Some progress on the Point Hope caribou slaughter

[Dand]

Its been real slow but I'm glad to see some progress on the Point Hope caribou slaughter. I had a short visit with the Trooper Commissioner and he says its been a very delicate investigation. I know a lot of folks won't get a lot of satisfaction out of this but so far its better than nothing and the investigation continues.

From the Anchorage Daily News:

Two defendants in caribou killing case cut plea deal
NO JAIL: Men to pay fine, do community service; they can still get hunting license.

By MEGAN HOLLAND
mholland@adn.com
Published: November 28th, 2009 01:12 AM
Last Modified: November 28th, 2009 01:12 AM

http://www.adn.com/outdoors/hunting/story/1031551.html?pageNum=2&mi_pluck_action=page_nav - Comments_Container

Two of the eight men accused of slaughtering dozens of caribou on the tundra near Point Hope in July 2008 pleaded guilty on Friday to failing to salvage the edible meat of an animal.
Randy Oktollik, 27, and Brett Oktollik, 21, agreed to the plea deal with prosecutors. The deal calls for them to serve no jail time for the offense, but to perform community service working with elders and explaining to young children the right way to harvest meat. Randy Oktollik's deal calls for 30 hours with elders and 20 hours with school-aged children; Brett Oktollik's calls for 45 hours with elders and 20 hours with children.
The men must also pay $1,360 in fines and restitution charges.
Both will still be able to apply for a hunting license.
They will be officially sentenced in February.
A third man, Lazarus Killigvuk, was also scheduled to change his plea Friday but did not call in to the court proceeding. He has no phone in his Point Hope home, his lawyer said. Kotzebue Superior Court Judge Richard Erlich gave the lawyer another week to get a message to his client about appearing in court.
The five others charged in the case say they are not guilty and are scheduled for trial the same month.. .  . . .
             -- follow the link for the rest of the story --

[corbanzo]

Yeah....  I still think the whole thing is BS.  If that were me, a white guy from the road system, I would be hung already. 

[Dand]

Corb, you probably saw the comments on ADN following the article.  A lot of them say something similar to you.  Check out the comments regarding the convicted felon status of some of the accused. It IS very disturbing how this case is going in light of how hard the state lands on other hunters who may waste only a part of one animal or bring the antlers out before the meat.  But at least it wasn't swept under the rug with no citations or trials.

[Rex in OTZ]

That's not surpriseing, I come to expect that from the Honorable Judge Earlich, the law system in the North West Arctic Bourough is sadly lacking, been on Petit Jury here for 20 years, 98% is drunkin BS.
Earlich is married into a extended Eskimo family so he very rarely hands down anything resembling justice.
Earlich is retireing this spring he and his wife Suzie are presently fixing up ther home for sale and moving to Las Vegas.

Last spring had a drunkin intruder come in my home wielding a shotgun (approx 4am) long story short had that guy trigger'd that 870 at my midsection (no round in the chamber) i took the shot gun away and called the cops and later on Mr Earlich gave that drunkin fool 80 days in a 1/2 way house in Nome for two Midsmenors. The guy forefit the shotgun but gets to keep the rest his guns (for subsistance resons) a 3 years probation.

[thxmrgarand]

I do not have specific information about this judge but I certainly agree with the opinions and characterizations people have expressed here about the "sentences" given to these people in comparison with sentences given to fish and game law violators who happen to reside in Alaska towns and cities or in the Lower 48.  I would likely receive a stiffer penalty if I was found to have one round of lead shot in my pocket when duck hunting.

I wonder how law enforcement officers can live with themselves when they enforce laws that are so unequally ruled by the state and federal court systems?!  Corruption need not entail payment of money to be corruption; unequal results are adequate in order to be called corruption.

[williamlayton]

Sounds like the old Jim Crow laws of the South.
Blessings

[Rex in OTZ]

Game law's definately do get abused here, the AK State does show up for crimes against people
ther responses are from a few hours to respond to several days for crimes of violence
Crimes of game law abuse is not well represented, one trooper & supercub to cover a area the size of nebraska holding 13 villages.
Most folk wont sell out ther relative, if your not related and you witness against them it turns into a family fude environment that never seems to end

Being a responsable could end up Your having your stuff getting vandalized, stolen, your pets killed and hung off the water tank, a friend of mine had just a situation happen in Anvik Ak, got so bad when the perps were drunk they would shoot at her cabin, she used to walk to work with a loaded shotgun, it finally got so bad the AK troopers sent a air charter to go pick her up.

Its nothing to see excess bag limits of fish and foul and seeing rotting baluga whale & walrus & seal laying washed up on our beaches.

