Reporter to remain jailed on assault, disorderly conduct

By
Suzanne Downing
-
66

Maria Athens was arraigned Saturday and remains in custody at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center this weekend. The charges against the television anchor are Criminal Mischief, Assault 4, and disorderly conduct.

Police took Athens, 41, into custody in the parking lot of Coastal Television Broadcasting in Anchorage after an altercation with a man in the station’s parking lot on Tudor Road.

She had been preparing to broadcast an explosive story about Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, but the station manager, who is said to be her fiancé, was preventing her from going forward with the story.

In a hastily done Facebook broadcast at 12:08 pm on Friday, Athens told the social media world she would have details on the 9 pm news that involved a story about Berkowitz, supposedly photos of his genitals, and an underage Alaskan’s web page. That never happened.

Later, she posted a couple of nude pictures of the back of a man, which she implied was the mayor. By 9 pm, she was in custody and the station made no mention of the incident on their evening broadcasts.

Within hours, the Anchorage Police said an investigation had been done and the allegations were baseless.

This sordid affair has few details, many questions

More than 30 hours after the drama unfolded with thousands of Alaskans watching on Facebook, the Anchorage Daily News had made no mention of it. But midday on Saturday, Alaska’s News Source reported it this way:

“The incident took place shortly after Athens took to social media to post unsubstantiated allegations against Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz. Though Athens posted that she would cover the story during her late night broadcast on Your Alaska Link, the story never aired.”

The mayor is now under a 24-hour protection detail from Anchorage Police, and his office issued a denial of the allegations on Friday midday, but has not made any statements since. The Mayor’s Office has not explained why the mayor has police stationed outside his home.

Reporter arrested, booked after accusations fly over Mayor Berkowitz
Maria Athens has a story on Berkowitz, but mayor says it’s slanderous

66 COMMENTS

  2. Do you remember when Uwe Kalenka was arrested at the Sullivan Arena for distributing flyers re the Chugach Electric election? He was arrested by Paul Hohneman, put into the back of a police car, and taken to the police station where he was strip searched. He filed suit re the Muni violated his First Amendment Rights. The Muni was found guilty and Uwe was awarded $50,000 in compensation. No one was fired in the police dept. Beware, this may happen here as well. Maybe if Maria Athens was looting and burning down businesses she would be alright!

    • Good point David. I’m waiting with open mind to see where this goes. The public deserves to know the complete story. Furthermore, who is the person in the photos?

      Eddie Burke

    • Why would anyone in the police department be fired? They’re just following orders. The ones who gave the orders are the ones you need to look into.

      • Following orders….hmm seem to remember a group in the past that tried to escape punishment with that excuse.

    • And the guy passing out MOA assembly Balloons (( Plastic shopping bags with helium)) and property tax exemption forms at 36th and Old Seward “”FREE”” they sic’ed APD on him. He should of had a street rat sign.

  3. Seems odd. She’s in jail but he wants police to post up? His OD arrests his accuser? His PD investigates and finds the story baseless? Odd indeed. Perhaps we should pay attention to the missing persons report for the next week or so.

  5. And….the mayor may find using the word “defend” rather than “defund” the police may be in his and his city’s best interest despite what his handlers likely advise him to do.
    He’s certainly using some of that police privilege while he stays home cowering from slander accusations.
    I predict Ethan will soon say he received threats on his life. It makes use of the city’s police resources for personal reasons seem more palatable to us tax paying minions.

    • Mayor Berkowitz “little Ethan,” given the opportunity, little Ethan would take our guns, but he has the entire APD at his call. Typical leftist don’t want you to protect yourself but they have public funded armed guards.

      Eddie Burke

  6. Thank goodness we live in The United States of America where we have freedom of the press and reporters who want to release stories that are not flattering of the political powers are not arrested.
    Oh wait………

  7. Police are posted outside his house because Berkowitz is fearful that the fathers of young children will come looking for him.

  8. A real Nancy Drew mystery in the making. I love stories with a twist.
    Looking forward to tommorows chapter.

  9. As I stated yesterday, Maria should not be shamed for having a breakdown in a very public way. Covid injures in different ways, both physically and mentally. MRAK gave attention to this sad situation because it would make Berkowitz look bad. Maria is collateral damage. Police are at the Mayor’s home because the right wing nuts are making dangerous threats. The Cult of Trump is mean.

