Public Safety

Two other acquaintances of a Juneau guide are now being charged with hunting and fishing violations.

Blake B. Coombs, 27, of Kennewick, Washington is being charged with negligently establishing a black bear bait station without a permit and overfishing of halibut. That’s for baiting bears behind the house of Juneau guide Michael Patrick Duby and falsifying a halibut catch record for two undercover officers taken out on Duby’s boat.

Duby was owner and operator of FishHunter Charters and Coombs was a deckhand when the alleged violation occurred on June 26, 2009.

Benjamin Olson, 24, of Juneau is being charged with illegally taking a beaver while out on bear hunting trip with Duby on April 30, 2009 on Admiralty Island, and illegally possessing and transporting the beaver.

Arraignment for Coombs and Olson is planned for Thursday afternoon.

That now makes a total of six people implicated during an investigation into alleged poaching activities in the Juneau area.

Michael Patrick Duby’s brothers and father — Jason, Joel, and Michael W. Duby – already face charges related to bear baiting, bear hunting, and sport fish guiding without a proper license. A Hawaiian man, Bradley Deffenbaugh, has also been charged with falsifying a sealing certificate for a black bear taken while out hunting on the Juneau road system with the younger Duby.

Andrew Peterson of the Attorney General’s Office of Special Prosecutions would only say that the investigation is ongoing. He declined to say whether further charges are pending.

Juneau Police are investigating vandalism at the Aldersgate United Methodist Church in the Mendenhall Valley overnight.

Shortly after 1 a.m. officers received a report that the church had been graffitied. Officers arrived and discovered that the church and a separate garage had been spray painted with a large swastika, the number “666” and the drug reference “420.”

No other graffiti was discovered in the area. Anyone with information about the crime is urged to contact JPD at 586-0600 or online at juneaucrimeline.com.

Juneau police are reporting an accidental shooting over the weekend. The victim’s condition is still unclear, but the person was taken to Bartlett Regional Hospital for initial treatment.

The shooting occurred Saturday afternoon near the Hank Harmon Rifle Range on Montana Creek Road. Officers say the shooting happened inside a vehicle while it was leaving the range. The passenger, who was holding a loaded pistol, attempted to unload the weapon. The gun fired with a bullet striking the driver in the leg.

Firefighters and police officers met with the vehicle in the area of the Floyd Dryden Middle School. The victim, whose identity was not disclosed by emergency responders, was then taken to the hospital by ambulance.

The investigation into the shooting continues.

A client of a Juneau guide is the latest to be implicated in possible poaching activities in the area.

Bradley Deffenbaugh, 51, of Honolulu, Hawaii has been charged with a single count of negligently falsifying information required on a sealing certificate or temporary sealing form. That’s a class ‘A’ misdemeanor.

A ‘not guilty’ plea was entered during an arraignment on Tuesday. A jury trial is tentatively planned for late February.

Alaska Fish and Wildlife investigators allege that Deffenbaugh killed a black bear near the end of the Juneau road system, traveling by vehicle with guide Michael Duby on June 4, 2009. According to charging documents, Deffenbaugh “signed a sealing form certifying that the bear was taken south of Lyn (sic) Canal with the use of a boat on June 3, 2009”.

When interviewed by investigators, Deffenbaugh admitted to signing the sealing certificate, but he did not know why it stated that the bear was killed on the previous day with a boat.

The charge against Deffenbaugh was filed by the Attorney General’s Office of Special Prosecutions which has also filed charges against Michael Duby’s brothers, Jason W. Duby and Joel M. Duby, both of Washington state, for alleged bear hunting and sport fishing violations. Their father, Michael W. Duby, is also being charged with providing guide services without a license.

Michael Patrick Duby is currently awaiting sentencing on a federal charge for selling migratory bird parts over the internet for use as fly-tying supplies. But no charges related to the bear hunting have been filed against him yet by the State of Alaska.

Michael Patrick Duby and Michael W. Duby were already sentenced in September for five years of poaching elk, deer, and antelope in Montana.

According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle newspaper, Michael Patrick Duby received a 20-year suspended prison sentence and was ordered to pay $15,500 in restitution. Michael W. Duby was sentenced to two six-month suspended jail sentences and three years probation for unlawful possession of game animals.

There will be no jury trial next week in the case of this summer’s fatal accident out the road.

An attorney for Ryan West on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss the indictment of second degree murder, knocking the trial off the calendar as the judge considers the motion and any additional briefings.

The 25-year old West is being charged in connection with the death of 19-year old Gabriel Carte. West and Carte were both in a truck that went into a ditch and rolled several times at Mile 35 Glacier Highway last June. West sustained minor injuries. Carte died when he was ejected from the vehicle. Police believe alcohol and speed were factors in the crash.

