Crime & Courts

A Juneau man who allegedly fired a weapon while drunk in downtown Juneau early Saturday morning may go before a jury in July.

Caleb Smith, 21, appeared in Juneau District Court on Tuesday.

He faces two counts of misconduct involving weapons. The charges are for allegedly discharging a firearm with a blood alchohol content of .153, or nearly twice over the legal limit of intoxication, and for firing a weapon near buildings in the Second and Franklin Street area. Smith allegedly had as many as three firearms in his possession.

Until the court case is resolved, Smith is not to possess firearms. He’s also not to consume alcohol or go into a bar or liquor store. An exception was made for Smith’s workplace. Smith told District Court Judge Thomas Nave that he works at Walmart and some of his duties include working with inventory in the liquor store.

A new trial date has been set after new charges for a Juneau man alleging multiple counts of sexual abuse of a child.

Joshua David Burger, 36, is being charged with one count of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, two counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree, and a single count of attempted sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree.

All four charges stem from Burger in a position as a parent or guardian abusing a child in his care.

A one-hundred count indictment had been lodged against Burger last May. But that was just dismissed in Juneau Superior Court, essentially vacating the trial that had been scheduled to get underway this week. A September trial date was set during a hearing on the case on Tuesday.

During an earlier court hearing, prosecutors had alleged that the abuse lasted over a period of eight years. But the new indictment only refers to four instances of alleged abuse in 2004 and 2007.

The alleged victim is now 17-years old.

Juneau police and the Coast Guard report an unusual rescue on the Juneau waterfront early Tuesday night.

Two intoxicated men, apparently arguing over a whiskey bottle, both fell off the cruise ship docks near the downtown library about 7 o’clock.

One of the men reportedly clung to the pilings and some Good Samaritans threw him a life ring. His drinking buddy or antagonist – perhaps both in this case — started swimming further out into Gastineau Channel, away from the docks.

Police officers and the Coast Guard responded. Petty Officer Melanie Grieco says they dispatched a 25-foot motor lifeboat from Station Juneau to retrieve the disoriented swimmer.

Grieco estimates the response time as about five-minutes. Both men were eventually hauled out of the water. At the docks’ launch landing, they were handed over to police and EMT’s to be checked out or taken to the hospital.

No major injuries initially reported.

Rescuers were not able to get any ages or identifications of the two men.

The Coast Guard has called a community meeting tonight (Monday) in Kodiak to discuss last week’s double homicide at the base’s communications station.

Law enforcement officials remain tight-lipped about the murders of 41-year-old James Hopkins and 51-year-old Richard Belisle, who were shot to death inside a building at the Com Station complex. Hopkins was a Petty Officer 1st Class electronics technician, and Belisle was a retired Chief Petty Officer, who was working for the Coast Guard as a civilian employee.

FBI Spokesman Eric Gonzales said over the weekend that the killer was still on the loose, but the community was not in any danger. He did not say why he thought Kodiak residents were not in danger.

Meanwhile, Alaska State Trooper vehicles were seen blocking access to a home in the Bell’s Flats neighborhood all weekend. Individuals in white encounter suits were seen Sunday searching the house and area.

Tonight’s community meeting will be held at the Gerald C. Wilson Auditorium at 7 p.m.

A memorial service for Hopkins and Belisle will be held Wednesday in a hangar at the Kodiak Coast Guard base.

The Alaska Court of Appeals has issued another opinion upholding a prison sentence for a Juneau man convicted for abducting and sexually assaulting a 15-year old girl.

The ruling was handed down Friday.

Christopher Allen Scholes was sentenced to 70-years in prison for the December 2008 crime. Thirty-years out of the composite sentence was suspended.

An opinion issued last month was a Memorandum of Judgment (MOJ) that only applied to the Scholes case. Appellate court clerks say they’ve since received a request-to-publish, meaning that the opinion can now be cited or referred to in other cases.

Scholes’ defense argued before the Alaska Court of Appeals that the sentence was excessive, partly based on his prospects for eventual rehabilitation.

A suspect is still reported at large in what investigators are calling a double-homicide at a Kodiak Coast Guard station on Thursday morning.

FBI spokesman Eric Gonzales did not identify the suspect.

The victims have been identified as Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class James Hopkins, an electronics technician, and Richard Belisle, a civilian employee and retired Coast Guard chief petty officer.

The two men were found shot to death in one of the buildings at Communications Station Kodiak by coworkers when they arrived between 7 and 8 a.m. on Thursday.

Sometimes referred to as ComSta Kodiak within the service, the station is a high-security area, responsible for radio communications throughout the North Pacific and Bering Sea. Coast Guard Captain Karl Moore says because of the sensitive nature of the area, there are several video surveillance cameras in the vicinity. He says the FBI will be reviewing them.

Since the killings took place on federal property, the FBI has jurisdiction. Military police, the Coast Guard Investigative Service and the Alaska State Troopers are assisting.

Security patrols at the Coast Guard base and the surrounding residential neighborhoods have been increased, but the base, and Petersen Elementary School which is on base, are open Friday.

Coast Guard Base Kodiak is the largest in the nation, with about 2,000 military and civilian employees.