    • Eric, I am voting Trump, I am not mean either. Where is your proof of there being a Trumpian Cult? Kindly reference the burning and looting that this Trump Cult has been involved in. Please, just one shread of evidence sir. How childish is your thinking sir? Pretty obvious that you exhibit cultists gibberish on MRAK quite often.

      • I’m pretty sure Eric is not accusing everyone who supports Trump as being a member of a Trump cult, or even of being mean. No evidence of burning or looting by ANY political activists at this time, either, in spite of innuendo to the opposite.
        There is, disturbingly, evidence that a cult of Trump is emerging. GOP pols seem increasingly willing to surrender their pledge to uphold the Constitution in order to comply with the demands made upon them by Trump, and Trump himself seems to believe that he alone is the sole determinator (sic) of what the Constitution means, and that he should be able to, as he put it, “…whatever I want.”

        • Greg, Sir with all due respect you are full of it. Sir, kindly review your logorrhea with a semblance of fact checking. Please try to think logically beyond your hated for Trump and provide one, just one bit of evidence to support your argument.

        • “No evidence of burning or looting by ANY political activists at this time

          Have You been in solitary confinement? Watch some videos of the properties burned and looted by ANTIFA & BLM rioters…..

    • It doesn’t matter who’s making threats if Anyone, anyone at all made threats towards my life the police certainly wouldn’t be posted up outside my pad! That’s BS, straight up it’s like a guy commuting tax fraud for using the equipment he owns at no cost. Right Wing Nuts, pffftttttt dude you’ve lost your marbles if you think the right is the nuts, look around you ya jackass? Sorry if that was too “mean” for you but the truth isn’t always nice n lovey dovey dipshit!

    • Eric, you’re either trolling or just completely oblivious to what journalism is, and being an obvious consumer of the MSM, I think its the latter..

      That said, I’m sincerely glad you came here to be educated.

      A local news reporter teases a dramatic story, on her FB page, and then is abruptly taken off the air. THAT is news. The same reporter is then, taken into custody. THAT is also news. MRAK is one of the few places reporting it, because MRAK is one of the few places in Alaskan media where Journalism still exists.

      For comparison, Your TDS? Well that is not news. It’s just sad.

      Here endeth the lesson.

    • It doesn’t make the mayor look bad. You don’t know who if anyone is making threats. She is central to this story and not collateral. How is this in any way Trump or Covid 19’s fault?

  10. Sure seems odd that she can get in a beef with a boyfriend in a private area and get jailed when there’s all kinds of crime out in the open.

    It’s easy to defame a person, particularly a dictator; I hope that she either has the goods or a good reason for the maybe revelation.

    • There was the attempted kidnapping of Mich Gov, The massacre of Latinos in the Texas Walmart, the more than fifty cases of Trumpers slamming cars into peaceful protesters…. I could go on all day.

      • Those arrested for the plot on Gov Whitmer were in fact BLM andANTIFA affiliated, had no affiliation with Trump and had a lengthy online record of hating Trump. 50 cases of Trump supporters slamming cars in to peaceful protesters? ROFLMAO. Give me a break. Block my car with bats and guns and throw bricks at me and I will run your sorry rear over myself.

  11. How very convenient for you to anticipate the story and benefit from reporting on the story without taking any responsibility for the story.

    • The hate and division has been a Democrat thing, ongoing and intensifying, since the Clinton’s took office in 1992.

    • Suzanne hasn’t said anything, but report what Ms. Athens, Fox News, APD and FBI have released. If you were not interested in this story, why did you come to her site? Maybe you are a political defender and not an information consumer?

      Eddie Burke

      • Maybe there are a few of us on this site that are interested in trying to shed some light on these stories, or their false narratives, or their innuendo. Or are you just interested in hearing stuff that supports what you want to believe?

      • Just called Hiland Mountain Correctional 11Oct @ 16:25 , (press 1 ) and an Officer (Smith ? female ) said bail had already been posted. The officer remarked there was also,” no reason for anybody else to call and post bail” so it looks like a lot of people would like her out and able to First Amendment the story. It would sure be nice to hear Maria Athens speak on a Talk Radio Show, like Eddie Burke at KOAN 1080AM …… NO Tee-Ball There

    • I don’t think people are asking for you to lecture them on politics. It’s convenient to blame President Trump (the Trump derangement syndrome) for everything, it deflects from people having to take personal responsibility. People with TDS really need to get some help. Prepare now because he will be our president for another 4 years. Don’t set yourself up for a devastating disappointment and then act surprised. In other words, grow up.

