Public Safety

Alaska Wildlife Troopers are accusing four members of Kodiak’s Fields family as well as their fishing business, Fields & Sons Inc., of allegedly generating $1.17 million in illegal revenue between 2020 and 2024.

That’s according to a dispatch from Alaska State Troopers on Tuesday, April 8.

Duncan Fields, 69; Wallace Fields, 64; Beth Fields, 66 and Leslie Fields, 67 – all of Kodiak – are charged with perjury and lying on fish tickets. Duncan and Wallace Fields are also both charged with multiple counts related to fraud, theft, and other fishery violations.

Duncan Fields serves on multiple boards, including the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute and the Kodiak Island Borough School District’s Board of Education.

Duncan Fields said in a text message that the family and crew have been gifting permits to each other for 30 years. He said it “is a common practice in the industry,” and added that he thinks his family has “been singled out to try to set an example.”

Fields said that the charges aren’t supported by the facts.

The charges, however, come after a year-long investigation by Wildlife Troopers, according to the dispatch, after they received a tip in March of 2024 about suspicious fishing permit activity. During the investigation, troopers claim to have found the family was falsely gifting salmon setnet permits to crewmembers and later reclaiming them.

Troopers interviewed 21 crewmembers, according to the dispatch, and say there was a coordinated scheme involving family members lying under penalty of perjury as well as defrauding the state and fish buyers.

After nearly four years, the sexual assault case against a former Juneau chiropractor is slated to go to trial April 21. 

Jeffrey Fultz is accused of assaulting more than a dozen women under the guise of medical care. Police arrested Fultz in 2021 based on initial accusations that he had assaulted three patients while he was a chiropractor for Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. 

More women have come forward since, and he now faces 18 felony sexual assault charges and one misdemeanor harassment charge. Some of the alleged crimes date back more than a decade.

According to Assistant District Attorney Jessalyn Gillum, several factors have delayed the trial over the years, including the case’s complexity, the number of witnesses and a backlog of criminal cases in Juneau leftover from the  pandemic, when in-person trials were put on hold. 

In the time the case has been awaiting trial, the first judge assigned to the case retired, the investigating Juneau police officer died and Fultz’s first attorney was deemed “mentally unable” to continue with the case. 

Fultz hired his current attorney, James Christie, in January of last year.

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica reported early this year that felony cases in Alaska often face years of delays requested by defense attorneys and approved by judges.

Fultz’s case was finally scheduled to begin trial in February, but was delayed yet again as the court continues to process and release outstanding records.

Due to new limitations established by the Alaska Supreme Court, cases filed before 2023 will have a limit of 270 days before they must go to trial starting in May. 

The order says the defense and prosecution are each allotted 90 days of delay requests, and a further 90 days is included for “other periods of delay for good cause.” If Fultz’s case is delayed further, it would be subject to that ruling. 

Fultz has been living in Colorado since he posted bail three years ago. He has made one in-person appearance in Juneau court since.

In early 2021, the Indian Health Services established a hotline for callers to report suspected sexual abuse by calling 1-855-SAFE-IHS (855-723-3447) or submitting a complaint online on the IHS.gov website. The hotline may be used to report any type of suspected child abuse within the IHS, or any type of sexual abuse regardless of the age of the victim. The person reporting by phone or online may remain anonymous.

Locally, people can call AWARE in Juneau at (907) 586-1090.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan veered into criticizing a federal judge when he spoke to reporters at the state Capitol on March 20.

“I don’t want to get specific, but we have a couple district judges that rule with the far-left radical environmental groups every single time,” Sullivan said. “And that judge, in my view, has done more damage to our state than almost anyone imaginable.”

It was obvious whom he was talking about, because Sharon Gleason is now Alaska’s only fully active U.S. District Court judge. He went on to assail her impartiality again a moment later, when discussing his intentions for selecting the next federal judge to serve with Gleason.

“My red line is, we’re not going to have another judge like the one that we were talking about,” Sullivan said. “I’m going to make sure Alaska does not get a federal judge who sides with the far-left radical enviros on every case.”

Sullivan’s remarks caused a stir in Alaska’s legal community. Lawyers familiar with Gleason’s record say Sullivan is mischaracterizing her.

“She does not always rule in favor of environmental groups,” said former Anchorage attorney Jeff Feldman. “And I can say that both by looking at her history as well as from personal experience, because she has ruled against me in environmental cases, or against my clients.”

To cite a few prominent examples:

In 2021, Glease ruled against environmental groups trying to block oil leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

In 2023, Gleason dismissed lawsuits aimed at stopping Willow, ConocoPhillips’s oil and gas project in the National Petroleum Reserve.

And then, on March 25 she issued her decision favoring a state-owned investment bank that won leases in the Arctic Refuge.

Feldman, now a law professor at the University of Washington, said 81% of Gleason’s decisions are upheld on appeal, a slightly higher rate than other federal judges who have served in Alaska. Feldman considers Sullivan a friend. He said that while it’s fair to criticize specific judicial decisions, it’s inappropriate to “throw rocks at a judge” by alleging a bias that doesn’t exist.

