On March 18, Sitka police officer Richard Meunier was called to the Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport by a TSA agent who says he’d discovered an undeclared pistol in 44-year-old William Scott Noel’s luggage. Authorities say Noel had several felony offenses on his record, including weapons charges, making it illegal for him to possess a concealed firearm.

Several weeks later, on April 8, Sitka Police arrested Noel at the Super 8 motel and charged him for illegal firearms possession. Officer Meunier obtained a search warrant after he says he found evidence of narcotics in Noel’s hotel room during the arrest.  

During the search of Noel’s room and vehicle, police say they seized a handgun, a rifle, approximately 180 fentanyl pills, over 216 grams of methamphetamine and 116 grams of heroin. Police estimate the street value of the narcotics at 148,400. 

On April 14, Noel was indicted by a grand jury on six felony drug and weapons charges– including two counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance in the second degree and one in the third degree, as well as one count of misconduct involving weapons in the second degree, and two in the third degree. 
Noel is being held at the Sitka jail on $125,000 bail.

Also on April 14, the Sitka Grand Jury also indicted 25-year-old Alex Michael Ireland on one felony count of misconduct involving a weapon in the third degree. 

A Sitka man has been arrested for attempted murder. 29-year-old Anthony Beltran was apprehended just after 1 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after Sitka Police received a call from a woman who said her friend was stabbed multiple times by a man who was still in the home on Lance Drive.

According to the complaint, police arrived to find Anthony Beltran standing in the doorway, holding a pocket knife. They then found the victim, 36-year-old Delmer McIntyre, with multiple stab wounds on the back and shoulders. McIntyre was immediately treated and then medevacked to Anchorage. Beltran was taken into custody in the Sitka Jail

At his arraignment on Wednesday, Beltran said he moved back to Sitka from Oregon about a week ago and was not currently working. According to details in the complaint, read by Judge Rachel Jones, Beltran, McIntyre and Beltran’s girlfriend who called 911 were in the bedroom of the home, using methamphetamine. Beltran allegedly became suspicious of McIntyre for offering him bad drugs, and began to stab him with the pocket knife, aiming for the neck.

Beltran’s preliminary hearing will be set for the early weeks of May, with bail set at $250,000- comprised of two different $125,000 bonds.

According to court records, thirty-three year old Shammar Ferguson smuggled more than 88 grams of the drugs in her vagina during a flight from Seattle to Sitka this summer.

On Aug. 16, a week after Ferguson arrived, the Sitka Police received a report that  Ferguson and Lawrence Johnson Jr. were trespassing on a property on Andrew P. Hope St. When the police arrived, they found the heroin along with a digital scale containing multiple meth crystals.

The Sitka Superior Court sentenced Shammar Ferguson to 23 months in jail. This is Ferguson’s fourth felony conviction. The Court also sentenced Lawrence Johnson Jr. to serve six months in jail. This is his first conviction.

Lael Grant (Image from “Help Find Lael Grant” Facebook page)

For all its prevalence in Alaskan communities, drug addiction can be a difficult health care problem to manage. Proper treatment depends on timing and access to services, which aren’t always available in small-town Alaska. Limited options mean it can be hard to beat addiction at home — forcing some people to leave all they know to find the help they need.

Downloadable audio.

Thirty-three-year old Lael Grant was last seen in a Sitka grocery store in the early morning of October 15, 2012. Despite an intensive search she has never been found. Last summer, a Sitka jury declared her dead.

Her family believes Grant’s death was due in part to her drug addiction. She was using meth at the time of her disappearance.

Erika Burkhouse is Grant’s sister. When her mom called her in October of 2011 she knew there was a serious problem. Burkhouse flew from her home in Juneau to Sitka for a family intervention.
“And I hadn’t seen her for a while and I realized she was so thin, she was incredibly, incredibly thin,” Burkhouse said. “She looked absolutely awful. I took one look at her and burst into tears …That’s when I talked to her about her addiction and her use. It was at that point in time I just knew–we need to get you help or you’re going to end up dead.”

The two sisters sat together in her trailer and talked for two hours. Grant was at first angry, then she admitted she needed help. But they couldn’t coordinate a medical detox in Sitka. Burkhouse considers this moment a crossroads.

