’s hired attorney, did not return messages left at his office on Friday and Monday.

Philemon moved from Mississippi to Skagway in 2023, she said, and enjoyed working with the department at first.

“I wanted to be between the mountains and the ocean,” she said.

According to the complaint, she encouraged a friend to work for the department this past summer, but when he arrived, he was told his position had funding for only one week. Philemon believed that was because the department had recently purchased an Argo.

When she raised the issue, according to the complaint, “Rauscher and Mead then turned on Ms. Philemon,” and “began silencing and excluding her from department business.” There were additional disputes about medical procedures performed by the fire department and accounting at the department..

Philemon submitted a formal grievance to the borough manager in July. The manager, Emily Deach, said in an August memo that Skagway “will take action to address the behavior and prevent reoccurrence” as well as take steps toward formalizing fire department training.

“The actions of the department supervisors do not require termination of those supervisors, as

you requested verbally,” Deach wrote to Philemon.

Philemon, who had been placed on administrative leave while the grievance was investigated, was ordered to return to work under a separate plan. She objected, concerned that she would be returning to work under the same supervisors and conditions as before, and appealed to a committee that included the Skagway Mayor.

The committee upheld Deach’s work on Sept. 10. Philemon planned to return to work, but the deputy borough manager fired her the following day.

Philemon said she’s been looking for work since then but hasn’t found success.

“I’m looking for a new job after being fired from a job that I never wanted to leave. I’m devastated because I love my job, and I love Skagway,” Philemon said.

Online court records show the case has been referred to Judge Amy Welch. No additional proceedings have yet been scheduled.

A Superior Court judge is allowing the City and Borough of Juneau to refile eviction cases against the tenants who are refusing to vacate the historic Telephone Hill neighborhood in downtown Juneau. 

The city wants to demolish the homes on the hill this winter to make way for denser housing, but some tenants are refusing to leave and filed a lawsuit to prevent demolition and preserve the homes. 

Last month, a District Court judge dismissed the city’s eviction cases a few days before the city planned to evict the tenants, pending the outcome of that lawsuit. 

Then last week, before Thanksgiving, a Superior Court judge ruled that the evictions and demolition were two separate issues and should be handled as such. That ruling opened the door for the city to refile eviction cases against the tenants who remain on the hill. 

The lawsuit is scheduled for a pre-trial conference on Dec. 12. 

Fred Triem, the attorney representing the tenants, said the latest ruling doesn’t say anything about where the case might be heading. 

“It’s not an indication of what the final ruling will be. So I’m not either encouraged or discouraged by what took place the other day,” he said. “It’s just kind of a neutral scheduling event.”

Juneau’s City Attorney Emily Wright said she agrees with the judge — the demolition and evictions should be handled separately. 

“These last tenants need to move out, and we’re taking possession of the houses that we own as a city — we’re the landlords,” she said. 

The city refiled the three eviction cases last Wednesday and requested that they be heard within 15 days of filing. But the tenants’ lawsuit could take much longer to resolve. Wright previously said the city plans to take swift action if the evictions are approved, like changing the locks and removing remaining belongings from the homes as soon as possible.

Wright said the city plans to file new cases against two other residents who were given an extension to move out but haven’t done so.