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Wife got a call from daughter yesterday saying she had been arrested for an outstanding warrant. (Never mind that she had posted the required $250 bail in July.)

So yesterday the AST trooper from Unalakleet, the same one who demanded the arrest of my 70 year-old, physically impaired mother-in-law in April, must have decided he needed a trip to Nome. So he came down and arrested said daughter and brought her to Nome where he dropped her off at the jail and left.

Sunday morning the jail gets a call from the court demanding that the prisoner be released. Good for her, but damn I was hoping the judge was going to give the trooper an earful in open court tomorrow.

Oh well, what's a couple free round-trip tickets to Nome on the citizens' tab? We must be rolling in the dough these days.

.... and imagine Trooper Branch's surprise when they met up on the return flight home this afternoon.

(When people asked her why she came to Nome, she just told them, "Trooper Branch was dry and wanted to make a trip to Nome.")

snafus are always expensive to someone. Others it costs, but they are never paid for their suffering.

These days its almost like you better have your lifes proof with you at all times.

I suspect a reciept and proof on the iphone might be a start next time, but why shoudl we be the ones that keep the records.

Of course I"m sure the trooper was handed the warrant.... and had no choice really.

I don't recall the issue with your MIL. But it seems that there isn't much common sense at times in LEO, still they have tough jobs.

AS in any profession there are the bad apples...(this I know). It speaks well of the particular profession which weeds out the bad ones, and quite the opposite when they don't. This particular dude could use some pruning from what I've heard, but not surprisingly, he's been posted out where the impression given is that people matter less. (You can bet that these snafus would not happen where people were better able to access high-priced lawyers.)

We kind of figured it wouldn't hurt the kiddo too much to waste a few hours on the cot however, since she shouldn't have gotten herself into trouble in the first place. But a simple look on the internet could have saved the State a cool 2 Grand - and she told him as much when he picked her up.

Seeing the look on his face when they both got on the same plane today must have been priceless, and she does a rather haughty "told you so" look with expertise, so I'm sure she was enjoying the moment as much as he hated it.

AST are hurting for troopers so bad right now not even the bad apples are going to get canned.. I guess they have the brown shirts doing regular ol blue shirt duties...

Yeah, that's what I've figured is happening.

They have pulled all troopers out of anchorage I guess anchorage is not happy it's a big ol [bleep] show

I started looking around a bit, and wonder of wonders, a "Trooper Branch" search pulls up Youtube videos of the incident a few years ago down in Kodiak where a couple of troopers, a Boyd Branch being one of them, made an arguably questionable arrest after an argument inside someone's home - all caught on video. And then a bit more poking around shows that the Trooper Branch in Unalakleet is indeed named Boyd Branch. Whodathought?

I wonder if it ever occurs to the good solid law people who put their lives on the line, that their 'dirty brothers' actually put their own lives at greater risk by some of their actions? Purge, not do a pass-around rehabilitation effort. (That hasn't worked out well for the Catholic Church in rural Alaska either.)

You should sue for harassment.

Nah...someone will get a picture of him plinking ducks from a moving boat with a .22 and he'll be toast.

Maybe.


I'd like to help Lt. Hughes with DPS connect the dots, but I don't think he cares about these matters unless there's money....their's, involved.

Boyd Branch was the quiet idiot with his glasses up on his forehead during the Kodiak arrest. A quick Courtview search will find more detail about the arrest under Skyler Waite. She was the harrassed citizen... I doubt he asked to be moved out of Kodiak.

http://www.courtrecords.alaska.gov/eservices/?x=Y*UHOgjmg8nvX2cSLjKVngtTBiyRm*XTADETWgMGae1F8vbPXoieXb-pGdGgam8mE4qX9MFET3Z*FM4ZAal8CA

Link to Courtview results

We used to always say just send the bad game wardens to East TX and that will be that. Will never see em again.

Many years ago it wasn't a joke either.

One would think,especially in rural AK, that it would be good to make friends, not enemies.

