Public Safety

Testimony and evidence were presented Wednesday in the case of a Juneau man accused of using a stolen vehicle to smash open the front of a local brewery and steal beer.

Michael Rae, 54, is accused of theft, burglary, criminal mischief, and vehicle theft in connection with the April 29th incident at Alaskan Brewing Company.

Before the ten-woman, four-man jury was brought in Wednesday, the trial got off to a rocky start with Rae again speaking out of turn and challenging the judge.

“Remove yourself from the bench, please,” said Rae. “You’re biased and prejudiced, sir.”

Recently-installed Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez warned Rae that further outbursts would not be tolerated. Menendez referenced an earlier Alaska case in which a defiant and disruptive defendant was removed from the courtroom during his own trial.

“If you don’t proceed in a polite fashion, (then) you’ll be have to be removed from the courtroom,” Menendez warned.

Later during opening arguments, District Attorney Dave Brower said prosecutors had the person responsible for the brewery smash-and-grab.

“The evidence that is going to be shown to you today is going to show that Mr. Rae drove the Breeze-In vehicle into the Alaska Brewery, and took beer out of it, and drove it to trailer number 46, and then left back again,” Brower said.

Appointed defense attorney Kevin Higgins said the prosecution’s evidence linking Rae to the crime was weak and hinged on a single witness who was not credible.

”When you consider the major links in this case between the fact that a crime was committed and Mr. Rae, what you’re going to be left with is the testimony of one man,” suggested Higgins.

Brewery employees testified to a Breeze-In box- or cube-van in the area in the early morning hours of April 29th and damage to the front of the gift shop and tasting room when they arrived at work. A bumper from the stolen truck was recovered from in front of the brewery.

One Lemon Creek Breeze-In employee testified that she spotted the truck parked near Gruening Park later that morning and had asked if another employee had borrowed it for personal use overnight. No one could identify the driver of the van, or the person who rammed it into the brewery.

Most of the testimony from the two local businesses centered on setting the value of the theft and damages, which is important for severity of the charges. Two small five-gallon kegs, several six-packs, and a case of beer, totaling just over $500, were reported stolen from the gift shop and tasting room. Repairs to the damaged brewery building came to about $4,500. Repairs to the truck cost $8,960.

The only testimony so far allegedly linking Rae to the crime came from John McGillis, who was sleeping in his van in front of Switzer Village trailer number 46. It was his birthday on April 29th and he’d been kicked out of the trailer by Rae the night before. He reported someone who appeared to be Rae driving up to the trailer early in the morning, getting out of the Breeze-In truck, and hurriedly unloading several kegs before driving off. McGillis believed that Rae returned shortly on foot.

“You were fairly angry that (Rae) kicked you out?” Higgins asked. “I wasn’t pleased,” answered McGillis.

After the jury was excused for the day, a mini-evidentiary hearing was held for Judge Menendez to consider pictures of beer bottles and broken glass taken outside of the Switzer Village trailer during Rae’s arrest. The pictures showed several varieties of beer produced by Alaskan Brewing Company. Officers had applied for a search warrant for inside the trailer, but evidence obtained from serving the warrant has been suppressed since there was no record of the warrant application hearing. Wednesday’s evidentiary hearing included Judge Menendez questioning Detective Krag Campbell on the witness stand.

“Are you saying that if you didn’t have a search warrant and you had gone to dwelling at number 46, it’d been your intention to arrest Mr. Rae?” asked Menendez.

“Yes,” answered Detective Campbell, who referred to the visible beer bottles, McGillis’ statements, and still-to-be introduced footage from Walmart security cameras.

Judge Menendez must make the final call whether the pictures taken outside the trailer reflect items seen in “plain view” and are appropriate evidence to be shown to the jury.

The trial resumes Thursday morning. Closing arguments and jury deliberations are expected to get underway later Thursday.

Testimony presented at a brisk pace on Wednesday morning in the case of a Juneau man accused of using a stolen vehicle to smash open the front of a local brewery and steal beer.

Michael Rae, 54, is accused of theft, burglary, criminal mischief, and vehicle theft in connection with the April 29th incident at Alaskan Brewing Company.

Brewery employees testified to a Breeze-In box van or cube truck in the area and damage to the front of the gift shop when they arrived at work. A bumper from the truck was recovered from in front of the brewery.

A Breeze-In employee testified that she spotted the truck parked near Gruening Park later that morning and had asked if another employee had borrowed it for personal use overnight.

Two small kegs, a case, and several six-packs of beer reported stolen from the gift shop. Damage to the store front was estimated at about $4,500.

The Juneau Police Department website has become a model for other departments across the country. And one of its most popular programs has just expanded.

You can now search Ask A Dispatcher by keyword and may be able to get an instant answer. Lieutenant Kris Sell says many of the questions coming in are on similar themes.

“We’re finding that as people are spending more time on the Internet getting something right now is very important. So this allows people to do that on our website,” says Sell. “But if they have a unique situation and prior questions on a similar topic don’t answer their question, then they can write to us and usually within a couple of days we can get an answer back to us.”

Seven key words are now identified on the site, ranging from driving, which has been addressed about 70 times, to fireworks, a popular question around Independence Day and New Year’s.

