Crime & Courts

A Juneau couple charged with theft after leaving their jobs as managers of the Airport Mini-Mall and Apartments was sentenced in Juneau Superior Court on Thursday.

Two-years in prison with two-years suspended (or no time to serve) was handed down to Cheryl Hansen, 67, and Paul Hansen, 63. The sentence was part of an earlier plea agreement with prosecutors. The Hansens changed their pleas to guilty to reduced charges of second degree felony theft in February.

The couple started work as managers of the Airport Mini-Mall and Apartments in 2001. Cheryl did the bookkeeping and Paul did the maintenance in exchange for a $1000 monthly stipend and use of a two bedroom house with paid utilities. Prosecutors have said that owners of the Mall discovered at least $68,870 in rent deposits were missing after the Hansens left their employment in June 2010.

Assistant District Attorney Angie Kemp says it was a serious offense, but the plea and sentence agreement was specifically crafted so that the Hansens would not be incarcerated.

“It was an elaborate scheme as far as the state can tell,” said Kemp.

That’s not true, according to Public Defender Grace Lee. She said Paul Hansen’s poor health led to deterioriating work product.

“I don’t think that they are mastermind thieves who sat there and planned out a way to take money from AMMA for nine-plus years,” said Lee.

Lee said approximately $13,000 in rent checks has already been found stashed in a box of Christmas decorations placed in storage. It’s unclear if any of those checks are “viable” or can be deposited.

Phil Isaak, son of mall co-owner Richard Isaak, read a letter on behalf of the other co-owner Dick Winchell which outlined years of delays for deposits and excuses.

“The approximate amount of $70,000 for the months of May and June (2010) probably represent only the tip of the iceberg,” said Isaak.

The Hansens reportedly acknowledged to police officers that the deposits had not been made. They claimed they had the funds, but a search by officers of the Hansen’s belongings could not locate the money.

Both Cheryl and Paul Hansen read in court separate letters of apology intended for owners of the mall. They both suggested that deterioriating mental and physical health issues led to the misplacement of all those deposits.

“Sometimes I didn’t remember taking the rent or to do the paperwork to show that had taken it,” said Paul Hansen. “But I am sure that we did not take whatever money is missing.”

Cheryl Hansen acknowledged misplaced checks or bankbags containing thousands dollars of cash left elsewhere in the house or mixed in with personal belongings. She also said she was lenient with largely low-income tenants who could not pay rent on-time because of a hardship.

“There were times that rents were held before depositing,” said Cheryl Hansen.

Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez saw it as predicament that snowballed out of control over a long period of time.

A restitution hearing is planned for July. The Hansens may be required to pay back some of the money as part of their three-year probation. But they’re currently on a fixed income.

When Phil and Richard Isaak left the courthouse Thursday, they stopped to tell each of the Hansens that they accepted their apology and forgave them.

A November 5th trial date scheduled for a Montana inmate accused of murdering a woman in Yakutat over fifteen years ago.

Robert Dean Kowalski, 50, is accused of causing the death of Sandra M. Perry, 39, at Yakutat’s Glacier Bear Lodge in July, 1996.

Special prosecutor Paul Miovas expects a jury trial to last three weeks. He says it actually will be litigation of two homicides including one from another jurisidiction.

Public defender Eric Hedland has not had the opportunity to review the voluminus amounts of evidence now coming in during the discovery process. With his involvement in other high-profile or complicated cases, Hedland doesn’t believe the previously scheduled trial date of May 29th is still possible.

Kowalski appeared in the Juneau Superior Court on Thursday. He’s already serving a sentence for the death of a Montana woman in 2008.

Based on Kowalski’s incarceration and Hedland’s case load, they waived the 120-day speedy trial rule.

Kowalski is being charged with first and second degree murder. Troopers say that a man staying at the lodge near Kowalski and Perry’s room reported hearing an argument, then a gunshot, followed by silence. Kowalski told Troopers that he armed himself with a shotgun after he and Perry heard a bear outside their room. But Kowalski said he tripped onto the bed and fell on top of Perry and the gun discharged when he got up.

Kowalski was never charged for Perry’s death. The prosecutor assigned to the case apparently determined that there was not enough evidence then to disprove Kowalski’s claim of an accidental shooting.

