Former Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan on Friday said that since Gov. Sarah Palin took office, members of her administration and family pressured him to fire a Palmer Alaska State Trooper to whom her sister was involved in a bitter child custody battle.Monegan said phone calls and questions from the Palin administration and the governor's husband, Todd Palin, about trooper Mike Wooten started shortly after Monegan was hired and continued up to one or two months ago.
For my visitors from the lower 48 and other countries I would like to welcome you to politics Alaska style!
Okay so it looks like Sarah, her husband Todd, and a number of surrogates have been pressuring Walt Monegan, who was the Commissioner of Safety to fire Sarah's sister's ex-husband. How is that for using your influence to get payback for those who have wronged you, or your family, in the past?
Well I guess Commissioner Monegan would not play ball so she fired his ass and replaced him with no reason given.
Unfortunately for Sarah, Walt Monegan was a very popular Chief of Police before he became a Commissioner and he has a very vocal and dedicated group of supporters who are not going to let this get swept under the rug. They are demanding an investigation and this may have some fairly serious repercussions for Governor Sarah.
In other words I would not hold my breath waiting for Palin to be asked to join the McCain ticket this election cycle.
in the NW they would call that being a Good Gov...I am shocked...( lol)...
ReplyDeletewow...so I guess there is some repug blood indeed running through her veins....
Man are you off on this one!
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with Sarah or Todd Palin discussing Trooper Wooten with Monegan if the Palins' had a genuine safety and security concern for Sarah and Palin family over Wooten.
Palins' would be more than negligent and remiss had they said nothing, and Wooten remained a real threat. After all, Wooten allegedly threatened to the Palins' to kill Sarah Palin's father and bring down the Palin family!
As Sarah Palin reiterated, she does not get involved in disciplinary and/or personnel matters of the Dept. of Public Safety. No Palin ever relayed Wooten be fired. They did, however, discreetly, appropriately and carefully express their safety and security concerns to Monegan.
If anything, Palin now looks better than ever to Team McCain. She's got the cajones in a tough and hostile political environment -- and acted decisively (even if it might have hurt her VP chances, which, as I say, won't).
ReplyDeleteWell I posted about the story as I read it in the ADN. Perhaps they have some reason for going after Palin, but I don't know that to be true.
ReplyDeleteI do know that Monegan was a very well respected lawman. If Sarah is guilty of nothing else, and that is still to be determined, then she is guilty of not recognizing the possible fallout from her decision. If she had been aware she probably would have had a better response to the question of why she tried to demote him. As of this post she still has not given a believable reason.
And Monegan said that an investigation into trooper Wooten's alleged infractions had been concluded and no evidence emerged which would have called for his firing. Monegan's hands were tied.
But hey, maybe that is all just an interesting coincidence and one has nothing to do with the other. My gut feeling is that there was some behind the scenes arm twisting going on and Monegan did not submit.
Now let's all pay attention and see if Wooten loses his job any time soon and that may shine a light on this whole cloudy mess.
Well, all's well that ends well, for Sarah Palin that is. Read this, just in, from palinforvp:
ReplyDelete"Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Pipeline passes State House as Monegan allegations implode!
This is a great night for Gov. Palin, the State of Alaska, and our movement! Gov. Palin's plan to build a natural gas pipeline was approved tonight by the State's House of Representatives, sending the plan to the Senate for final approval. If passed, the licensing of the TransCanada corporation to construct this pipeline will be the crowning achievement of the Palin administration.
Meanwhile, Gov. Palin has put out a press release containing information that devastates the allegations made by former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. For instance, did you know that Todd Palin was ordered to discuss Trooper Mike Wooten with Monegan by the head of the Governor's security detail? How about the fact that schedules disprove Monegan's claim that he only met with Palin four times in seventeen months? It turns out that they had over two-dozen meetings during that time, including several visits by Monegan to the Governor's home and joint trips to remote parts of Alaska. The circus looks to be drawing to a close, with Palin coming out squeaky clean!"
So, the governor has a problem with a Trooper who shot his kid with a Taser? Or a problem with a manager who made the determination that the Trooper who shot his kid with the Taser would not be prosecuted, or even disciplined, beyond the minimal �days off without pay�.
ReplyDeleteIf you or I had shot our kid with a taser, even by �accident�, we would be in jail. We would probably come out of our Grand Jury hearing with an indictment for assault with a deadly weapon, assault in the first degree, and reckless endangerment for the sweetener. Any explanation at this point that it was a demonstration of the effectiveness of the Taser would be taken as an admission of guilt and would be reenacted at our trial. The Judge would probably set bail in the neighborhood of $100,000 cash only, with a third party custodian who had better be the Pope, or Walt Monegan.
We might be able to work a plea bargain with the DA for a lesser charge and they would probably drop the reckless endangerment charge, but would leave the assault with a deadly weapon intact and reduce the assault in the first degree to assault in the second degree, if we were very fortunate. To get a deal like this we would have to agree to waive a trial, plead guilty to the set of charges as specified and accept a sentencing deal that would incarcerate us for a number of years.
