Andrew Halcro = best sources--Sarah Palin admits Monegan was pressured to fire Wooten AND she DID pay-off Chuck Kopp!

************UPDATE******************

HERE is the raw feed from Palin's press conference courtesy of Alaska Politics.
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Two stories on Halcro's Blog that I've been watching the last several days:

1) You say potato...I say loose ends

Reportedly the Department of Law put acting commissioner John Glass under oath and questioned him yesterday.

So if this really is the excuse the Palin administration is using to explain very questionable behavior, that Branchflower requested it, then the press needs to find out if they questioned the governor and her staff under oath about Monegan's firing.

2) Hush Money?

Yesterday I received an email from a unknown reader who asked if I could put them in touch with the special investigator who was hired to investigate the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

His email stated "I have a bit of information for him that he might find interesting in his investigation. It relates to a payment made to Chuck Kopp by the AG's office."

Halcro's sources were correct and now we know (sorta) why Palin was "questioning" everyone.

Gov. Sarah Palin says a recently discovered conversation recording one of her staffers pressuring the Department of Public Safety to fire a state trooper who went through a bitter divorce with her sister will be turned over to a legislative investigator.

Palin has been under heavy criticism since firing former Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

In addition, the state paid a $10,000.00 severance package to Monegan's replacement, Chuck Kopp, the former Kenai police chief who resigned under pressure last month, according to Attorney Gen. Talis Colberg. That's in addition to his salary, he said.

So my question-- was the real reason for her internal investigation that she could find out how many folks had heard about the phone calls from her Administration so that she could figure out the best ways to do damage control? I don't believe for a second that she was learning about all of this the first time.


HERE is the severance agreement with Kopp, which includes mention of the $10,000.00.

HERE you can find the phone call of the man chosen to fall on his sword, Frank Bailey.

And please, Sarah claims that she didn't tell Frank to do this...except that here's what the recording caught:

Bailey says: "Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, you know: Why on earth, why is this guy still representing the department, he's a horrible recruiting tool. And from their perspective, everybody's protecting him."

And later: “She (Palin) really likes Walt a lot, but on this issue she feels like it’s, she doesn’t know why there’s absolutely no action for a year … it’s very troubling to her and the family. I can definitely relay that.”

Yup...all on his own...no influence from the Palins at all.

It's getting harder and harder to swallow Palin's assertion that the Wooten issue had nothing to do with Monegan's firing.

Let's also be clear on another issue--Palin's sister has been divorced from Trooper Wooten for a few years now. There can only be a couple of reasons this has continued with the intensity we have seen:

1) The "Heath Clan" wants "hillbilly justice" by crushing the man who cheated on one of their little princesses

2) If he loses his job, it's a good bet he'd lose standing in the custody of his kids.

Either one of those reasons are disgusting and as things have developed, both of those reasons are very plausible. Alaska needs to ask if we are going to accept that kind of abuse of power from our Governor?

**BREAKING:** Anticipating Kopp's possible departure via a Governor's "push"

***UPDATE***

Per Alaska Politics Blog:

Gov. Sarah Palin has been meeting with Public Safety Commissioner Chuck Kopp today and plans to hold a news conference this afternoon, her spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said.

Leighow would not disclose what the two have been talking about or what the governor will say at the news conference, including whether Palin plans on firing the state's top cop.

We're all just waiting for a press release because Sharon Leighow has not announced a time or a place for the press conference. I talked to KTVA and Megan Holland at the ADN--neither one of them knew where the press conference was. (In other words, only people who are personally invited will be there--people who won't ask questions...allegedly...)


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The same thing was happening to me right before Andrew Halcro talked to Mike Wooten for four hours. Folks were telling me everything that proved to be true, but they gave me no proof so I couldn't print it.

This time, this information is all about Chuck Kopp and claims that there is much more to the story...and more folks involved. One person even named a name (I deleted it from the comments).

I'm following up on what I can, including looking into submitting a FOIA request. I really am not invested in "breaking stories" but I will if folks will give me the information with that intent. However, I'm also making a request. If there is someone who REALLY knows something out there with proof, break the story to SOMEONE...ANYONE you feel comfortable with. If half of this stuff is actually true, folks REALLY need to know and I don't care who breaks it.

What I fear...a focus on rural substance abuse to the detriment of focusing on DV/sexual assault

Lauren Rice, Legislative Liaison/Special Assistant to the Commissioner has been asked to leave her position at the Department of Public Safety.

Per Andrew Halcro's Blog:

I have been asked to leave my post as the Legislative Liaison for DPS and I will do so sadly. I thoroughly enjoyed my time both with DPS and Commission Walt Monegan who exemplifies everything DPS represents.

Working with you has been an adventure and I have enjoyed it. I will miss it.

