KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Allegations tie family dispute to Monegan ouster

Allegations tie family dispute to Monegan ouster

by Jason Moore
Thursday, July 17, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A new allegation surfaced Thursday over Gov. Sarah Palin's possible motivations behind the sacking of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

It concerns a state trooper in Wasilla who Palin claims threatened the lives of her family members.

At the time Trooper Mike Wooten was married to Palin's sister and going through a bitter divorce and custody battle.

The allegation surfaced in former lawmaker Andrew Halcro's blog.

In the blog Halcro claims Palin wanted Monegan to fire Trooper Wooten. When he wouldn't, Palin fired Monegan.

Meanwhile, the Alaska Public Safety Employees Association on Thursday released Wooten's personnel file.

"Officer Wooten has asked that we release the records around that investigation," APSEA Executive Director John Cyr said.

It shows numerous complaints by Palin and her family filed against Wooten during the time Wooten was going through a divorce and custody battle with Palin's sister.    

In an e-mail Palin sent to Trooper Col. Julia Grimes in August 2005 she says Wooten does not tell the truth and that he intimidates people and abuses his position.    

Palin goes on to claim Wooten has made death threats against family members and engaged in illegal hunting and drunken driving.    

In court papers Wooten says the Palin family filed more than a dozen complaints during the dispute.

"This is a personal matter," Cyr said. "It comes out of a divorce and custody battle and the charges all come from one direction as far as I can ascertain."

Gov. Palin says her disagreements with Wooten had nothing to do with Monegan's firing.

"That, though, is absolutely an aside -- has absolutely nothing to do with replacing the commissioner -- as we're trying to move forward with more energy in a new department. Trooper Wooten's issues have nothing to do with Walt Monegan," she said.

Monegan himself remains silent on whether he was pressured to get rid of Wooten.    

He says it's a personnel issue. But other are watching the situation with concern.

"Certainly no one wants to imagine the governor is using her power to run off a trooper but the facts have still got to come out," said Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage. "The big question is what direction is the department of public safety going in? Who is going to lead them that way? And what as wrong with the way we were going, which seemed pretty good to a lot of folks?"

Palin claims she brought in a new commissioner to focus on improving trooper recruitment, which happened to be a Monegan priority.    

But in Thursday's comments Palin made her position clear regarding any Monegan-Wooten connection.

"No. absolutely not, no," she said.

In 2005, during her sister's custody dispute Palin went as far as to hire a private investigator to keep an eye on Trooper Wooten.    

The results of the internal investigation dismissed most of the complaints. But he was suspended for ten days for violations including shooting a moose illegally and using a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson.    

While not condoning it, the union says the Taser issue involved the son requesting he be Tased and Wooten putting it on the lowest power setting.    

When Monegan took over as commissioner he lowered the suspension to five days.

Contact Jason Moore at jmoore@ktuu.com