She paid a $150 fine for resisting, or somesuch....kind of pathetic if you watch the video from way at the beginning. I was quite impressed that 20-year-old wasn't throwing F-bombs much earlier. (I'm sure I would have gotten tazed. ) But in poking around last night I also found reference to her winning a $40K civil settlement after the deal.

Which brings to mind a story.... sorry y'all.. LOL

Years back we had to have our names on our arrows. Like if we were going to poach we would be that dumb...

Anyway a bunch of us in camp shot the same arrow size. So we often had a couple dozen full length arrows around to cut to draw length as needed. Got to wondering if it was legal. After all this was a lease and not our home.

Called and got a clarification. Managed to write down the Colonels name.

A few weeks later, we get checked. Tag on the meat in the cooler not on the head like most folks do/did, which was technically illegal by the rules. IE we were correct. He asked about that, I told him, rules say its carcass tag. OK.

Then he notices some arrows in a box, and no name. Gets his book out and I ask whats up. Ticket. OK. So while he is writing I mention that the his agency says names on arrows in your quiver, while on way to stand or in stand. Practice and spares and such don't matter. Keeps writing.
UNTIL I mention Colonel Oates name. I may have added that I waws going to call him again Monday and discuss this a second time with him....

That stopped the ticket right there. I was lucky I had the name and an office phone number. LOL. Landowner called me Monday as he drank coffee with the warden week days... I explained, he said, ok, cool, but be careful in the future. They hounded us for years after that and finally snagged by BIL who forgot to tag his doe before he put her in the truck. Fool he was...

The thing that really got me in watching that video...watched two different version including the one that went over 11 minutes last night...is that stuff like that can really feed into subsequent law interactions. Made me wonder if the behavior of Branch and Mitchell could have played into the deaths of Troopers Rich and Johnson up in Tanana if the father-son duo had seen that video clip on TV. I really wish they would just clean house when they have troublemakers in the ranks. If I had realized the connection last spring when mom-in-law had her issue, I might have used that to some advantage when corresponding with Senator Olson and Lt Hughes (the latter whom had previously ignored my communications until our senator forwarded my CCed communications.)

They need to get rid of all the bad ones ASAP. THey should be held to a higher standard IMHO.

The last one around here, instead, was promoted to a higher rank to get him out of the field

I have generally held these guys in high regard and shown respect- and that's how it should be IMO. But after dealing with a few bad apples and incidents, I tend not to trust any of them anymore and won't let them inside my doorway; I don't care what the weather is.

If they would clean house......

And promotion 'therapy' seems to be all too common, and not just in this profession.

I think you can say that any good LEO worth a flip would tell you the same, I'll ask about coming in, but if I were you I"d say no way without a warrant.

Ask em about letting them search a vehicle without a warrant. I don't know any good LEO that would allow it for their personal vehicle....

Sadly I'd say most LEO are of the mindset that they will do everything they can do to get permission to a no warrant search just as they will be all to friendly to get you to talk with them without giving you your Miranda rights.

I'll give an example of a case I'm somewhat familiar with. Troopers were doing an investigation on a suspected drug dealer. I'm not an attorney but as a citizen concerned about the bill of rights I would say many of their warrants were questionable in regards to probably cause and to me this was made pretty clear when the defendant's attorney was questioning one of the troopers. The defendant lived in an apartment with a common area that had a door with a combination lock and a sign stating private area no trespassing or somesuch.

When the attorney asked the trooper didn't he think he needed a warrant due to the lock on the door and the security sign his response was, "Well that doesn't apply to me."

Worse yet, the judge didn't rule in favor of the violation of the rights of the defendant and let in the evidence from the IMHO illegal search.

I agree that one should respect LEO, but you need to also expect that they will take every possible shortcut to speed an investigation and ignore your constitutional rights. They are not your friend.