Next in her email comes a section that I have been afraid of since I first heard Walt Monegan was fired:

As you know, Alaska has long held the distinction of being number one in the nation for sexual violence (both sexual assault and sexual abuse of minors) and domestic violence. Many of you have been advocates for victims with both your voices and your actions. I have been inspired many times by that advocacy. The prevalence of this violence is seen in our communities, emergency shelters, hospitals, schools and streets. We see it in our neighbors’ eyes and in the lines for substance abuse treatment. It is a scar on our state.

The State of Alaska, and more specifically DPS, needs tools to fight this epidemic. They have proposals and ideas on how to better protect Alaska’s residents, but DPS will need your support in order to carry out any of those plans. I have attached a brief report from the University of Alaska on the correlation between violence and substance abuse among victims. I also encourage you to review the study below titled “Descriptive Analysis of Sexual Assault Incidents Reported to Alaska State Troopers: 2003-2004”.

http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/research/2000/0601intimatepartnerviolence/0601.02.sexualassault.pdf

I spoke to Walt Monegan the day after he was fired. When I say "I spoke to Walt Monegan" I mean that I did most of the speaking. He wouldn't go on the record with much at that point and I admit, I know almost nothing about being a good interviewer.

However, the way I got him to call me was through my email to him, which talked about how I was afraid of what may happen to the focus on alleviating DV and sexual assault in Rural Alaska. I mentioned the Governor's emphasis on her "new direction" and focus on substance abuse. I also mentioned that concerned me because of the above-mentioned report, which shows a lack of correlation between being under-the-influence and acts of DV/sexual assault in Rural Alaska...on the part of the victim or the perpetrator. One of the few things he said was a strong acknowledgement of the findings in that report. At the time, I had wondered if that was "code."

I think this is starting to go beyond "code."

It seems to me that there are a bunch of folks who thought that DPS was finally on the right track. Now, they are not so sure...they are afraid that the gains they were making will be lost.

I'm wondering how far this puzzling DPS "housecleaning" is going to go?

Speaking of "Abuse of Power"...

There were many media folks out there trembling with anticipation for the Governor's Press Statement regarding the Halcro accusations/PSEA Press Conference. Imagine everyone's surprise when spokesperson Sharon Leighow's former radio partner Dan Fagan was reading this Press Release on the air at 3:38...before anyone else even received it!

A certain Program Director immediately called Leighow and was told that the release wasn't ready but would be in a few minutes. When he asked why Fagan was reading it, he got the cold shoulder on later calls to Leighow. He then called Janice Mason (the Governor's scheduler...can we say "where the real power lies?") who said she didn't have it either. When he informed her that Dan Fagan had just read it on the air, she made some exclamation and went to investigate. About 5 minutes later, the statement came from Leighow's office to his direct email.

It seems that others were also left in the lurch by Leighow when it came to the release. (***UPDATE*** While the Program Director got his about 4:05 PM--after he contacted Janice Mason and she seemed as surprised as he--one reporter didn't get his until 7:10 PM!!!)

Interestingly, the ones I know of were all folks who have been publicly friendly/supportive of a certain person who has a rather large defamation lawsuit in the works against Leighow and Fagan (among others).

Coincindence?

If Sharon Leighow is trying to earn badges on her road to "Evil Overlord" status she's already halfway there...she's got the "Evil" down pat. She just needs a lot of help with the "Overlord" part. I would highly recommend that she reads "The Top 100 Things I'd Do if I Ever Became an Evil Overlord" in order not to crash and burn early:

48. I will treat any beast which I control through magic or technology with respect and kindness. Thus if the control is ever broken, it will not immediately come after me for revenge.

I think this might qualify, if you think of "access to the Governor" as "magic or technology."

Sharon, ask your boss how well that whole "alleged" "treating-people-badly-through-revenge" thing is working for her.

BREAKING: Sarah Palin accused of abuse of power

Innuendo that has been kicking around the internet for days regarding Walt Monegan's firing have finally been made public through official allegations. Per Andrew Halcro's Blog:

Monegan said no, he couldn't cut his budget because his State Troopers were already being stretched to the limit and public safety suffering. He said no, he couldn't cut his budget because fuel costs for planes, boats and patrol vehicles soaring, while crime in rural Alaska was putting more demands on the Troopers transportation system.

But more alarming than any budget battle, Monegan said no to firing a State Trooper who had divorced Governor Palin's sister because the guy was being maliciously hounded by Palin's family.

And not just that; Monegan's firing came after his Colonel had to reprimand the governor's office for meddling in department personnel affairs.

This is real, kids. I've been getting emails and reading comments inferring this for days but have had no proof. Now, there is a press conference at 2:00 PM regarding the allegations of Palin's "ex" brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten:

According to Trooper records, Sarah Palin said that in January and February of 2005, Wooten was drinking while driving. After investigating the complaint, the investigator found that Palin never actually saw what she reported.

In another complaint, Sarah's father said that Wooten made threatening remarks. Again, the investigator found there was no probable way that it could have happened.

In all cases except one, the charges were ruled unfounded after an internal investigation. And the one charge that was valid, Wooten immediately admitted to.

I'm going to the press conference so there will be more to come.