The Alaska Bureau of Investigation’s Cold Case Unit reviewed the Yakutat incident after Kowalski was convicted in Montana of killing 45-year-old Lorraine Kay Morin in March of 2008. The Kalispell Daily Inter Lake newspaper in Montana reported that the incident included the arrest of Kowalski after a 31-hour standoff at his home that involved SWAT teams from three jurisdictions. The gun used in the shooting was recovered from his home. Kowalski told investigators the gun accidentally went off as he was falling backward into a chair.

Juneau Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez, who successfully defended a client accused of another shooting at another Yakutat lodge that very same year, will preside over the Kowalski trial.

Testimony slowed Wednesday during a trial of a Juneau man charged with assault in connection with a shooting in the valley.

Attorneys argued outside of earshot of the jury whether a witness’ opinion about the character and reputation of both the shooter and victim could be brought up.

The shooting incident happened at Kenneth Nalan’s home on Glacierwood Drive on December 20th. John Duran was injured when the bullet passed through his face.

Nadine Peratrovich was in the Nalan home and made the 911 call seconds after the gun was fired. Defense attorney Eric Hedland asked her on cross-examination about what she thought about Duran.

“He’s violent, definitely a violent person,” said Peratrovich. “He’s an aggressor.”

Peratrovich was actually the prosecution’s witness. But successful arguments by Hedland to get her to voice her opinions on the stand eventually prompted District Attorney Dave Brower to try impeaching his own witness. He wanted to bring up Peratrovich’s earlier conviction for giving false information to an officer. Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez did not allow it.

Hedland played the entire tape of the nearly seven-minute 911 call that continued until the first officers arrived. A calm, cool, and collected dispatcher provides first aid advice while asking Peratrovich about the location of the injured and the gun. But it’s this small portion of the 911 call that Hedland thinks is important.

“Kind of self defense type of thing, it sounds like,” said Peratrovich to the 911 dispatcher during the call. “They’re all friends. It wasn’t a hostile type of thing. They were just drinking.”

Earlier on Wednesday, a veteran officer said it’s possible that some of the evidence may have been lost during police officers initial response to the scene.

Sargeant Paul Hatch, an officer with twenty years experience who was assigned last year to head up the Juneau Police Department’s investigations unit, admitted that clearing a residence or making sure that it is secure usually entails checking all the rooms. It’s not just one room. Patrolmen who were first on the scene at Nalan’s house following the shooting apparently only checked the master bedroom where the single shot was fired. Hatch was called to the scene roughly forty-minutes after the 911 call.

Under prolonged questioning by Nalan’s defense attorney Eric Hedland, Hatch also said that it’s possible that a rookie patrolman’s actions to take a revolver from the bedroom, unload it, and stick it in his waistband could’ve destroyed any evidence on the gun. That could’ve included fingerprints or blowback debris when the weapon was fired. Hedland also questioned why residue or any injuries on Nalan’s hands were not sampled or properly documented. And who tracked blood in the house with their footprints? Was it Nalan, Duran, or witness John Day, Peratrovich’s boyfriend who was also in the bedroom? Or was it the officer who secured the gun?

Hatch said they treated the house as a crime scene from the very start.

“Once the logistics of tending to the immediate people were taken care of, people were moved out, then yes, it was locked down and secured,” Hatch said.

Duran was severely injured when the bullet passed through his face and lodged in a bedroom wall. He’s expected to testify for the prosecution. Still unclear is who actually had control of the revolver and who fired it.

Nalan’s trial is expected to last through Friday in Juneau Superior Court. A six-man, eight-woman jury is hearing the case.

A veteran police officer said during trial on Wednesday that it’s possible some of the evidence may have been lost during police officers initial response to the scene of a shooting.

Kenneth Nalan is being charged with assault in connection with the incident that injured John Duran. The incident happened at Nalan’s home on Glacierwood Drive on December 20th.

Sargeant Paul Hatch, a twenty-year veteran who was assigned last year to head up the Juneau Police Department’s investigations unit, admitted that clearing a residence or making sure that it is secure usually entails checking all the rooms. It’s not just one room. Patrolmen who were first on the scene at Nalan’s house following the shooting apparently only checked the master bedroom where the single shot was fired.

Under prolonged questioning by Nalan’s defense attorney Eric Hedland on Wednesday morning, Hatch also said that it’s possible that a rookie patrolman’s actions to take a revolver from the bedroom, unload it, and stick it in his waistband could’ve destroyed any evidence on the gun. That could’ve included fingerprints or blowback debris when the weapon was fired. Hedland also questioned why residue or any injuries on Nalan’s hands were not sampled or properly documented.

