There have been numerous diaries written on this site about the ongoing investigation into "Troopergate". This issue centers around Sarah Palin's alleged attempts to have her ex-brother-in-law fired from his state job. Follow me below the fold for the untold story of a moose, a taser and a beer...
First, let me make it clear that I am writing this diary based on my own perspective and experience, which consists of over forty years in labor relations as a Union officer and advocate, a management labor relations specialist, advocate and trainer, and currently a neutral labor arbitrator.
Second, this diary will focus on the back story; who is Mike Wooten, the ex-brother-in-law, what was Sarah Palin's initial involvement in this matter before she became Governor, and why Palin's attempts to have Wooten fired were not only an abuse of power, but totally futile and vindictive.
Who is Mike Wooten? Wooten is a seven year veteran with the Alaska State Troopers. The Alaska State Troopers are a state-wide police force, they provide police and wildlife protection services for the entire state, with the exception of the few Alaskan cities that have their own police department. Wooten was married to Sarah Palin's sister, Molly McCann. It was Wooten;s third marriage. McCann had also previously been married. By all accounts I have read, it was a pretty rocky marriage.
As the marriage broke up in early 2005, Molly McCann and her family, including her father, Chuck Heath, made numereous complaints to the Alaska State Troopers about Mike Wooten. On April 11, 2005, a twenty-day restraining order was issued to Wooten, ordering him to stay away from McCann. It should be noted that McCann has never alleged physical abuse at the hands of Wooten, only extreme verbal abuse.
In April 2005, an internal investigation of the allegations against Wooten began. This investigation took several months, and consisted of a number of interviews with members of McCann's family, including Chuck Heath, Todd Palin and several interivews with Sarah Palin. I have read several transcripts of these interviews, they seem to have been fairly and impartially conducted by the assigned investigator, Sgt. Ron Wall.
The allegations against Wooten included several incidents of drinking and driving, threats against his father-in-law, domestic violence, and various violations of Trooper policy. Sgt. Wall, after a very lengthy and professional investigation, found merit in two of the allegations, and sustained them. In a rather unusual move, his superior at the time, Col. Julia Grimes, reversed one of Wall's determinations after personally interviewing a couple involved in one of the drinking and drivinig allegations. On March 1, 2006, Col. Grimes issued Wooten a 10 working day suspension based on three charges which can be summarized as a moose, a taser and a beer.
The moose: Wooten was accused shooting a moose in 2003 withour a valid tag. The short story here is that Wooten was out hunting in a boat with his wife, who had won a tag through a lottery, and a Wasilla police officer. Molly McCann had apparently never hunted moose before, at least not from a boat. The hunters spotted a cow (a female moose, which was what the tag was for). McCann could not or would not shoot the moose, so Wooten took the rifle (it was actually his rifle) and shot the moose. Wooten admitted to shooting the moose, even though it was his wife who held the permit. This is a misdemeanor offense, made more serious by the fact that Wooten was in wildlife enforcement at the time.
The taser: Wooten admitted to using a taser on his eleven year old stepson, at the stepsons request. The stepson wanted to see how it felt. According to the stepson, it was no big deal, although it left a welt on his skin. Palin's oldest daughter, Bristol, witnessed the event, and evidently related it to Palin. In any event, voluntary or not, using the taser on a child certainly violated department policy, and was a shocking lack of judgement on Wooten's part.
The beer: This allegation was based on an interview with two of Wooten's neighbors, Adrian and Marilyn Lane. The Lane's alleged that in June or July of 2004, Trooper Wooten stopped at their house and engaged them in conversation. During the conversation, Wooten helped himself to a beer from a fridge in the garage. They further alleged that Wooten took a second beer with him when he left. Wooten was driving a trooper vehicle at the time. Sgt. Hall found this allegation to not be sustained, possibly because of the elapsed time, and the fact that the Lanes did not report this behavior at the time. However, as I aleready referenced earlier, Col. Grimes re-interviewed the Lanes, found their story credible, and reversed Sgt. Wall's determination that the charge was not sustained.
The March 1, 2006 suspension issued by Col. Grimes also listed a number of warnings, reprimands, and a previous suspension given to Trooper Wooten. This is pretty standard in most suspension letters, as it serves as a foundation for a heavy duty suspension. The suspension was grieved by Wooten's union, and was negotiated down to a five-day suspension. There is nothing particlary noteworthy there, both sides most likely wanted to avoid taking this case to arbitration, as only one of these charges involved on-duty conduct, and would have relied on civilain witnesses, always a risky proposition.
What struck me in researching this discipline was the fact that none of Todd or Sarah Palin's allegations were found to have any merit by Sgt. Wall. With the exception of one incident that Sarah Palin supposedly witnessed, it all consisted of second or thirdhand hearsay. These included allegations of drinking while driving, negative remarks about Alaskan natives (Todd Palin is reportedly 1/8 native) and alleged threats against Palin's father, Chuck Heath.
It is also interesting that Trooper Wooten authorized his Union to publicly release the investigative file, well over 400 pages of documents. In my experience, this is highly unusual, and stands in stark contrast to Palin's lying about her involvement and stonewalling the investigation.
Most important here is the timeline. Remember that the suspension notice was issued by Col. Grimes on March 1, 2006. The suspension was subsequently reduced in negotiations with the Union in September 2006. Palin was elected Governor in November 2006. Walt Monegan was not appointed Public Safety Commissioner until early 2007.
Simply put, there was absolutely no action that Walt Monegan could take against Mike Wooten, even assuming he wanted to. The allegations against Wooten had been investigated, evaluated, and disciplinary action was issued against Wooten in 2006 by Col. Grimes. In that disciplinary letter, Col. Grimes put Wooten on notice that further violations of department policy or conduct unbecoming would result in removal from the AST. Given the fact that no further disciplinary action has been forthcoming, one must assume that Trooper Wooten has not done anything that would merit any further discipline in the last two plus years. He is, as we say in LR biz, on the bubble.
Sarah Palin knew that all of these charges had been investigated. She was interviewed multiple times in 2006 regarding these allegations, almost all of which came from her family. She knew that most of them were not sustained by the investigation, and those that were had resulted in a substantial disciplinary action against Trooper Wooten. She knew, or should have known, that nothing further could come of these allegations. Yet she, her husband, and her staff continued to pressure Walt Monegan and his staff to take further action against Trooper Wooten based on those same allegations. In legal terms, that is called double jeopardy, and you would have a hard time finding any arbitrator in the country who would uphold a removal based on charges that had already been investigated and acted upon years earlier.
I used a number of sources for this diary, but the most useful one was a lenghty story from the Anchorage paper that included a number of PDF links. You can find it here.