Defense attorney David Seid said whether or not West was the driver, there was no way that anyone could be charged with second degree murder in this case. He suggested that there may have been a little alcohol consumption, but no one was intoxicated.

In a 20-page motion handed to Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez, Seid says prosecutors chose the wrong charge to present to the grand jury. Seid writes that the accident at Mile 32 (not Mile 35 as indicated in previous reports) occurred when Carte was driving West’s truck at about 80 miles an hour. West told investigators that Carte lost control and the truck spun about six times. The Dodge pick-up was sitting in a creek bed, heavily damaged with a missing wheel and its top crushed in. But the investigating officer told a grand jury later that he would be skeptical if West would’ve allowed anyone else to drive his truck.

West volunteered to testify before the grand jury and told jurors that he let Carte drive the truck and switched places with him after leaving a gathering at Eagle Beach. West also said that he drank two beers at the gathering, but he could not recall if Carte drank anything. A blood draw at the hospital sometime after the accident, considered inadmissible by Seid, showed that West had a blood alcohol content of .071 percent, under the legal limit of .08 percent. Seid argues that the charge of murder in the second degree has been reserved for “instances of extreme intoxication with egregious driving conduct” and the grand jury had received misleading or insufficient instructions on the law. Seid also questioned the prosecution’s cross-examination of West before the grand jury which Seid considered as unfair and inadmissable impeachment of his client.

District Attorney Dave Brower was aware that a motion-to-dismiss was being filed, but he said that he “not had a chance to see it yet.”

A two-week jury trial was scheduled to start on Monday, December 5th.

Prosecutors also want to revoke West’s probation stemming from an earlier case in which he injured a woman by dragging her with his truck. That will be considered pending the outcome of the murder trial.

The next hearing in the case is planned for January 3, 2012. That may push any potential trial into next spring.

November 29, 2011 4:30 pm update
Because of what appears to be a simple scheduling error, Jason and Joel Duby were not arraigned as planned on Tuesday. A supplemental summons will be issued and a new arraignment hearing is tentatively planned for the next two weeks.

November 29, 2011 6:20 am
Prosecutors have filed charges against two other close relatives of a Juneau guide. That now makes at least three men from the same family implicated in what appears to be an expanding investigation of possible poaching activities in the area.

The Attorney General’s Office of Special Prosecutions has filed charges against two brothers of Michael Patrick Duby, 37, owner and operator of FishHunter Charters.

Jason W. Duby, 36, of Clelum, Washington faces charges of bear baiting without a permit, hunting in a closed area, and taking a black bear without an appropriate permit.

Joel M. Duby, 27, of Richland, Washington faces charges of guiding without a valid sport fish license and engaging in sport fish guiding without a guide license available for inspection.

Both of the Duby brothers are scheduled to be arraigned telephonically in Juneau District Court on Tuesday.

Alaska Fish and Wildlife investigators say they were tipped to Michael Duby operating bear baiting stations roughly 270-feet behind his house and about tenth of mile from the 7200 block of Glacier Highway. Such stations – even if permitted in Juneau – would be illegal less than a mile from a residence and a quarter-mile from the road. It’s alleged that the Dubys set up a trail camera and bears were lured with marshmellows, fish, dog food, and whole duck with breast meat intact. Investigators set up their own trail camera and logged several instances of Jason and Michael Duby checking the bait site, setting more bait, and going out with a compound bow and a rifle in June 2009. Investigators say Jason Duby at first denied ever trying to hunt because he didn’t want to pay license or permit fees, but he changed his story when confronted with a picture from a trail camera. A picture discovered at Michael Duby’s house also allegedly showed Jason Duby taking a bear there in June 2007. Investigators named two other men, Jordan Morse and Andrew Morse, who were convicted for helping Jason Duby haul out that illegally taken bear.

Joel Duby’s charges stem from taking out sport fish clients in May 2007 even though he didn’t have a valid annual guide license. Investigators suggest that Joel Duby may have even forged Michael Duby’s signature in a logbook on the ‘Brody,’ one of his brother’s boats. Clients identified Joel Duby as captain for their particular trip, not Michael Duby. Investigators also say that Joel Duby didn’t even have a standard sport fishing license that season which they say is a prerequisite for a guide license.

Michael Patrick Duby’s father, Michael W. Duby, 61, has already been charged with providing guide services without a license, allegedly for a sport fishing trip in April 2008 while taking out the ‘Brody.’

Michael Patrick Duby has not been charged with any recent infractions or crimes under state law. He’s currently awaiting sentencing in January 2012 on a federal charge related to selling migratory bird parts over the internet.

(Editor’s note: Joel Duby’s hometown corrected to Richland.)