Duran was severely injured when the bullet passed through his face and lodged in a bedroom wall. He’s expected to testify for the prosecution. Still unclear is who actually had control of the revolver and who fired it.

Nalan’s trial is expected to last through Friday in Juneau Superior Court. A six-man, eight-woman jury is hearing the case.

Prosecution says it was reckless without any reason behind it. Defense says it was an accident, maybe even self-defense.

Now underway in Juneau Superior Court is the case centering around the shooting that occurred December 20, 2011 on Glacierwood Drive in the valley.

Kenneth Nalan is charged with first degree felony assault for severely injuring John Duran. It happened in Nalan’s own bedroom. But exactly how it happened is still unclear after opening arguments and initial testimony Tuesday.

“This isn’t an issue of who done it. It’s a question of why done it,” said District Attorney Dave Brower.

Everyone had reportedly been drinking multiple beers when shooting happened at Nalan’s house.

“So, you’re going to have to figure this out,” said Brower as he addressed the jury during opening arguments. “The state has charged him with assault in the first degree, recklessly causing serious physical injury with a dangerous instrument. Ken Nalan was in his house with his gun in his hand, and he shot John Duran.”

Duran had been dragged out from Nalan’s bedroom to the front porch where he was laying on his side. Both Nalan and his brother-in-law John Day were reportedly over or on him, trying to stem the bleeding before EMTs arrived.

Brower played an audio recording made by the Juneau Police Department’s patrol supervisor at the scene, then-Sargeant David Campbell, as he and his two subordinate officers try to make sense of the scene when they arrive.

“Faster, faster!” Nalan is heard pleading for EMTs to care for Duran and get him to the hospital. “I don’t want to kill a man!” Nalan is also heard on tape apologizing for the shooting.

Campbell, now a lieutenant, said he did not put Nalan and Day in handcuffs because they were compliant, but he admitted that might have been a mistake considering the nature of the incident.

Defense attorney Eric Hedland said Nalan is not disputing that he shot Duran. He wants to show that the shooting was either self-defense, accident, or a reflex. Hedland argues that Duran approached Nalan after drawing a revolver. As he tells it, Nalan sensed danger and grabbed or reached for the weapon just before it went off. .

“He sees Mr. Duran come out behind, come into his view from behind the armoire with the gun in his hand, and he reacts,” said Hedland. “Immediately, (Nalan) grabs the gun, the gun goes off, and Mr. Duran gets shot in the face.”

The bullet passed through Duran to a wall on the other side of the bedroom.

Nadine Peratovich is John Day’s girlfriend who was in Nalan’s house with her baby at the time.

Among the police officers who testified Tuesday was Joseph Bankowski, a rookie who admitted walking into Nalan’s bedroom and picking up the .357 Magnum to unload it. He did it to safely secure the firearm. But he was questioned by Hedland for possibly compromising the crime scene and any evidence in the bedroom.

Officer Steve Warnaca, another patrolman first on the scene, took pictures of the bedroom where the shooting occurred. But he could not explain apparent discrepancies of multiple beer cans and a desk chair that appeared to be positioned differently in crime scene pictures.

Complicating the case for the jury during opening arguments were confusing comments about the gun that was fired and at whom. At one point, Hedland described the gun that was stored in Nalan’s closet as Ruger while Brower even said at one point during opening arguments that it was the main witness John Day that got shot by Nalan.

Nalan appeared very still, had his head down or turned away from the jury during most of the trial on Monday and Tuesday.

Duran and Day are expected to testify as early as Wednesday morning.

A six-man eight-woman jury is hearing the case which is expected to last at least through Friday.

Opening arguments are planned for Tuesday in the case of a Juneau man charged with firing a handgun that wounded another man in December.

Kenneth Nalan, 36, is being charged with felony assault.

Prosecutors say Nalan shot a friend, 33-year old John Duran, with a .357-caliber handgun. It happened during a get-together at Nalan’s house in the Valley just before Christmas (Dec 20). Duran required facial reconstruction surgery after he was shot.

After nearly five-hours of voir dire or questioning potential jurors on Monday, a 6-man 8-woman jury was seated. Two jurors will be randomly selected as alternates and excused just before deliberations get underway.

After the newly-seated jury had been excused for the day on Monday, Public Defender Eric Hedland suggested that he may make a case for a form of self-defense during the incident.