PATRON SAINT OF STOLEN CARS COULD FACE TIME IN THE ‘GREYBAR HOTEL’
Anchorage’s Floyd Hall, who has made a national name for himself by recovering hundreds of stolen vehicles, will go to trial next month and face prosecution for reckless driving.
His case goes back to the summer of 2017 when he was trying to keep pace with a stolen truck and ended up being shot at by its criminal occupants, who were never caught, although the truck was recovered.
Hall, who describes himself as a “hippie biker rocker” and his colleagues known as “The A Team” have a knack for finding stolen vehicles in Anchorage. They know where all the lowlifes hang out, and people trust them with information.
They post their exploits on Facebook, sometimes posting live video of Hall recovering vehicles. With Anchorage crime rates, there’s always plenty for the team to do.
In Anchorage, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 18. Anchorage has one of the highest rates of motor vehicle theft in the nation, according to the FBI.
Floyd Hall was charged in August 2017 for what police called a high-speed chase. He says he was just following the stolen truck, and he was not speeding.
The 54-year-old this past month asked prosecutors to change just two sentences of the plea deal — the one in bold below — but they refused.
Now, Hall has chosen to go to trial on May 2, 2019. Unfortunately, his volunteer lawyer has dropped him.
“Josh [Fink] can’t afford to do a trial,” Hall said of his pro bono lawyer. He has been assigned a court-appointed attorney.
The official police report says that on Aug. 31, 2017, police received a report of shots fired from a stolen white 2001 Chevrolet Silverado. The shooters, and presumed car thieves, escaped before police arrived. Witnesses said there was a high speed chase that occurred.
Anchorage police say that its officers have a 90 percent recovery rate for stolen vehicles, although it’s unclear how many of those vehicles are recovered by Hall.
“APD appreciates the community support and involvement when necessary. The community is a vital partner in some of our investigations. However, please allow officers to take the lead on criminal investigations. Our officers have the required training and skills to handle these calls and our number one goal is to keep the public and our officers safe. We want to remind the community not take the law into their own hands, instead, call 911 for emergencies or 907-786-8900 for non-emergencies.”
Hall runs a Facebook group where people post information about their stolen vehicles and he reports on those he finds:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/145416002751804/
I’m certainly not a lawyer, but does this mean, exactly: “Defendant shall not have contact, directly or indirectly, any suspected car thief.” Is Floyd supposed to learn how to read minds of every person he comes into contact with to decipher whether or not the person may or may not be a car thief? And if a person is only suspected, but not proven guilty, what happens if a person Floyd is hanging out with and suddenly wishes to or plans to rob a car? Floyd is somehow to be able to know that? Seems pretty ridiculous to me. I would love to be on that jury just to hear the justification of what “directly or indirectly” means.
Police claim to have a 90 percent recover rate, the numbers that the police publish tell a far different story. They blew off a high dollar theft case I had, Floyd handed them the name and location of some of my stolen equipment and they never did anything about it. They blew me off like so many others.
The Anchorage Police Dept (APD), most of the time do not even show up or if they do show up it is many hours and even days later. I spent days waiting for them to show up when I called them with the information that Floyd had provided. We recovered a spray unit at a storage yard, with info from the storage company they called the guy who stole my stuff, giving him time to run and hide.
Floyd has provided an invaluable service to the residents of Anchorage. Why the city would waste so much money trying to prosecute this case when they turned down my theft case with over 20,000. stolen and proof that the guy did it. I personally feel that they are going after Floyd because he has made our police look bad.
Amen.
Jury Nullification!
Yep. This is why juries remain triers of both fact -and- law in our system.
It was English jurys being unwilling to convict people, with penalty of death, for non-violent felonies that eliminated that blanket punishment.
Going to trial will be a direct line to Hollywood for Floyd. Smart move, buddy. Lots of publicity for you when you take on the legal establishment for being one of the good guys. America LOVES vigilantes. Being from Alaska will be a bonus too, as film people can’t get enough of Alaska right now. See you in the movies.
