Crime & Courts

Louis Menendez, the former defense attorney and prosecutor, took the oath and participated in a ceremonial robing on Friday as the newest Superior Court Judge for Juneau. It was largely for the benefit of Menendez’s friends and family; A childhood friend and his brother, daughter and young grandson came up to Juneau to participate in the ceremony. The event was videotaped for Menendez’s mother back home. Menendez’s father, the son of Spanish immigrants, passed away earlier this year, but after hearing news in May that Menendez had been appointed to the bench.

Menendez has actually been working as a judge since he took the oath in small, brief ceremony administered by Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Walter Carpeneti on September 9th.

Last Friday afternoon, Carpeneti was accompanied by every other sitting state judge in Southeast Alaska for a public version of the event. Several retired judges, clerks and staff at the Dimond Courthouse, and attorneys packed a courtroom to standing room only. Menendez joins Juneau District Court Judge Thomas Nave and Sitka Superior Court Judge David George on the bench. All three were formerly private attorneys that simultaneously occupied offices in a house on Seventh Street, just a few blocks up the hill from the Dimond Courthouse. They earned the nickname of “Boys on the Hill” — in part — because of the ‘legal firepower’ that was concentrated there.

Menendez applied for the seat vacated by retiring Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins.

Menendez earned his law degree from University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco with graduate work at New York University. The start of his law career includes working as a federal public defender in Texas, in civil law in Juneau, and as a state prosecutor in various Alaska communities — interspersed with stints caring for family in Monterey, California and attending New York University Film School. Since 1995, Menendez has made his mark as a private defense attorney, sometimes taking on high profile criminal cases.

Three Arkansas teens accused of the murder of Kevin Thornton of Juneau say their cases should be dismissed. The motion will be heard by a judge today.

Timothy Tyler Norwood, 16, Clinton Lavon Ross, 16, and Richard Shelby Wybark, 17, are charged with second-degree murder and an aggravating count of violent group activity.

Their case has been filed in Hot Spring County Circuit Court and they are to be tried as adults.

The 19-year-old Thornton was visiting in the Malvern, Arkansas area in July when he was attacked while walking along a road with a friend. He died from his injuries July 27 in a Little Rock hospital. Hot Spring County Sheriff’s investigators called it a random assault.

Four boys were initially arrested in the case. Charges have been dropped against a 14-year-old.

In motions filed with the court late last week, attorneys for each of the three defendants argue the murder charges were incorrectly filed in criminal court.

They say the Arkansas law allowing a juvenile to be charged in adult criminal court is unconstitutional as well as cruel and unusual punishment, because the juvenile charged with a capital murder can be subject to a life sentence without parole.

The motions ask the judge to dismiss the case, or failing that, transfer the case to juvenile court.

Motions also were filed Thursday to suppress statements made by each boy to law enforcement officials. Attorneys argue the teens were not adequately advised of their rights when they were taken into custody.

A grand jury indictment indicates all three boys waived their rights in writing with a parent present and were interviewed by a Hot Spring County sheriff’s investigator.

State investigators say they’ve made a break in a cold case, finally pulling together enough evidence to charge a man for homicide fifteen years after it allegedly happened.

They say a Juneau Grand Jury on Friday returned with an indictment against 50-year old Robert D. Kowalski, charging him for first and second degree murder. The case has not yet been assigned to a particular judge, but bail — according to Alaska State Troopers — was set at $1,000,000.

Troopers believe that Kowalski, then a Washington State resident, traveled to Yakutat for a vacation with his then girlfriend, 39-year old Sandra M. Perry.

The incident, initially reported as an accidental shooting, was at the Glacier Bear Lodge in July of 1996.

Troopers say that a man staying in the next room at the lodge 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 another girlfriend there, 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.

Alaska investigators say they’ve initiated proceedings to extradite Kowalski so that he can face murder charges here.

The U.S. Justice Department has awarded the Tlingit and Haida Central Council nearly 900-thousand dollars to expand tribal court services.

Currently, the court hears paternity and child support cases involving tribal members. Attorney Jessie Archibald with Tlingit and Haida’s Child Support Unit says the grant will eventually allow the court to hear domestic violence cases.

“The goal is to give them a culturally appropriate forum to seek a restraining order, and to have our tribal court enter that order and to have the State of Alaska work with us in partnership to enter that order into the state system and assist in providing enforcement, to keep families safe,” says Archibald.

The Central Council was one of 20 Alaska Native organizations to receive a grant under the Justice Department’s Coordinated Tribal Assistance program this year.

Archibald says the council’s Judiciary Committee will use the money to develop codes governing family violence cases, and work on a cooperative justice agreement with the State of Alaska. Funds will also be used to update court computers and develop a video conferencing system.

Eddie Brakes, Manager of Tlingit and Haida’s Tribal Child Support Unit, says the goal is to offer a more “holistic” approach to tribal member victims of domestic abuse.

“The ultimate goal is to provide an alternate venue to the state court system in tribal communities – less adversarial, more family-based, and crafted with the unique values of the tribal citizenry in mind,” says Brakes.

The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is the sovereign tribal government for more than 27-thousand Tlingit and Haida Indians worldwide. Its judicial branch includes three elected judges and a magistrate.

Earlier this year, the Alaska Supreme Court recognized tribal court authority in child welfare cases in its decision in the case State of Alaska vs. Native Village of Tanana.

When Senator Lisa Murkowski’s fisheries aide pulled out from consideration for an influential job in the Obama Administration two years ago, he said it was because the process was taking too long. It turns out Arne Fuglvog was under investigation by the very agency he would have run. Fuglvog pleaded guilty last month to breaking commercial fishing law before joining Murkowski’s staff, and resigned from his Senate job right before the charges became public. His admission to falsifying catch records shook the commercial fishing industry in Alaska, where Fuglvog had served on influential councils. Now former crew members are coming forward saying they tried to turn Fuglvog in to authorities for illegal fishing for years, and felt like they were ignored. APRN’s Libby Casey reports.

Alaska’s Marine Highway System wants a court to order the fast-ferry builder to provide new engines for the ships.

State officials say engines on the Fairweather and Chenega are wearing out far faster than their warranties promised. Replacing the eight engines could cost in the range of $20 million.

The state filed a lawsuit last year, but continued talking to the manufacturer about a solution.

Captain Mike Neussl says the state is now asking the court for a preliminary injunction to force action before the engines wear out.

“If that happens, those vessels could be out of service before there’s an ultimate resolution. That would mean the state would lose use, and state residents and communities would lose use, of those vessels prior to the ultimate decision on that lawsuit,” he says.

He says quick action is needed because making new engines will take about a year.

The engines have already undergone repairs. Neussl says that has extended their operating life. But the repairs are not permanent.

The lawsuit and injunction motion are against Derecktor Shipyards, which build the ship, and subcontractors that built the engines. Derecktor officials could not be reached for immediate comment.

The injunction motion filed in Superior Court does not specify that new engines be built by the same manufacturer. But Neussl says that’s the likely solution.

“We have looked at alternatives, what other engines are out there that we could replace these engines with. And to be honest with you, there’s not any other diesel engines in the market place that meet the power-to-weight ratios that these engines have and would fit in the assigned space and have the correct weight to be used in these vessels,” he says.

The Fairweather, built in 2004, is based in Juneau and sails to Sitka and Petersburg. It’s scheduled to begin Angoon service next year. The Chenega, built in 2005, is based in Cordova and runs to Valdez and Whittier.