  13. Another mind poisoned by the Trump/Fox News ethos. Another baseless accusation amplified by an unethical media outlet.

    Now, the MRAK wolves are closing in again.

  14. There was a time that I would have given Ethan the benefit of the doubt on this sort of stuff.

    But that went away after 8 months of wanton, unnecessary damage to ANC, its people, its businesses, and its health and safety (there are real physical costs to lockdowns – all of them). So from here, he deserves and has richly earned whatever happens to him, good, bad or ugly, and this is beyond ugly. Cheers –

    • So it’s all just about the money?
      How much is a life worth? Look at the burgeoning number of Covid cases in Alaska each day. Some, maybe not many, will die. How many of those lives are you willing to sacrifice for keeping businesses going in hot spots? And when do you think it will stop if we don’t do something to control it?
      Sure, times are difficult. But people are not taking this pandemic seriously, and it will blow up in our faces, as it has repeatedly in places where it has been reasonably under control and people go back to the old normal. Until we can get past the idea that this is a real thing and act in such a way that we get a handle on it, we will be doomed to repeat the same lessons over and over until we get it right.

      • Stop politicizing Covid, even the CDC has made national statements that it is being used for political gain and it is only the LEFT using it. The leftist think they are smarter and can live and make decisions for our lives better than we can for our own. It’s people like you and your comments that are making it so some are no longer taking Covid serious so why don’t you keep this out of the story in regards to our mayor.

      • Wrong. Everybody has been taking this seriously. The problem is the masking, the shutdowns, school closing has been way more damaging to everyone than the Wuhan Flu has been.

        Target those who are most at risk – overweight elderly, for example – and let everyone else go on their way.

        There are treatments that work pretty well – resdesevir, the hydroxy cocktail, vitamin D, zinc supps, UVC – that nobody in the Muni have ever mentioned. In their opinion, it is all lockdown, all masking, all the time.

        Sweden, ND, SD, NE are all examples of how to do this right. Sadly Ethan loves his magical emergency powers. Worse, he is far over the line of trading safety for liberty. He likes the former and doesn’t care a whit about the latter. He should. So should you. Cheers –

  15. Very unusual for a person to be jailed for a couple days for these minor offenses. Generally, if a person has ties to the community and no prior record they would be released promptly on their promise to make court appearances. (Own recognizance). Sometimes a very small bail would be required. But in Maria Athens case given her lengthy time in the community and lack of proof that she is a danger she should have been released immediately. Something is very wrong about this case. Libeling someone is not a criminal matter. But for some reason she appears to be treated as a very serious offender.
    There is the chance that she wants this publicity and will parlay it into more. Who knows!
    Also, it seems unusual for ADN to be ignoring this matter. Wonder why.

  19. Maybe the assembly will pass an emergency order to make sure that the age difference is acceptable and that it won’t be considered a sex crime. Kind of like his home state of California just did

    • No need. He’s pulled all kinds of stunts at work but if this is real justice will come from home when his wife runs him over w/ the car. She’s that way.

  20. Tomorrow I will disclose a photograph of Eddie Burke and a goat. In the mean time I will punch my wife in the face and get arrested. Then the MRAK sycophants can speculate about what Eddie did to that innocent little goat, why he did it, and why I got arrested for having proof of goat abuse. The members of the Trump cult will believe anything as long as it gives them another opportunity to criticize Berkowitz. Winter hasn’t started and many of the MAGA fans are getting the jitters.

  22. Still in jail for a Disorderly Conduct charge? Where is the public outrage? The Mayor of Anchorage is a Fascist dictator!

    • If she had shoplifted less than $750 worth of goods from Fred Meyer’s, She would have been given a ticket in the parking lot and not even been in custody, let alone jail………

  24. News from the Lower 48 is that the Mayor resigned.
    Guess that answers any questions about the validity
    of the newswoman’s allegations.
    Good story Suzanne.

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