The Sitka Grand Jury indicted four Sitkans and one non-resident in December and January, on charges ranging from assault to burglary. And some charges were dropped in an assault case from last fall.
On November 26, the Sitka Police Department received multiple 911 calls about an alleged assault near Blatchley Middle School. According to court documents, the callers said a man punched a woman in the face.
Police arrived at the scene, and interviewed the 18-year-old woman. She told police she had been walking north toward a local grocery store, when she was approached by 43-year-old Brandon Ledbetter. She said Ledbetter threw his bicycle to the ground, yelled about being “harassed” and hit her in the face with his right hand. Her boyfriend hit him twice in her defense, causing Ledbetter to fall to the ground. Police say two witnesses confirmed the woman’s account.
Police located Ledbetter near the downtown roundabout and took him into custody. Upon referencing his criminal record, they found that Ledbetter had two assault convictions in Sitka in the past decade and was out of compliance on the sex offender registry.
On December 4, Ledbetter was indicted on one count of assault in the third degree.
Later in the winter, just before 11 p.m. on January 8, police responded to a burglary in progress at a trailer home on Halibut Point Road. The caller said she had received a motion alert from a security camera on her property, and believed someone had entered her home. She said the camera captured footage of a man entering one of the home’s bedrooms wearing a hoodie with the word “Wolverine.” Police arrived at her home and found a single set of footprints in the snow that circled the trailer, stopping at every door and window.
As police were investigating, an officer spotted 25-year-old Scott Roe between the home and a neighboring trailer, wearing a hoodie that matched the caller’s description. Police say despite initially denying the burglary, Roe ultimately admitted to entering the home and stealing three pairs of women’s underwear. A week later (Jan 15) a grand jury indicted Roe on one count of felony burglary in the first degree.
It wasn’t the only late-night call police responded to in January. On January 13, shortly before 3 a.m., a 911 caller told police that 24-year-old Angelei Young was standing outside his bedroom window. He said Young punched the window until it broke, sustaining an injury to her wrist.
Police arrived at the home on Spruce Street, and found Young walking away from the scene. According to court documents, officer John Waldron told her to stop walking two times. At that point, police say Young turned around, ran toward Waldron and tackled him to the ground, attempting to hit Waldron and other people at the scene. Waldron was able to handcuff Young, and after seeing she was bleeding from her right hand, called an ambulance. In the scuffle, Waldron also suffered injuries to his hand and elbow.
On January 15, Young was indicted on two felony counts of criminal mischief in the third degree.
Also this winter, a grand jury indicted 48-year-old Christian Moe on one felony count of attempted sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, the latest in a series of felony indictments stemming from a 2023 criminal case. Hearings for Ledbetter, Roe and Young are scheduled for February 5. A pre-trial conference in Moe’s case is scheduled for March.
Also in January, a Juneau judge dismissed some indictments against 19-year-old Pietr Dabaluz. Dabaluz was charged with assaulting two Trump supporters during a protest in downtown Sitka last summer.
On August 30, police said Dabaluz allegedly took an Israeli flag from a pro-Trump protester and hit him with it before engaging in an altercation with another protester, breaking his nose. The incident was captured by a nearby security camera, and police responded to the scene, following multiple 911 calls. In September, Dabaluz was indicted on two felony counts of assault and one count of robbery.
In an opinion issued in mid-January, Juneau Superior Court Judge Amy Mead found some of the evidence presented to the jury was inadmissible – specifically police testimony that relied entirely on the video surveillance footage. Mead also found there was not enough evidence to support the grand jury’s finding that one of the protesters had suffered a serious physical injury, or that Dabaluz hit the other protester with the flag. Judge Mead granted Dabaluz’s motion for dismissing the assault indictments, but allowed the robbery indictment to stand.