“The window of opportunity leaves quickly,” she said. “You have somebody who is addicted and they admit that they have a problem and right then at that point in time you have to give them the help that they need. So we missed that. Within a couple hours she was back to being defensive and not admitting anymore that she has a problem. We lost the opportunity, which is unfortunate, it was about a year later that she went missing.”

The right kind of treatment can be effective. But more often than not people need to leave home to get it.

Jennifer Blankenship-Douglas and Leanora Barton at the Bettye Davis Adult Re-entry Center in Anchorage. (Brielle Schaeffer/KCAW photo)

“Hi, this is Leanora, Leanora this is Brielle, Nice to meet you.”

I met up with Jennifer Blankenship-Douglas and Leanora Barton at the Bettye Davis Adult Re-entry Center in Anchorage.

“We grew up together in Sitka years ago.”

Both women got hooked on drugs in Sitka. They started at a young age huffing paint or smoking weed, drinking alcohol, partying in the woods. Their drug addiction caused them to lose custody of their children. And they both had to leave Southeast to get the treatment they needed.

“You have to leave everything and everyone you know and go someplace faraway like I did,” she said. “I was living in Ketchikan and had to come all the way to Anchorage to get treatment. Any person who knows and truly wants recovery knows 30 days is not enough at all. It took me 20 something years to create my problem and sit in it it’s going to take me more than 30 days to get over it.”

After an arrest last year on felony charges for possession with intent to sell meth, she could opt for treatment instead of jail. But after one month waiting for a treatment bed to open up, she went to talk to a counselor at the Ketchikan Indian Community, which has an outpatient substance abuse program.

“It finally got to the point and she was like, ‘What are your plans?’” she said. “And I said, ‘My plans are I’m going to use.’ And she’s like what I thought you wanted to go to treatment and I said, ‘I do. I don’t want to use but that’s what my plans are looking like real quick. The only people who want to have anything to do with me are drug addicts.’”

Blankenship-Douglas got a lucky break. She was able to get a one of the 42-beds at The Salvation Army Clitheroe Center, finished the treatment program, and then transferred to the Bettye Davis Re-entry Center, a halfway house. And that’s where her story and Barton’s intersect again.

Jennifer Blankenship-Douglas and Leanora Barton at the Bettye Davis Adult Re-entry Center in Anchorage. (Brielle Schaeffer/KCAW photo)

“Having a friend like Jennifer is just amazing. I couldn’t have done it without her,” Barton said.

Barton had been posting on Facebook about her struggles with a meth addiction and subsequent homelessness, crashing on park benches and friend’s couches. She’d been in-and-out of rehab nine times already but this time Barton was ready to get clean. Blankenship-Douglas reached out and got her to come to the halfway house. But before Barton moved in she wanted to sober up. She says a family friend in Metlakatla gave her money to rent a hotel for a week to detox. When she started living at the center she was nine days clean.

“Two or three days after I moved in here they found a lady frozen to a bench here in Anchorage,” she said. “That could have been me because that’s how I was living.”

The two go to Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings almost daily.

“Some meetings you hear what you need and some meetings you don’t that’s the beauty and we keep coming back,” Blankenship-Douglas said. “Because if you don’t hear what you need today you might tomorrow. And if you don’t tomorrow you might the next day. That’s where we get our hope is hearing the stories of other addicts and hearing their successes their trials their tribulations all that stuff helps us to move forward.”

In Alcoholics Anonymous, members celebrate their birthdays as the day of their last drink. Barton’s sobriety birthday is Nov. 6, 2015. Blankenship-Douglas has been sober now for 14 months, the longest ever in her adult life. Her birthday is April 1, 2015.

“Everyday that I’m given clean and sober is another blessing,” Blankenship-Douglas said. “I really believe if I would’ve stayed in Sitka it wouldn’t have happened.”

Barton has to wait on assessments from the state before she can be placed in a treatment program in Anchorage. This process can leave Alaskans waiting for weeks, even months, which is a long window when you’re struggling with addiction. Barton applied in November and hasn’t heard back.

Addiction is a small community in rural Alaska. Blankenship-Douglas and Barton knew Grant. They did drugs with her. And their stories could have had similar endings. But they didn’t because they were able to get help.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Lael and if I can honor her memory in any way it’s by staying clean,” Blankenship-Douglas said.