And it's perhaps even worse in the villages (where people are often somewhat passive when it comes to 'the man' and often don't realize what rights they have.) I recall one time a trooper stopped by looking for my stepson (seems like there's a pattern here ). It was raining rather hard and blowing. As I opened the door, the trooper moved to step into the porch. I raised my arm across the doorway to block it, so he had to stand outside in the rain. That is so out of character for me and virtually any village persons I know, but after some of the liberties some of them have taken, it's simply how it has to work. I hate to think this is how we've gotten to this point. I wish we could simply put our suggestions and complaints in an email suggestion box and get some sort of remediation. Unfortunately, my original post demonstrates that there really isn't much being done to correct things.

its a shame that a lot are not your friend these days. Maybe I'm lucky that I know quite a few current and retired.
To a T, they all say never let the searches happen. Ever. And never communicate more than you have to, to say, nope, not talking, speak to my attorney.

I grill my wife on this all the time, as I don't want her setup for anything etc...that would prompt me to sort the situation out correctly after the fact.

Respect yes, but past the point of i"m going to give you the benefit of the doubt to start with, as soon as you start talking you then have to earn the right for me to keep the respect going.

Then again, try to answer a simple question of like where are you headed tonight with out, or none of your business or what does that have to do with this interaction and see what an attitude a lot of them will get.

Long backstory once.. I'm local fire/ems volunteer, know most all the locals... got stopped for speeding once, on the way to hospital to take moms car, dad just had a heart attack, and I says, yes, it was on cruise about 7 or so over, wife following me on same and cruise...

Nope you were doing 90something... nope not me, guy got really agitated adn then more or less said I know you, DUH, slow it down... he clearly clocked the wrong vehicle... but you are never right and they are never wrong.

I'm GLAD I know a lot of good ones!

yep

http://www.thesheltonhouse.com/2016/11/22/alaska-state-troopers-chocolate-cheesecake/

Uber cool!

That's the way it should be!

Somewhere.

Everyday.

In every profession.

Troopers have a rough job and some poor ones stay until they are found out.
Last night, I had a customer come in wanting to buy a 500 dollar thermoimaging system because he has a chronic problem of having a group of homeless people take ladders and climb into his attic at night where they crash and then take off with the same ladders in the morning. He lives in an older cabin that has several different ways to get up into the attic from the outside and they generally have look outs that get them in the right position. The gentleman lives on college road and he has complained to the Troopers several times and they have told him he has to wait until the homeless are up in the attic and call and they will respond. Well they got up there and he called and they didn't respond. So the next day he came to me.

I told him that he didn't need the thermoimaging system but should go old tyme Alaskan on them. I convinced him to buy 4 X 7 inch Connibear traps and told him to set the traps inside contractor bags attached to 15 ft of good rope. I told him to carefully place fake christmas packages in the center of the attic with the rope tied to beams so that they would look like he was storing Christmas presents in the bags. I figure that when they get curious that there will be shennagins. There is just enough rope for them to be left hanging and just enough trap to hurt them but not kill them. They weren't in the Newsminer today so I can assume that it didn't work yet but I figured that that was an adequate response.

Accessing Youtube is a bitch here, even with the VPN. Was this the (IIRC very mouthy) woman that was accused of assault or resisting, when realistically she bumped a trooper ever so lightly with a door or something? Maybe 5-6 years back now?

2013.

Yeah, she ran her mouth...rather mildly initially, and inside her own home....and then with somewhat more enthusiasm after they put the shackles on her. It was a classic case of "if we watch/harass you long enough, we'll be able to bring you in for something".

Good or bad, these guys all wear the same uniforms, but the colors run unequally, and not in a positive way.

Yup,as Klik pointed out it was really very mild. I was very disappointed in the prosecutors' inability to see the obvious... she was charged and the charges were not dropped for a very long time.

Yep, I got to watch the Loomis guy go way more uncorked after the minivan up and died right in front of his parked vault truck. He liked to put on a show like I was attempting a heist like in the movies; that's how they do it, right ....with a couple old ladies, a gimpy old guy and a 9-year-old kid? And I don't even resemble Sirhan Sirhan or any of his cousins....not even remotedly.

They are paid to be on edge, though...