Public Safety

Juneau Police report making a drug bust inside The Glory Hole homeless shelter Tuesday afternoon.

Stephen Dabney, 61, a night manager at the shelter, was arrested after accepting a mailed package that allegedly contained an ounce of heroin. Dabney had his first appearance in Juneau District Court on Wednesday. Bail was set at $20,000 cash. His next court appearance is February 3rd.

Deputy Magistrate Sharon Heidersdorf told Dabney that he could be sentenced to a maximum of 20-years in prison and fined $250,000 if he is convicted.

Officers with Juneau police, Southeast Alaska Cities against Drugs, FBI, and the Postal Service intercepted a package that allegedly contained the heroin and then made a controlled delivery at the shelter.

Prosecutors allege that it was just the latest of a series of packages that may have contained drugs and they say drug paraphernalia — such as cell phones, scales, and sales registers that are commonly associated with dealing drugs — were also seized on Tuesday.

Assistant District Attorney Amy Williams said it was her understanding that Dabney was fired from his job at the shelter on Wednesday morning.

Juneau Police spokeswoman Cindi Brown-Mills says four JPD officers and as many as four federal officers participated in the arrest.

A Juneau man has been convicted of stealing a convenience store truck and crashing it into a local brewery to grab some beer. A jury came back with a verdict Monday afternoon in the case of 54-year old Michael Rae.

Rae was accused of first degree vehicle theft, second degree burglary, third degree theft, and third degree criminal mischief in connection with last April’s incident at Alaskan Brewing Company. The vehicle was a box van taken from the Lemon Creek Breeze-In and run into the front door of the brewery’s tasting room and gift shop. The truck’s front bumper was left behind after the crash. Several six-packs, a case, and two five-gallon kegs of beer were taken from the shop.

After deliberating a total of thirteen hours over two days, jurors returned Monday afternoon with a guilty verdict on all four charges. Just before reaching a verdict, the eight-woman four-man jury sent out a pair of notes that seemed to ask if they could reach a unanimous verdict on some counts and remain undecided on others.

The trial started with jury selection on Tuesday, January 17th.

Sentencing of Rae is scheduled for March 28th.

A Juneau guide is expected to plead guilty to charges stemming from alleged bear baiting and guiding violations.

Michael Patrick Duby, 37, will appear in Juneau District Court on February 1st. The seven charges filed earlier this month include unsworn falsification, unlawful possession or transportation of game, and bear baiting without a permit.

Duby is owner and operator of FishHunter Charters in Juneau. His father, two brothers, and other associates — including a deckhand and a Hawaii man — have already been charged in related game and sport fish guide violations. Duby was named in charging documents for those other cases including for the alleged establishment of a bear baiting station behind his house on Glacier Highway. But investigators and prosecutors earlier declined to comment about whether they were pressing charges against Duby.

Duby is already awaiting sentencing on a federal charge related to selling migratory bird parts over the internet. That hearing is also scheduled for February 1st.

A jury is still considering charges filed against a Juneau man for stealing a truck and ramming it into the front of the Alaskan Brewing Company. Deliberations on charges against Michael Rae lasted 6 1/2 hours on Friday before jurors decided to go home for the weekend. Some of the questions submitted to the court included a request to hear an investigator’s testimony again and whether they could deliberate until courthouse closing hours.

Last April, employees of the Alaskan Brewing Company arrived at work to find the front door to the brewery’s gift shop and tasting room smashed in and several six-packs, a case, a few kegs of beer missing. A bumper was left behind that was traced to a truck apparently stolen from the nearby Lemon Creek Breeze-in store.

Police arrested 54-year old Rae at his residence in the Switzer Village trailer park where he allegedly unloaded the beer. But evidence obtained during execution of a search warrant at Rae’s trailer was declared inadmissible. Most of the prosecution’s direct evidence hinges on a disgruntled former roommate who was camping in his van near the trailer on the night of the burglary.

Repairs to the truck and brewery cost over $13,000. Value of the beer was appoximately $517.

The trial started on Monday with jury selection.

During closing arguments Friday morning, defense attorney Kevin Higgins said prosecutors have evidence of a crime, but no proof that Rae did it. The prosecution provided a shaky witness – that former roommate John McGillis — who could not consistently remember details.