They both feel like they owe that to her in their recovery.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with drug addiction or abuse, get help. The number to call is 888-906-4538.

This is part one of a two-part series. Listen to the second part here.

37-year-old Pierre Pagtakhan was sentenced last week in Sitka Superior Court to 5 years, with 2 suspended, for attempted misconduct involving a controlled substance in the 3rd degree.

Two similar felony charges against Pagtakhan were dismissed.

Pagtakhan was arrested by Sitka Police last December after officers intercepted a package containing crystal methamphetamine worth roughly $50,000. Although the package was addressed to a third party, police believed that Pagtakhan was the intended recipient.

The arrest was part of an ongoing investigation into the rise of crystal meth trafficking and home burglaries last winter.

In an unrelated matter, another Sitka man is going to prison — for two years.

57-year-old James R. Land was sentenced to 2 years flat time for theft in the 2nd degree.

Land was on probation for a prior felony at the time of his arrest. A second charge of carrying a concealed weapon was dismissed.

30-year old Dustin Daley pleaded guilty in Sitka Superior Court last week to one count of Attempted Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the fourth degree, a class A misdemeanor.

According to court records, law enforcement officers including Sitka police, Alaska State Troopers, and US Postal Inspectors executed a search warrant on a package mailed to Daley last month. The package contained a pair of boots and a small clear plastic baggie, with just over 12 grams of a black-tar substance that tested positive for heroin.

Daley was arrested after he went to the Post Office to collect the package. Although he initially admitted no knowledge of the contents, he changed his plea in court.

Judge David George sentenced him to 12 months in prison, with 6 suspended, and fined him $1,000. Daley will be on probation for 2 years at the conclusion of his prison time.

Daley may also be called upon to testify against a co-defendant, 38-year old Kristopher Foster.

A Sitka grand jury last Friday (5-1-15) indicted Foster on one felony count of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the fourth degree, a class C felony.

According to court records, Foster allegedly accompanied Daley to the Lincoln St. Post Office to retrieve the package containing the heroin. Although Foster denied any knowledge of the contents of the package, he admitted to officers that he smoked heroin recreationally. Acting on information from the Harbor Department alleging drug trafficking, police obtained Foster’s consent to search his boat, the F/V Stardust, and found heroin paraphernalia and numerous baggies containing residue which tested positive for heroin.

Foster was arraigned on May 4 and released after posting a $4,000 bond.

In an unrelated matter, the Sitka grand jury also brought an indictment against a 32-year old Californian, Daniel M. Shane, on two counts of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the third degree, and one count in the fourth degree, for allegedly possessing methamphetamine and cocaine within 500 feet of a youth center, with intent to deliver.

According to court records, Shane, who is in his fourth season as a fishing deckhand in Sitka, was in the Andrews Street neighborhood in late April when an off-duty police detective noticed him acting erratically. The officer found that Shane had been driving a pickup truck, although his license had been revoked in California.

Other officers arrived to assist. A subsequent search of Shane’s backpack allegedly turned up numerous empty plastic baggies and a scale with a white crystalline residue.

Shane was arrested. A search of his clothing at the Sitka jail allegedly produced .5 grams of cocaine in his wallet, 2 grams total of methamphetamine in his jacket pocket and in his sock, and a glass smoking device.
Except for a DUI in California, Shane had no prior criminal record. Deckhanding in Sitka is his only employment. He posted bail of $2,500 and was released pending further proceedings.

Sitka police Lt. Jeff Ankerfelt says the arrest of  29-year-old Lucas Rouner at the International Hostel Sunday morning is unconnected to last week’s seizure of $50,000-worth of methamphetamine. It is also unconnected to a series of 13 burglaries that took place in Sitka in late November. Two suspects are facing charges related to those incidents.

Ankerfelt says police went to the Hostel Sunday morning to arrest 37-year old Janet Joseph for violating conditions of her release on a prior criminal conviction. It was the second visit by police to the Hostel that weekend: Police were summoned Friday night to a disturbance involving Joseph and another woman. It was during Sunday’s arrest of Joseph that police became suspicious regarding Rouner. They obtained a search warrant, and subsequently arrested him for possession of methamphetamine.

Both suspects were scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning.