How do the “witnesses” know it was a “high speed chase”,,, did they have a certified radar, if they did were they properly trained in it’s operation, were they certified to operate the said radar? If the answer to either part of this question is no, then Floyd did nothing wrong except embarrass the cops for their incompetence and failure. JURY NULLIFICATION is the only outcome that would be just.
I smell a reality show in the works. I would watch it.
Our lawmakers in Alaska must take accountability for allowing these car thieves out of jail before they were given the proper rehabilitation resources. Law inforcement needs to do their jobs and finally befriend Floyd and make him the Sherif of that law breaking town (Anchorage). He seems to be the only one getting property returned in Anchorage. Go ahead and give him a trial by Jury, there won’t be a single individual that will acuse him of being guilty of what hes being acused of. People should come together and sue Anchorage officials for being negligent and putting the very voters that put them into office in harms way when they passed SB-91. None of this would have happened and as a direct result or lack of accountability from officials, citizens of Anchorage are forced to defend themselves. Something is wrong with this country when you want to put an innocent man in jail and fine him and the crook (thieves) go free all because his rights are offended. Fix it and let Floyd go!
I see a new Alaska TV show in Floyds and the A-Teams future! Cant wait!
That would be great.
I wonder if the fuzz put pressure on Fink to drop Hall’s case?
Josh Fink actually made some good statements regarding citizens rights to maintain order in their own communities and he stated that it was not an exclusive right for the police.
Obviously the “authorities” do not want Fink to “put more wind” in Hall’s sail…
Sure APD might “recover” 90 percent of the vehicles, but how long after they are stolen and in what shape are they when returned?
Who wants their vehicle with syringes stuck in the seat cushions and a ripped apart dash?
I think this case says a lot about the police and how they do not wish to work closely with citizens who are willing to volunteer their time to make our society a better place.
I would hope folks in Anchorage turn out with signs for Hall’s trial to show the jury how we as Alaskans support Floyd’s work and do not wish to send him to jail.
Good luck Floyd as I know your heart is in the right place and your trying your best to make a difference in this current political mess.
The “No Cop Left Behind” police state we currently enjoy is all about keeping the bubble of inflated real estate values from bursting and our house-of-cards economy from going along with it. Strange how commenters on this site agreed with Josh Fink about the concept of police monopoly in this regard, while in another recent discussion around that same time we saw commenters suggesting that law enforcement is the only profession dangerous enough to see the possibility of someone going to work and not coming back home, with no one questioning how ludicrous that is.
The more the socialists prosecute him the more likely the police station will be named for him. Nonsocialists love folk heroes.
And no more plastic bags!
One thing that all police forces hate: a citizen who is a better investigator and cop, than the sworn officers. Embarrasses the hell out of them. GO FLOYD!
Give em hell Floyd.
You have the right if not the responsibility to break the law if you gan create the greater good. Still… The state a.g. office that leads our corrupted and messed up judicial system absolutely hates vigilantes and jury nullification. There is, to their chagrin, the “Necessity Defense.” You can in fact break the law if it passes a couple simple tests.
1. It is necessary and there is no alternative in your subjective view there at the time.
2. The harm caused is lesser than the harm that was prevented.
The precedence was my case where I disarmed an assailant and destroyed his weapon. The judge disallowed a defense and instructed the jury to find me guilty. Although they complained to the judge that they would have otherwise found me innocent of destruction of property. The judge took it upon himself to convict regardless of the jury. Talk about the opposite of jury nullification!
Well the appeals court was unanimous in overturning the conviction and the case law for the necessity defense was born. (Seibold vs State of Alaska) used 80 times by defense lawyers across the state in the first month.
Loving it, Dean. You should have destroyed your assailant and pled self defense, rather than necessity. At the very least, insanity and then go to API for a few months and live like a king.
Possession is 9/10 of the Law, even the cops know that,… all the way thru family courts.
Anchorage should hire him, give him some equipment, training and support.
His efforts and returns on behalf of our Community need to be legitimized.
I broke up a robbery, the thieves took off and an hour later troopers with rifles come to clear the property I had an hour before.
Wouldn’t listen to what I had to share with them. Told me they would get back with me twice as I kept trying to tell them I know who did it. They never got back to me.
But have them show up while having a beer and shooting skeet and they will arrest you.
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