Ive heard the Feds actually had tried enforceing a few times (bag limits and lead shot) and all this lead to was open hostility, exaserbateing things, so they figure if they dont start a pissing match, in short if a few abuse is better than pissing off the whole village and everyone doing it to spite them which did happen on the north slope, in short game laws exist but arnt enforced much on locals who dont support the troopers or the wardens, they are the first to point out game violations or perceived violations of outsiders though.

[corbanzo]

I do not have specific information about this judge but I certainly agree with the opinions and characterizations people have expressed here about the "sentences" given to these people in comparison with sentences given to fish and game law violators who happen to reside in Alaska towns and cities or in the Lower 48.  I would likely receive a stiffer penalty if I was found to have one round of lead shot in my pocket when duck hunting.

I wonder how law enforcement officers can live with themselves when they enforce laws that are so unequally ruled by the state and federal court systems?!  Corruption need not entail payment of money to be corruption; unequal results are adequate in order to be called corruption.

That is IF the enforcement officers can even gain access to do their investigation, and IF anybody is going to cooperate with them at all. 

[Rex in OTZ]

Its kinda like living in Iraq, you dont want to be seen consorting with Americans could be bad for your family
only its the USA we have somthing like that going on.
just as a example I had pulled up a couple names mentioned in the article (Oktollik) the AK court record registry for Brett shows he had brushes with the court system before records show starting in 2007 for infractions locally view'd as minor, out past cerfew, public intoxication,MCA (in a dry village), misimeanor assult
To serious stuff like Felony Assult with a weapon involving injury to the victom(classB), felony bruglry/theft (classC), Riot (classC)
the other names mentioned had brushes with the law as well.

Kinda interesting How a Alaskan Superior Court Judge would overlook these repeat offenders having committed prior Felony's and still allow them to hunt, allowing these guy's to hunt is grossly/criminally stupid act on part of the DA and the Judge.

[thxmrgarand]

What a curious ruling! 

Judge tosses caribou waste case
Jill Burke
Jan 12, 2010 AlaskaDispatch.com

A judge Tuesday ordered the dismissal of the case against Roy Oktollik, one of eight hunters from the Native village of Point Hope charged with criminal waste stemming from a summer 2008 caribou hunt.

While three defendants have taken plea deals, the dismissal is the first victory against the state as prosecutors and defense attorneys moved to resolve the cases or take them to trial.
Brent Cole, Oktollik's attorney, successfully argued that the state had insufficient evidence to meet the legal standard required to prove its case. In an earlier decision, Judge Richard Erlich determined that to prove responsibility for the killing or "taking" of caribou, the state must be able to connect a specific dead animal to the specific actions of an accused hunter.
"My client did not aid and abet anybody in any violations and he didn't commit any himself. That was always our position from the beginning," Cole said, reached at his office late this afternoon.
Oktollik is one of three hunters in two cases who are charged with "failure to salvage" edible meat as accomplices, meaning they were present on the hunt when an animal shot at or killed by someone else was left behind in the field.
"Liability does not attach solely because of a ‘group' activity," Erlich wrote in support of his earlier decision. "There needs to be some admissible evidence from which a jury could conclude that Mr. Oktollik engaged in a specific behavior related to the specific animal."

Read more here: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/news/3616-judge-tosses-caribou-waste-case

[Dand]

Yeah its a disappointment and frustrating. I sat thru our local Fish and Game advisory committee meeting last week.  There is a proposal from up that way to allow hunters to shoot diseased animals. Our committee leadership spoke out very strongly against the proposal and that caribou slaughter. Several are prominent Native leaders and they said the whole event is an embarrassment to all hunters.  Our caribou herd is very diminished and we long for better abundance. We had some diseased animals about 10 yrs ago.  We didn't do wholesale slaughters - we avoided obviously ailing animals.

We are also concerned how such behavior might affect subsistence hunting regulations and rights.

[thxmrgarand]

People running for elected office this year need to be asked their thoughts on the issue and on this specific incident.  State government will need to be willing to confront the federal government or some of the outrageous claims being made will in fact be translated into federal policy.

Eventually, Alaskans may need to let federal employees know on an individual level that they are not welcome here in their official capacity.

[Dand]

Well the Federal Subsistence Review meeting was going on today in Anchorage. Saw some clips on TV.  No mention if the Pt. Hope caribou slaughter came up. Friends of mine are attending so hope to hear how it goes. I sent a letter with some comments.

thx - While it sounds inviting to chase the Feds out of Alaska. If we succeeded the state would probably dry up and blow away. There is a tremendous Fed presence in Alaska from military, and many many other agencies. So a lot of Alaskans bluster and fuss but the reality would be a heck of a surprise I think.

[thxmrgarand]

This latest court development is even more outrageous than are the previous court actions!  Leaving over 100 dead and wounded caribou to rot and all the justice system gives us is this!

Charges reduced for defendant in caribou wasting case
NO JAIL TIME: Three others facing trial will not go in front of jury.

