By DAVID IGNELL
“Something here is really stinky.”
Those were the words retired Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Dick Burton chose to begin his email to three former colleagues on Jan. 2, 2023.
Burton’s colleagues agreed. One responded, “the whole thing is bizarre.” Another responded that he had checked with a retired district attorney who said it sounded funny to him as well.
The “really stinky” something that Burton was referring to was the Class C felony assault indictment against Ketchikan Police Chief Jeffrey Walls obtained by the Office of Special Prosecution under Attorney General Treg Taylor.
Matt Clark, an OSP prosecutor, had appeared before a Ketchikan grand jury four days earlier on Dec. 29, 2022. Count I of the proposed indictment was for a Class B felony assault requiring Walls’ intent to cause physical injury. Count II was for a Class C felony not requiring intent, but recklessness. The grand jury returned a “no true bill” on Count I but returned a true bill on Count II.
The indictment stemmed from an incident at Salmon Falls Resort, a restaurant outside of Ketchikan city limits, on September 10, 2022. Walls was off duty and went out to dinner there with his wife Sharon. During their meal, Walls was twice assaulted by a drunk customer from Washington State who would later admit his first assault against Walls was intentional.
The second assault occurred about a half hour later after the first. The assailant was served alcohol by the resort in between. In the second assault, he slammed into not only the Chief but also Sharon, hitting her with such force that her shoulder and chest were bruised.
Immediately after recovering from the second assault, Walls chased down the assailant in the restaurant and used force to try to detain him until Alaska State Troopers arrived. Two staff members of the resort who hadn’t seen the assaults interfered with Walls’ detainment resulting in another off-duty Ketchikan police officer, Kevin Manabat, trying to help Walls subdue the assailant.
After AST arrived, the drunk man was arrested and originally charged with four misdemeanors including assault, harassment, and being drunk on a licensed premise. Taylor later dismissed those charges and went after Walls instead, claiming Walls used excessive force in taking down the assailant. The Office of Special Prosecutions also threatened Officer Manabat with charges.
In evaluating Taylor’s decision, Walls’ background is highly relevant.
Walls had arrived in Ketchikan a year earlier from New Orleans, where he had been a highly decorated police officer, detective and commander. The recipient of 20 awards, medals, and letters of commendation since 2001, Walls had spent the previous 10 years as the Police Commander of the Eight District which includes the French Quarter.
Walls promotion to Police Commander occurred while the US Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights was investigating an alleged pattern of civil rights violations and criminal misconduct by the New Orleans Police Department. The NOPD and Justice Department soon entered into a consent decree, an extensive blueprint for positive change, encompassing sweeping, department-wide reforms that were expected to take many years to implement.
A federal district court maintained jurisdiction over the Consent Decree with annual reporting by a Monitoring Team. Bullet points in its 2019 Executive Summary include “NOPD continues to make significant progress in every area of the Consent Decree” and “NOPD leadership deserves significant credit for bringing the Department this far.” Walls was part of that leadership team.
Walls had grown up in a small Alabama town and missed the feel of a tight-knit community. He’d always loved the idea of moving to Alaska, so when the police chief position in Ketchikan became vacant, he applied.
He was hired in early 2022 and quickly focused his attention on reducing illegal narcotics activity. He promoted drug prevention programs in the schools and increased his department’s community outreach. He began working with judges to implement diversion programs for low level offenders.
Walls also focused on drug seizures and immediate gains were realized. In his first year, KPD seized 17,000 deadly fentanyl pills, an increase of over 500% from the previous year. Undoubtedly, the lives of many Alaskans were saved through his initiatives.
But Walls wasn’t satisfied with this achievement. His department knew some drugs had slipped by them and Walls wanted them to be even more effective. He initiated the City’s acquisition of a K-9 dog with unique training that increased the dog’s reliability and credibility in court proceedings.
In November of 2022, the FBI Special Agent in Charge for Alaska made a visit to the Ketchikan Police Department to commend them for these seizures. That year Ketchikan seized more illegal narcotics than any other department in Alaska.
Did Taylor have a problem with that? The Attorney General obtained the indictment against Walls the following month.
Walls’ first annual performance evaluation in January of 2023 concluded, “Chief Walls consistently exceeded expectations in his role as Police Chief. He has demonstrated a deep commitment to public safety, community engagement, and officer development. Under his leadership, KPD has achieved significant drug seizures, improved relationships with the community, and prioritized training for his staff.”
In June of 2023, Ketchikan Superior Court Judge Kathryn Lybrand dismissed the indictment against Walls, finding that prosecutor Clark had advised the grand jury in error. Clark had wrongly led the grand jury to believe that because Walls was off duty, he had no authority to use force to detain his and his wife’s assailant pending AST’s arrival.
Really stinky indeed: OSP had obtained its indictment obtained against a good police officer by misleading the grand jury on the law. Go figure. But things were about to get even stinkier.
Taylor decided to go after Walls again. This time our Attorney General took the highly unusual step of presenting the Class C charge to a grand jury in Juneau where none of the witnesses were present. Taylor assigned a different prosecutor to advise the grand jury, OSP’s Bailey Woolfstead.