“When a leader makes that kind of allegation, that suggests that a judge’s rulings are both wrong and politically motivated, that undermines faith and confidence in the judiciary,” Feldman said.

Federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. By tradition, the senators from the state with the judicial vacancy play a big role. They usually select a candidate and send the name to the White House. For several decades, Alaska’s U.S. senators have made their selection with the help of the Alaska Bar Association. The Bar Association collects names of applicants and then polls its members about them.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski likes the process. Sullivan doesn’t.

“One bar poll is not a reflective of what’s out there, in my view, and I feel very strongly about that,” Sullivan said.

Case in point, Sullivan said, is Joshua Kindred’s selection. Kindred was the District Court Judge who resigned last July amid findings of improper conduct. Sullivan praised Kindred at his 2019 Senate confirmation hearing but speaks of him with disgust now and is quick to point out he wanted someone else.

To Sullivan, the Kindred fiasco shows the need for more pre-nomination screening. So Sullivan is using a method he devised: He’s appointed a committee of Alaskans to collect and review applications.

Sullivan has been keeping most of his process under wraps, including who the potential nominees are. Sullivan said confidentiality attracts more applicants.

Retired state court judge Elaine Andrews said the Bar poll works well if senators choose from the top end of the list. Kindred finished near the bottom. Andrews says she wonders about applicants who will only step up for Sullivan’s secret process.

“If they’re afraid of a terrible bar poll,” she said, “because they’re either inexperienced, intellectually unqualified, or an ideologue that they know people do not believe will be fair — well, then we’ve got a problem.”

Andrews said nominees should represent the best and the brightest, and that the Bar poll helps with that because attorneys are the ones who know the work habits and professionalism of their colleagues.

“The goal should be to find a person who is willing to work, who’s capable of understanding the complex matters that comes before the federal court, and who has the courage to apply the law to the facts and decide the case,” she said.

Alaska has two vacant positions on the U.S. District Court bench. Sullivan said he and Murkowski could not agree on judicial nominations last fall but are working to find candidates they both like.

This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Three people were rescued Monday morning after their small plane fell through the ice on Sunday near the east side of Tustumena Lake, on the Kenai Peninsula.

The Alaska Army National Guard rescued an adult pilot and two passengers, both minors, from a Piper Super Cruiser at about 10:30 a.m., according to an online dispatch from the Alaska State Troopers.

All three passengers were taken to Central Peninsula Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. The hospital did not disclose the current status of the patients.

The non-commercial flight originated from the Soldotna airport. The plane was reported missing on Sunday night, about 12 hours before it was found partially submerged under ice.

A U.S Coast Guard air crew searched the area early in the morning, but the plane was found later by a good Samaritan aircraft.

The three passengers of the plane waited on the wings until help arrived.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

A rockslide near Ketchikan on Thursday morning has blocked the island’s main road, leaving people who live north of the slide cut off from the city and its airport. It’s not clear when the road will be open again, but city and borough officials are urging residents to make plans for an extended closure.

“We understand how frustrating it is,” said Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman Sam Dapcevich. “It’s divided the community literally, and we’re hoping to get it reopened as soon as possible, so that people can get where they need to go.”

The slide came down at 10:55 a.m. near Wolfe Point just north of the airport ferry terminal, completely blocking Tongass Avenue. SECON, a construction company contracted by the Transportation Department, has been doing blasting in recent days along the hillside where the slide occurred as part of a hazard mitigation project to improve the slope’s stability.

Dapcevich said it’s too early to say if that caused the slide.

“I do know that the construction work at that area was to mitigate the hazards that already existed. So there’s been rock slides there in the past, and that’s why they’re working there,” Dapcevich said.

SECON spokeswoman Marianne Kordowski directed questions to the  Transportation Department.

City and borough officials said in a press release that they can’t begin clearing the road until state landslide experts can assess the stability of the hillside. They are expected to arrive around 5p.m. Thursday evening.

But Dapcevich said Department of Transportation geological engineers have already begun the assessment while they’re in transit.

“They just want to make sure that the risk is low of more material coming down before they start sending people in there,” he said.

For now, Allen Marine Tours is shuttling trapped residents across the slide area with a tour boat, which is going back and forth between Taquan on the south side of the slide to The Ketch on the north side. To use the free service, call 907-228-4635.

There are two fire stations north of the slide, but the island’s only hospital is south of the slide. Officials say they have a workaround in place to transport hospital patients across the slide zone.

Borough transit services are suspended for areas north of the slide.

The state Department of Transportation wrote on social media that the slide location is “complex and unsafe,” but that they would work to clear a single lane for emergency vehicles once geologists give the OK.

The city and borough has launched a joint emergency operations center, similar to last August’s fatal landslide in the White Cliff neighborhood. Emergency responders are currently setting up lights in preparation to work through the night.