A Sitka man convicted of stalking was sentenced to eight years in prison last month.

33-year-old Jorge Ruiz-Rivera was convicted by a Sitka jury on three counts of stalking and three counts of violating a protective order earlier this year. 

Over the past two years, Ruiz-Rivera has been indicted several times in Sitka, including once for stalking a couple at their residence, and for attempting to contact someone with a protective order against him after he was in custody. A press release from the state attorney general’s office said that evidence in Ruiz-Rivera’s February trial showed that over several years he “engaged in a course of conduct towards these victims that placed them in fear of death or physical injury for themselves and their family members.”

On May 28, Sitka Superior Court Judge Amanda Browning sentenced him to 8 years and six months in prison. He is currently in custody at Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau. 

37-year-old Gilbert Sam Jr. was arrested on May 16 after he allegedly stabbed a man in the neck several times at the Sitka Hotel. The victim, a 25-year-old hotel employee, had invited Sam, who did not work at the hotel, to help him wash dishes. According to court documents, the two men ended up in a heated confrontation, and Sam allegedly stabbed the man in the neck several times. The man was hospitalized but survived.

On May 21, a Sitka grand jury indicted Sam on three counts of felony assault. He is currently in custody at Anchorage Correctional Complex. A hearing in Sam’s case is set for June 17.

Earlier in the month 47-year-old Michael Harrison was charged after he allegedly destroyed a camera in the Sitka jail while in custody. On May 14, a grand jury indicted Harrison on one count of felony criminal mischief. He is currently in custody at Lemon Creek Correctional Center. A hearing in Harrison’s case is set for June 17.

Also last month, a jury convicted a Sitka man on a sexual assault charge. 32-year-old Jordan Schauwecker was indicted by a grand jury in 2022 on seven counts of felony sexual assault. At the end of a weeks-long trial in late May, a jury found Schauwecker guilty of one count of attempted sexual assault.  On May 27, his attorneys filed a motion to acquit him of the remaining charge. Schauwecker is currently in custody at Lemon Creek Correctional Center. A sentencing hearing is currently set for September 18.

Civil cases against the city dismissed, one appealed

Two civil cases against the city were dismissed last month, but one has been appealed.  

Susan Magie, formerly Suarez was severely injured when she was hit by a car while walking on the pedestrian path alongside Sawmill Creek Road in 2023. The driver, Beth Lang, was later convicted for felony assault and reckless driving, and was sentenced to just over seven years in prison.

Magie filed a civil suit against the city and the Sitka Police Department for negligence in 2025. The suit argued that the accident could have been prevented, since police had several prior contacts with Lang for swerving into traffic and losing consciousness behind the wheel. Claims against other defendants in the case, which included former and current police staff and medical personnel, were ultimately dismissed. According to court documents, a resolution was met between Magie and several other parties in March. The case was dismissed in late May following a joint agreement with the city.

Meanwhile, the City of Sitka is still trying to get a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit in which a local man alleges the city violated his First Amendment rights.

Former assembly candidate Austin Cranford filed the case late last summer, claiming the city’s social media policy — specifically the police department’s restriction of comments on its Facebook page — violated his right to free speech.

In his court filings, Cranford says the city allowed a member of the public to comment on a police department post while restricting the comments of others, including himself. Cranford says that deprived him of his civil rights under the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason granted a motion from the city to dismiss the case in late April [4/29], [WEB: finding that the city didn’t violate Cranford’s First Amendment rights when it allowed the “public administrative query” on the police department post], but left an opening for Cranford to file an amended complaint, which he did on May 5th. The city filed a second motion to dismiss in late May, which Cranford is also challenging [5/29].  

Cranford is a former assembly candidate, and the son of former police sergeant Gary Cranford, who sued the city and settled for over $320,000 out of court in 2025. And it isn’t the first time Austin Cranford has challenged the city. He appealed the denial of a public records request he made to the city earlier this year and had two public records appeals in February of 2024 alleging city corruption and claiming his records requests were being wrongfully denied.

It was unclear, as of Tuesday, when Judge Gleason might issue a ruling on the city’s second motion to dismiss Austin Cranford’s First Amendment lawsuit.