Ask a Dispatcher started in September 2009. Since then it’s been recognized as cutting edge by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

You can also leave anonymous tips on the JPD website, through the Crime Line link.

“As soon as someone hits send it goes out to several supervisors within the department and we see that right away,” Sell says.

Another feature allows Juneau residents to find out what types of crime are happening in their part of town. Click on Crime Reports and you’ll find a Juneau map.

“Lots of people have expressed an interest in knowing what’s going on in their neighborhoods,” says Sell. “And we have that right at their fingertips where you can go in and see everything that’s going on.”

Sell says department research shows Juneau uses a lot of bandwidth and the theory is to treat everybody like the press. She calls it a by-product of having a “techy” chief. JPD Chief Greg Browning and Sell have made presentations on the JPD website; it has been pointed out at other police administration conferences as a model.

A jury has been seated in the trial of a man accused of stealing a vehicle and crashing it into a local brewery.

Michael Rae, 54, is charged with vehicle theft, theft, burglary, and criminal mischief in connection with incident last April at Alaskan Brewing Company in Lemon Creek.

Before the jury pool was brought into the courtroom, Rae interjected and said he wanted a stay of proceedings, a response to his own hand-written motions, and fire his appointed attorney so that he could represent himself.

Forty-seven potential jurors were questioned on Tuesday as part of voir dire, or putting them on the spot about their background and knowledge of the case. At times, proceedings seemed part stand-up comedy routine and part inquisition. Attorneys used self-deprecating humor to elicit responses on how each potential juror would consider a witness with a grudge, incomplete or irrelevant evidence, rendering a decision that’s beyond any reasonable doubt, or working with jurors with opposing viewpoints.

The jury includes four men and ten women. Two members of the jury will be selected at-random as alternates and excused just before deliberations start.

Court officers and clerks say this is the first trial conducted by Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez, the former prosecutor and long-time defense attorney who was named to the bench last year.

The trial is expected to last anywhere from three to five days.

The Parnell Administration is not commenting on yesterday’s resignation of Corey Rossi, head of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Wildlife Conservation Division. A divisive figure, who advocates for controversial predator control practices, Rossi was charged Thursday with 12 misdemeanor counts related to an illegal bear hunt in 2008. Casey Kelly reports.

The alleged illegal hunt occurred in June 2008 on the north side of Cook Inlet. Alaska Wildlife Troopers say Corey Rossi aided two non-residents in killing three black bears, and took one black bear himself.

Troopers say Rossi then lied on state hunting documents by claiming that he killed all four bears.

According to the charging document, wildlife troopers received a tip in November 2010 from an out-of-state law enforcement agency about the illegal hunt. Troopers asked the agency to investigate, before launching their own probe, which included questioning Rossi last month.

Rossi allegedly admitted to troopers that he had all four bears sealed in his name at an Anchorage taxidermist two days after the hunt – providing false information on the sealing certificates.

He’s accused of a permit hunt report violation, multiple counts of making false statements and unsworn falsification, and one count of unlawful possession of an illegally taken bear. Rossi – a licensed assistant big game guide at the time of the incident – is also charged with five counts of unlawful acts by an assistant guide.

The charges were filed by the state Law Department’s Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals.

It’s unclear what the Parnell administration knew and when. Asked by e-mail how and when the governor’s office found out about the investigation, Spokeswoman Sharon Leighow declined to comment.

State Troopers’ Spokeswoman Megan Peters did not know if investigators talked to either the governor’s office or fish and game commissioner Cora Campbell. Peters also says she did not know what out-of-state agency originally tipped state troopers.

Rossi resigned his position with Fish and Game on Thursday.

A close friend of former Governor Sarah Palin’s parents, he joined the department in 2009 as an assistant commissioner for “abundance management” – a position specially created for Rossi by the former governor.

In 2010, Governor Sean Parnell and then-Commissioner Denby Lloyd tapped Rossi to lead the Division of Wildlife Conservation, demoting long-time fish and game employee Doug Larsen.

The appointment was controversial due to Rossi’s advocacy of predator control programs. That’s the practice of killing or relocating predators, such as wolves and bears, in an attempt to increase populations of other species, namely big game.

The Division of Wildlife Conservation is responsible for conservation and enhancement of Alaska’s wildlife and habitats for a wide range of public uses and benefits. Current Division Operations Manager Dale Rabe has been named Rossi’s interim replacement.

Seattle Police are investigating the January 3rd death of a young Juneau woman, apparently the victim of a parking lot shooting in the Rainier Beach area.

Twenty-two-year old Ashton Reyes was one of two people shot in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant in the 9300 block of Rainier Avenue South. Officers responded to calls of “shots fired” about 10 p.m. on January 3rd, and said people were running from the restaurant’s parking lot when they arrived.

Police found the wounded Reyes lying in the parking lot. She was rushed to Harborview Medical Center, where she died about 75 minutes later. According to the King County Medical Examiner, Reyes died from a gunshot wound to the torso.

Police said they found an adult male victim in another parking lot across the street; his injuries were not life-threatening.

Police are investigating the incident as a homicide. Reyes had recently completed a dental assistant program in Seattle and was working as an intern in a dentist’s office.

She graduated from Yaakoosge’ Daakahidi Alternative High School in 2008 and was the daughter of Rick Reyes of Juneau and Terri Reyes of Oregon.