By JAMES HALPIN
jhalpin@adn.com

Published: January 19th, 2010 09:57 PM
Last Modified: January 19th, 2010 11:35 PM

Documents filed on the brink of the trial in the Point Hope caribou waste case indicate another of the accused will plead guilty to a reduced violation, two others have had some charges dismissed and the three remaining defendants facing trial will not go before a jury.

 




 
Prosecutors late last week filed amended charges against the remaining defendants reducing the severity of accusations that they failed to salvage edible meat from Class-A misdemeanors to noncriminal violations. As a result, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Peterson said in a court filing, the state intends to go to trial on a "liability violation" basis, which requires only a judge, not a jury, to hear the case.

"The state is providing this notice to the court so that the court does not send out jury notices as it will not be necessary to call a jury for these trials," Peterson wrote. Peterson declined to comment Tuesday on the decision, which also removes potential jail time if the defendants are convicted.

A jury trial had been scheduled early next month in Point Hope, an Inupiat Eskimo community 330 miles southwest of Barrow. According to state investigators, village leaders and citizens refused to cooperate with the investigation into 37 caribou carcasses left on the tundra outside town in July 2008.

The defendants and their lawyers have characterized the charges as an attack on subsistence rights, saying any caribou meat left behind was from sick animals that posed health risks to the community.

So far, three of the men -- Lazarus Killigvuk, 26, Randy Oktollik, 27, and Brett Oktollik, 21 -- have pleaded guilty to failure to salvage meat in exchange for fines and community service.

Now a fourth man, Koomalook Stone, 19, has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of failure to salvage, according to court documents. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Stone will be required to pay $2,210 in fines and restitution and complete 120 hours of community service.

The case against one man, Roy Oktollik, 19, has been dismissed. Superior Court Judge Richard Erlich said prosecutors presented evidence only that Roy Oktollik failed to salvage meat, not that he was involved in killing caribou. Both components are required to prove the crime, the judge wrote.

Two other defendants -- Chester Koonuk, 30, and Roy Miller, 20 -- also sought to have charges dismissed on similar grounds.

In a split decision, Erlich dismissed one count of failure to salvage against each man. The cases against Koonuk and Miller, who were with Aqquilluk Hank, 31, on a separate hunt from the other defendants, had different facts, the judge wrote.

Koonuk and Miller have admitted, according to prosecutors, that they were hunting with Hank. But both denied killing a caribou, Erlich wrote. For that reason, there is evidence that they may have been involved as accomplices but not that they killed caribou themselves, the judge ruled.

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 The ruling and plea agreement mean only Hank, Koonuk and Miller are scheduled to face the judge in Point Hope the week of Feb. 1.

[Rex in OTZ]

For being selected hunters for ther community its a little disheartining that this is the best hunters Point Hope has to offer, the stewardship of the land and traditional knowelage and common sence seem to be forgotten.

Good hunter's would have let nature take its course and let diseased animals die in a better distributed pattern so the dead would not have been all concentrated in one area so that was wildlife would have benefitted in the distribution of the carrion.

 Good hunter's would have just reported it to the Troopers for investigation by the ADFG
observant hunter's can tell sick or malnurished animals and harvest only what was needed instead of satisfying ther blood lust, a small amount of self restraint would have went a long way.

This is a loss of face in my region and for the residents of the village of Point Hope.

[thxmrgarand]

Has there been any evidence that the animals were diseased?  Has there been any discussion as to why animals were left wounded and nursing calfs were left to starve alongside their dead mothers?  Can anyone possibly believe that defending these shooters (certainly cannot be called hunters!) fools anyone?

I recall that the first defense of these shooters did not mention disease but instead tried to blame the incident upon the availability of semi-automatic .223's.  The story went that there is something about that caliber that promotes wanton waste.  Remember that part of the saga?

Doesn't this incident expose the myth of subsistence and the difficulty Alaskans have with a landowner and overlord telling us what to do from 3,000 miles away?

[Dand]

Overall I'm thoroughly disgusted with the mess from start to whatever the end will be. This court mush that comes out certainly doesn't encourage responsible behavior. And I think far too many bush residents count on and take advantage of these situations. 

[thxmrgarand]

The incident related in the leading headline story in the Anchorage Daily News on line today may result in the beginning of some changing attitudes.  It's not certain to happen but the double standards that some promulgate and the rest of us tolerate might possibly begin to end.  A justice (so-called) environment in which I would be fined $100 for every lead shot round in my pocket were I found to have some when waterfowl hunting but others causing so much wanton waste get off with almost no penalties, and the only difference I can see between I and those other Americans is race, must one day change.

[corbanzo]

Yeah...  I am done being angry about it, it's almost surreal now.  It is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. 