“And because of that, he’s the weakest link in the case,” said Higgins. “And because of that, this unbroken chain of events does not link to Michael Rae.”

District Attorney Dave Brower on Thursday showed videotape of the Breeze-In truck going back and forth between the brewery and Rae’s residence in Switzer Village. He disputed the claim that his witness provided inconsistent testimony.

“John McGillis’s testimony, standing by itself, might be a hard pill to swallow,” admitted Brower during closing arguements on Friday. “But standing with those videos that corroborate everything that he told Detective (Krag) Campbell, points directly to Michael Rae.”

Rae’s disruptive behavior in the courtroom prompted recently-installed Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez to frequently warn him that the trial could be held without his presence. But there were no disruptions from Rae as the case was sent to the jury on Friday.

A twelve-person jury has started deliberations in the brewery burglary case.

Michael Rae of Juneau is accused of stealing a convenience store van and crashing it into a door at Alaskan Brewing Company so he could grab some beer last April.

Closing arguments were held Friday morning in Juneau Superior Court.

Prosecutors say they have video footage of the Breeze-In truck going back and forth between the brewery and Rae’s residence in Switzer Village.

Rae’s defense says the prosecution’s main witness is not credible and there’s no solid proof that Rae did the crime.

Pictures of beer bottles are now evidence in an ongoing Juneau case.

“This evidence, if it’s presented to the jury, would be admissible,” said Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez.

That ruling was issued Thursday by Menendez during the trial of a Juneau man accused of ramming a truck into the Alaskan Brewing Company to steal beer. It’s at least the second test of constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure in this case. This time, it had a different result.

Michael Rae, 54, is accused of theft, burglary, criminal mischief, and vehicle theft in connection with the April 29th incident. He allegedly used a truck taken from the Lemon Creek Breeze-In to crash open the door to the brewery’s gift shop and tasting room. Several six-packs, a case, and two kegs that included different varieties of Alaskan Brewing Company beer were allegedly taken.
Officers served a search warrant at Rae’s residence when they arrested him. But there’s no record of officers establishing probable cause before a judge and no way to tell if the search was conducted outside boundaries of the warrant. As a result, any evidence obtained inside the Switzer Village trailer has been suppressed. Jurors will never know what, if anything, was found.

But what about outside the trailer? Prosecutors also proposed circumstantial evidence in the form of pictures taken by officers during Rae’s arrest. They apparently show Alaska Brewing beer bottles, either intact or broken and fragmented, in the driveway or in a small partially-opened storage shed or lean-to outside. Rae who was already labeled as potentially hostile to police was also allegedly was holding a bottle of Alaskan Brewing IPA with the bright green label in his hand outside the trailer when officers arrived.

“Here we have a very deminimus situation where we have the officer, who’s not even ascended the steps, (and) he’s essentially in the area,” said Judge Menendez. “Right before the steps where he makes these observations which, I believe, are in plain view.”

There are several key exceptions to the requirement for a search warrant. They include consent to a search, what is seen in plain view, and a search of a suspect and their immediate area during an arrest.

One key case that Menendez cites is State of Alaska vs. Ahkivagak decided by the Alaska Court of Appeals in 1986. North Slope Borough police officers went to the home of a suspect in the burglary of a Barrow store. The mother let the two officers in. They went upstairs to find the man and got separated. One of the officers walked into a part of the house where he spotted stereo boxes in plain view matching the description of the stolen items. Appeals court judges ruled that it was a proper seizure.

In the Michael Rae case, Menendez also says the exception of a search incident to an arrest applies to the instant that an officer took that green-labled bottle of IPA.

“The beer had to be taken out of his hand and put somewhere,” said Judge Menendez.

After Judge Menendez’s ruling and a careful documentation of the pictures for a possible appeal, the pictures were shown to the jury. The state rested its case and the defense called to the stand a Lemon Creek Correctional Center employee. He testified that a third man, Rafael Flores, who was an apparent resident of Rae’s trailer, was actually in jail last April. That may have been intended to undermine the credibility and raise questions about the memory of the prosecution’s key witness John McGillis who got kicked out of Rae’s trailer. McGillis said that Flores was also staying there when the burglary and theft occurred.

Rae himself decided not to testify.

Closing arguments in the case will be Friday morning. Then, the jury will begin deliberations.