Runaway grand jury's attack on retired Alaska judge smacks of mob rule

Retired Alaska District Court Judge Margaret Murphy of Homer is a victim of mob rule.

She already has had to suffer through what her attorney rightly calls an “inappropriate, illegal and an unfair proceeding.”

A runaway grand jury, whipped into a fervor by a man with a long-standing grudge against the judge, has charged her with perjury without bothering with any details of the alleged offense.

That the attorney general of Alaska, Tregarrick Taylor, had a hand in promoting this extremism by hiring “independent prosecutor” Clint Campion for $50,000, makes this official attack on the rule of law all the worse.

Campion claims he had no ability to stop the so-called indictment, though he had “very serious concerns” about it. He had no power, no influence and no control over the grand jury, according to him.

This is a political operation. David Haeg, the man with the grudge, told the Anchorage Daily News last year that “Rep. Ben Carpenter, a Republican from Nikiski, with support from Gov. Mike Dunleavy, ‘agreed to convene a special grand jury’ that would investigate Haeg’s claims . . .”

The grand jury promoted by Haeg claims Murphy committed perjury, but doesn’t cite any specifics other than it happened on or about November 3, 2022. And it happened at or near Homer.

I trust that the Alaska justice system will dispose of this bilge in time. But it should have never gotten this far.

AG Taylor, a pandering politician, stays silent about this grand jury overreach and the violation of Murphy’s rights. A competent attorney general would never have allowed this prosecution to proceed.

As soon as the so-called indictment with no details of any crime was released, the case should have been dropped.

Here is a link to the oral arguments Monday about whether to throw out this mess.

Attorney Timothy Petumenos, one of the attorneys representing Murphy, said there is a silver lining in that the injustice done to Murphy will focus attention on the need to conduct grand jury proceedings in a way that preserves the rights of all.

One element, as the Alaska Supreme Court has made clear, is that “parties elected to nothing by no one do not have the right to come into the grand jury and start the hunt.”

“We are a representative democracy. That means our representatives, the executive branch of government, is the sole authority to institute charges and they must take it to the judicial branch,” he said.

Petumenos said this attack on the retired judge “threatens the very fabric of what it is that our founders stood for when they took the power away from the king.” The king once had the power to charge anyone with anything.

I’ll have more on this later. In the meantime, listen to this court hearing.

Your contributions help support independent analysis and political commentary by Alaska reporter and author Dermot Cole. Thank you for reading and for your support. Either click here to use PayPal or send checks to: Dermot Cole, Box 10673, Fairbanks, AK 99710-0673.

Write me at dermotmcole@gmail.com.