A guy I know in Seward was caught with 100 or so salmon he poached a few years ago... which he was going to keep and eat, just caught them where he wasn't supposed to.  He was fined $5000... the maximum allowed by the law....

Eight guys kill 40 caribou and they are fined total $1400 so far? 

I don't get it.

[williamlayton]

Sounds a lot like "good ol boy law" of the South.
Blessings

[Rex in OTZ]

Its not just Caribou its fish and fowl and marine mammles as well, a few years back the Feds tried to enforce lead shot and bag limits in the Barrow area, the key item of interest for the feds was the harvesting of the not so numerious Specticaled Eiders of which the residents took especial joy in overharvesting to spite the Feds, in Barrow town it was getting ugly, the feds backed off as they dident want to spark civil unrest, the natives think they are exempt when harvesting most any game thinking its ther right as subsistance to survive on, the problem is ther over harvesting is at opposites to ther heratage values, this is the Goverment Boarding school generation acting out to spite the DOI which encompasses the BIA, USFWS, NPS, BLM.

[thxmrgarand]

Actually, in my view it is nothing like what I think was the so-called good-old boy law of the south.  I admit that what little I know about the south has likely been slanted by Hollywood. 

Instead, what is occuring in Alaska is more like what the British government did to the colonies in the 18th Century.  Washington, DC owns almost all the land in Alaska and from back there Alaskans are told what they can and cannot do.  The media blame Alaska for being the beneficiaries of so much federal spending but no one mentions that the money is spent in regulating Alaskans, and that the regulatory agencies continually respond to the flavor of the month reported by The New York Times and Newsweek.  Over half of all US Dept. of Interior employees live and work in Alaska, and that is the worst kind of federal spending.

Alaska has only 3 of the 450 people in Congress.  People elected to Congress by environmentalists can placate those interests without hurting businesses in their own state by preventing that no gainful employment takes place on the 85%+ of Alaska that is controlled by Washington, DC.  The same occurs with animal rights interests and many other groups.  For example, after decades of sustainable management of fish and game by the state, the federal government took back management on all federal land, and the feds have just now proposed requiring federal fishing licenses be purchased by people with no indigenous blood.   

[Rex in OTZ]

I had commented before about alaskans not able to compete in state for jobs filled by outa state commuter workers that work ther shift and go back home to the lower 48 takeing ther paycheck back with them to stimulate ther home state economies, the lateist was government bid jobs building schools & such, the contractors bid low and flush out there crews with cheaper paid down states workers, Is the Davis Bacon Wage rules being complied with?.................... probibly but just barely enough to keep the contracting reps off ther backs, had a whole slew (11) of spanish speaking gentlemen here in NorthWest Alaska doing jobs on Noatak school,  thats jobs that locals could have had to stimulate our limited economy in our area we only have a Comminco Zinc mine thats 'mainly' manned by (70%) outside labor and we have a summer Chum fishing season............... thats it for local economy, if the Government wasent here there wouldent be Jack S**t.

[williamlayton]

Good old boys law is both good and bad, depending on the common sense approach used by law enforcement.
Cheap labor is a question begging for an answer.
I agree that folks who live in the area should be able to compete. Where they live and the cost of living there is the determing factor.
You can't expect a person living in Boston, for example, to work and support a family on minimum wages but if families board up several to a living space they may be able too eek out a subsistant form of living---not much of a life, in my estimation and ceratinly not the American dream OR goal.
Blessings

[Dand]

REx, we have the same thing on our school in Dillingham. For a while local contractors were getting bids and doing the work. Then when the BIG job came some contractor from Anchorage or somewhere else got that. I've seen a couple locals working and the rest are not from here. And we have guys who could do a lot of the work.

Guess we could rename this thread JOB hunting in bush AK.

[S.E.Ak]

The problem is lack of any evidence at all. The real number was something like 34 dead. No one saw the people do it they just rasied their hand. No proof of any one hunter shooting and leaveing any one caribou. No following tracts to someone house or matching a bullet to someones gun. The state lost this case no the judge

[Rex in OTZ]

That was 34 dead Caribou they found in that area, the number of wounded is higher, so if a few keeled over 20 miles away whos to know the full number.

[Winter Hawk]

Reminds me of back in 1977-1978, same thing, same area.  Fish & game found several piles of caribou carcasses in the spring, around a hundred animals in all, IIRC (although time may have increased the number  ).  The reasoning was that the local hunters would go out and shoot a bunch of 'bou, then take back to the village what they could load on their snow-gos.  then they would go out to get the rest, find some closer to home so they shot those and left the others to rot.  There was lots of respect for the game!  I don't know what ever happened except for some articles being printed in the papers; I don't think anyone ever ended up in court, even.

-Winter Hawk-

[thxmrgarand]

This is an election year - governor, legislature and congress.  When people running for elected office approach you to talk please let them know about how poorly this aspect of fish and game laws is working.