A Sitka Grand Jury last week indicted 56-year old John M. Laigo on three counts of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree for delivering methamphetamine.

Details surrounding Laigo’s arrest have not been included in his public court file. Sitka Superior Court judge David George issued an arrest warrant for Laigo on August 8. He was apprehended by Sitka police officers later the same day.

Assistant district attorney Jean Seaton confirms that Laigo’s arrest came as the result of a police investigation with the cooperation of US Postal Inspectors. The absence of a police narrative in Laigo’s file is intended to protect the confidentiality of investigative methods in the case.

In a related matter, Sitka police arrested 30-year old Crystal D. Brazell — again on a warrant issued by the superior court on August 8. The Grand Jury indicted Brazell on one count of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, for delivering methamphetamine.

All charges against Brazell and Laigo are Class B felonies. They were held in custody in Sitka pending $4,000 bail each.

A third defendant is facing even more serious charges for allegedly distributing heroin. The Sitka Grand Jury indicted 45-year-old Noriss Sergius Howard on three counts of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the Second Degree — all Class A felonies. Bail for Howard was set at $10,000.

According to assistant DA Jean Seaton, Howard’s case is unconnected to the charges against Laigo and Brazell.

All three cases have been assigned to the Office of Public Advocacy in Anchorage. A trial date for Laigo has been tentatively scheduled for October.

Thirty-five-year-old Lowell T. Ford was found guilty last month (5-22-14) of two counts of possessing a weapon, one count of possessing heroin with the intent to sell it and one count of possessing methamphetamine.

The conviction stems from events on June 25, 2012. According to the original police complaint, Sitka police Sergeant Walt Smith saw Ford walking near the True Value Hardware store around 4 AM, stopped him, and found a knife sticking out of Ford’s bag. Ford was arrested for violating the conditions of his release from a prior conviction, and a later search of his belongings turned up 18 small packages of heroin and two glass smoking pipes — one of which tested positive for methamphetamine — as well as a semi-automatic .45 caliber handgun.

Ford faced the possibility of a longer sentence, but the court determined that the amounts of heroin and methamphetamine involved were small enough to count as mitigating factors in his sentencing. This was Ford’s third felony conviction.

Drug investigator Kyle Ferguson last addressed the assembly a year ago. Since then, he said, drug abuse in Sitka “hasn’t gotten noticeably worse, but it hasn’t gotten better, either.”

“That in and of itself isn’t a good sign,” he said.

Ferguson said that drug abuse in  Sitka centers on heroin and methamphetamine. That reflects a regional trend across Southeast Alaska. When Assembly Member Mike Reif asked for an example of who is involved in drug abuse, Ferguson said: it’s everyone.

“It affects all age groups, all social levels, socio-economic groups,” he said. “It’s widespread. And it has a tremendous ripple effect. There’s probably not a person in the room that doesn’t have some friend or family member that’s had problems with drugs.”

Ferguson said that nearly every crime investigated by Sitka police has some connection to drug abuse. That includes alcohol and marijuana.

“There’s a drug nexus to nearly every case the police department works with, and under that umbrella I’ll include alcohol and marijuana as well,” Ferguson said “In investigations, felony cases, I can’t think of a case that I’ve worked this year that didn’t have a drug nexus to it.”

Ferguson said the police can’t address the issue without community involvement. Many times, he said, incidents that residents don’t think are important enough to report, like minor thefts, can lead to breakthroughs in drug cases. He compared his job to “collecting puzzle pieces.”

But puzzle pieces aren’t enough, if there’s nobody there to put the pieces together, and Ferguson said the police department is reaching a “crisis point” in staffing.

Ferguson himself is leaving the department this month to join the Alaska Wildlife Troopers. When he goes, the city will have just one investigating detective, down from three two years ago.

“He’ll be responsible for everything, every felony case, drug cases, sexual abuse of a minor, sexual assaults,” Ferguson said. “For the investigators it’s a matter of not, ‘What I’m going to work on today?’ [it’s] ‘What am I going to ignore?'”

Police Chief Sheldon Schmidt said the department is working to fill vacancies, but added that hiring takes time. Schmidt said he hopes to write a grant to put a full-time officer back in the schools.

“You can’t just enforce,” Schmidt said. “You have to educate.”