This screenshot from a body camera video was attached to criminal charging documents published Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, by the Alaska Department of Law. It shows an Alaska State trooper kicking a man in May 2024. The trooper and one other have been charged with misdemeanor assault. (Screenshot)
In an extraordinary act, state prosecutors have charged two Alaska state troopers with assault after a violent late-May encounter with a Kenai Peninsula man that was caught on troopers’ body cameras.
Joseph Lee Miller Jr. and Jason Allen Woodruff were each charged Wednesday in Kenai criminal court with one count of fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor.
Though the charges are relatively minor, the head of the Alaska State Troopers and the head of the Alaska Department of Law’s criminal division said Thursday that neither can recall a similar prosecution in the previous two and a half decades.
“I know it’s not acceptable to the Alaskans that we serve,” said James Cockrell, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, in a news conference. “This is an unfortunate day for the Alaska State Troopers. I hope that Alaskans will continue to place their trust in the hundreds of troopers that honorably serve Alaskans every day.”
According to criminal charging documents, troopers were dispatched in the early hours of May 24 after Soldotna police relayed a call about people camping in public at a dog park.
Troopers were told that a vehicle at the park belonged to someone who had an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court after driving without a valid license.
In reality, the vehicle contained the brother of the man who was subject to the warrant.
Operating under the assumption that the car contained a wanted man, troopers ordered him out of the vehicle, then smashed a window when he didn’t immediately comply.
According to court documents, they pepper-sprayed him, ordered a police dog to bite him for over a minute, shocked him with a Taser, kicked him, and Miller put a foot on the back of his head, shoving his face into the ground.
“When I reviewed this video, I was totally sickened by what I saw,” Cockrell said.
The man arrested by troopers suffered a broken arm, shoulder and shoulder blade, as well as torn muscles, cuts and a severe dog bite, according to court documents.
“I’ve been with this department 33 years, and I’ve never seen any action like this before by an Alaska state trooper, and it’s hard for me to equate how this has affected me and other troopers that wear this uniform,” Cockrell said.
Cockrell said Miller and Woodruff have been put on administrative leave.
“They are not on the road, and they don’t have their badges or guns or anything like that,” he said.
Woodruff had been employed by the Troopers for 16 years, and Miller is a 14-year veteran of the force.
A third officer, also present at the arrest, has not been charged or put on leave.
Cockrell said troopers began investigating the incident in early June. Miller and Woodruff were taken off duty when the Alaska Bureau of Investigation took up the case.
The Alaska Department of Law’s Office of Special Prosecutions subsequently took over the case, resulting in this week’s charges.
John Skidmore, director of the Department of Law’s criminal division, said the body camera footage will not immediately be released, an attempt to avoid contaminating a potential jury pool.
“Will it ever be available? Yes, it will be,” he said, “only after the conclusion of this criminal case is done will the evidence then be available for the public to review — if not already having been viewed in the trial.”
The two troopers are scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 10 in the Kenai courthouse.
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