In September of 2023, the Juneau grand jury indicted Walls not only on the Class C felony, but determined that Walls’ use of force was intentional adding back in the Class B felony count that the Ketchikan grand jury had rejected.
In December of 2023, Lybrand once again threw out the illegally gained indictment against Walls. The judge found that the prosecutor presented the case to the grand jury in a way that removed material evidence from its consideration. The judge also found that the testimony of Alaska State Trooper Larry Dur’an was “incomplete, inaccurate, and misleading” in a material way.
Unbelievably, Taylor went after Walls a third time, once again using the highly irregular measure of utilizing grand jurors in Juneau. Taylor assigned yet another OSP prosecutor, Krystyn Tendy, to advise the grand jury. Tendy succeeded in obtaining a Class C felony indictment against Walls in January of 2024.
For the third time, Judge Lybrand threw out the indictment but this time she took the highly unusual step of dismissing the indictment with prejudice. Lybrand wrote in her May 3, 2024 order, “the State’s three consecutive failures to present this case correctly leave the court with no confidence that the State will do it correctly a fourth time.”
Lybrand barred the State from going after any more felony indictments against Walls. However, the judge did not dismiss the State’s misdemeanor charges against Wall, allowing a jury trial on those charges to stay on calendar for September 10, 2024.
By now Walls and his wife Sharon were done with their Alaska dream that had turned into a two-year nightmare. Before the scheduled trial, Walls reached an agreement with Taylor where in exchange for a dismissal of the misdemeanor charges, he would retire as the Police Chief and leave the state.
Sam Curtis a spokesperson for the Department of Law said ensuring Walls “will no longer be part of Alaska’s law enforcement community was a primary goal” of their agreement to dismiss the remaining misdemeanor charges.
Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore stated, “Neither Ketchikan, nor any other community in Alaska, nor any community in the rest of the country will be at risk that Mr. Walls’ poor judgement will impact them while wearing the uniform of a law enforcement officer.”
Undoubtedly, fentanyl traffickers throughout SE Alaska joined the Department of Law in celebration.
However, the City of Ketchikan was not pleased. In a memo to the mayor and City Council, the assistant city manager wrote:
“It is with great sadness that the City Manager’s office accepts the retirement notice of Police Chief Jeffrey Walls…. During his tenure, Chief Walls has served our community with distinction and dedication and has done so throughout his career. He has instituted lasting changes for the department, including increased community engagement and dialogue, robust training and promotional opportunities for staff, implementing advanced technologies in the field of police work, leadership restructuring, a K-9 program, and the beginnings of a reserve program. The City Manager’s office has always been impressed with his leadership, integrity, and commitment to public service and community, and we consider it a privilege to have been able to work with him these last several years.”
Police Chief Walls gave a lot to Alaska. What did our Attorney General give to him in return? The shaft.
Sharon Walls, an assault victim without recourse, thanks to Taylor, doesn’t want to ever return to Alaska. She told me that if someone told her there was a pot of gold in Alaska and all she had to do to claim it was to fly back to Alaska, she would pass.
Sharon still can’t understand why Taylor would drop charges against her assailant and go after her husband so aggressively, misleading the grand jury on multiple occasions. Sharon holds a political science degree from Louisiana State University, where she took a course in public corruption. In her mind now, Alaska is the #1 state in the country for public corruption.
There are a number of aspects to the Walls’ story that are deeply disturbing, yet tie into a long pattern of abuse of power by State officials responsible for Alaska’s criminal justice system. More details will be forthcoming.
Before he passed away in June 2024, former Commissioner Burton expressed deep concern about some of these other aspects in the Walls’ case. They involve AST.
In Burton’s remembrance, a Facebook post by the AST stated, “his devotion to law enforcement in Alaska was unrivaled.” In honor of Burton, maybe it’s time AST leadership started being honest with themselves. Top officials there know what I’m referring to.
As for the Department of Law, it’s one thing for its prosecutors over the years to manipulate grand juries in indictments and attempted investigations into cases involving “ordinary” citizens like Thomas Jack Jr., David Haeg, or numerous families who have had their children wrongfully kidnapped by OCS. But when the Department of Law manipulates and misleads three different grand juries to indict a decorated police chief whose department has just been commended by the FBI for its effort in taking deadly drugs off the street, they’ve elevated the problem to a whole new level.
Fellow Alaskans, we’re in deep, deep trouble.
All three branches of the State government have known about these problems for a long time but have chosen to ignore them. Like New Orleans, perhaps the State of Alaska’s criminal justice system needs federal oversight under a consent decree.
If that happens, maybe, just maybe, we can convince Chief Walls and Sharon to return to Alaska and use their extensive experience to help oversee our transition from a state known for its corruption to a state known for its justice.
In the process, perhaps many more Alaskan lives will be saved.
David Ignell was born and raised in Juneau where he currently resides. He formerly practiced law in California state and federal courts and was a volunteer analyst for the California Innocence Project. He is currently a forensic journalist and recently wrote a book on the Alaska Grand Jury.