If we decided to go to trial, we would face a jury of unsympathetic people who want to get back to their lives as soon as possible, they are not inclined to listen to explanations that we might try to make that it was a �mistake� or that we shot the kid to show him what it feels like to be Tasered. The part where we told the Police that we were just trying to show the kid what it feels like to be tasered would be brought up to show that when confronted by the evidence, we confessed our guilt. If we discussed with the kid our motivation to show him what it felt like to be tasered, they would tell the jury that the telling demonstrated ��intent, no matter how brief�, which is the new legal standard. The District Attorney would tell them that any protestations we might make at the end of the trial that you were remorseful were self serving and insincere, and that they should not believe us. They would then go into a room and look at the clock until it was time to go home. Our guilt or innocence would be decided by vote or popularity contest, probably in the first 15 minutes of the �deliberations�, and the jury would be on their way home before 4:00 PM.
By the time we got out of jail, many years from now, we would have been ridiculed and vilified in the press, lost our career, reputation, and family, and have paid bales of money to the State of Alaska for fines, surcharges, costs and whatever. Not to mention the Court ordered and OCS enforced mandatory drug or alcohol treatment, parenting classes and personal counseling, if we ever wanted to be permitted to see our kids again. No mention would ever be made of custody. Then there would be costs associated with the hire of an Attorney and an Investigator for our defense. Our family would have gotten to see us on TV, hear about us from friends and neighbors at home and at school and would have been able to read about our life and our crime in the morning paper. If we were real unlucky we might even rate an Editorial from the Daily News, expounding on how guilty we were and recommending the maximum sentence.
And God help us if we ever owned a gun or looked at Porn on the computer.
Our family would probably never hear our side of the story, or if they did, would be told by the DA to not believe us and that cooperation with our defense would be at the peril of losing custody of the children.
I am sorry if it was this situation alone that caused the Governor to offer Chief Monegan a different post. He is a good man and an honest one. It isn�t possible to discern what drove the governors decision. But there are rules that apply to all who hold jobs like Chief Monegan�s, first and foremost; we serve at the pleasure of the governor. Second; avoid the appearance of impropriety. Third; Pay attention to the boss. Don�t assume that you can give her a bad answer or no answer when she has a �need to know�, and a demonstrated understanding of the facts.
I have a great deal of respect for the governor too. She seems honest, capable and forthright. I don�t believe that she would allow personal circumstances to cloud or influence her judgment . I think that she holds the truth in very high regard, and if she comes to believe that she is not being told all of the details, or if those details are at odds with information received from a source she trusts, she will take whatever steps she feels are necessary to redeem the situation. If she believed that the Trooper had committed an act that might otherwise be considered a crime (or a number of crimes), then, she has an obligation as the chief law enforcement officer in the state to investigate it or to direct her Commissioner of Public Safety to investigate it. If the story she heard back from the Commissioner was at odds with the story told by witnesses, she not only has the right to question it, she has a duty. It is the �reasonable man� theory, the measure that most of us try to use in our daily lives, and if what we hear from outside sources outrages the reasonable man and no answer is forthcoming nor is anyone held accountable, then answers must be sought. If she perceived a reluctance to proceed or an over-reliance on the Troopers investigation and findings, a closed mind or an inclination to treat a Trooper differently than any other citizen, then I think that the governor has to step to the next level, which in this case appears to be replacement.
Most of the time, when we hear of circumstances like this, we do not hear all of the facts. There is no way to comment, no way to involve ourselves in the justice process. And that is probably a good thing. However, when these kinds of issues come to light inside the family of an elected official, it becomes very difficult to ignore the facts. And if the facts of the Taser incident are true and the Trooper was disciplined by his command, the difference in scale between what a citizen would experience and what the Trooper did experience smacks of special handling, favoritism and to this eye corruption (with a small �c�). Most of us, as reasonable people, can agree that it would probably be extra risky to shoot our kid with a Taser, spray him down with pepper spray, or beat on him with a Monadnock or an ASP. We all agree that to do so, even in �fun�, or to show him what it felt like would probably go very badly and we would end up in the clink (see above).
PALIN is obviously a scumbag, and a lightweight scumbag too,
ReplyDeleteall obfuscation aside.
I know konservatives are desperate to paint her as salvation itself, but deep down inside, they don't believe it either.
McSCUM just screwed-the-pooch.
How fitting for a man who crashed 5 airplanes on the taxpayers dime and wasn't replaced as per normal Military procedure because daddy was a big-ass Admiral.
The only hope for righties now
is, admittedly,
something only Konservative candidates have: DIEBOLD
Jesus would approve of that, I'm sure, all you righty Churchgoers
out there.
WE all know hoe Jesus loved cheating.......NOT.
They really insulted their "base" and the Hillary goons - in one fell sweep!
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine what happens if McCain has an accident or a heart attack and THIS person is our commander in chief? It really makes me think the republican party doesnt WANT this election term.
WOW can you immagine what crimes Obama has done in just 30 days in office...Your Great Grandchildren will be paying for these criminal blunders !!!!
ReplyDelete