• Wooten used a Taser on his stepson.
• He illegally shot a moose.
• He drank beer in his patrol car on one occasion.
• He told others his father-in-law would "eat a f'ing lead bullet" if he helped his daughter get an attorney for the divorce.
Is Wooten a good trooper? (7/27/08)
PALIN'S EX-BROTHER-IN-LAW: Union says yes, but investigation found serious
concerns.
By LISA DEMER
ldemer@adn.com
Published: July 27th, 2008 12:02 AM
Last Modified: July 27th, 2008 08:08 PM
He's the governor's ex-brother-in-law, and his job as an Alaska State Trooper is
drawing scrutiny in a way rarely seen except in cases of killings by officers.
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Legislators are seriously considering hiring an independent investigator to
examine whether Gov. Sarah Palin, her aides or her husband pressured commanders
to fire Trooper Mike Wooten, and whether she then fired the state's top cop when
Wooten stayed on the job. Palin denies anything like that happened.
All that aside, what kind of trooper is Mike Wooten?
The picture painted by the Palins is pretty bad. The trooper brass isn't saying
one way or another, citing personnel rules that protect his files. Union leaders
defend him as a dedicated trooper who was already punished for his mistakes.
Efforts to speak with Wooten were unsuccessful. He did not return phone calls
when the controversy first began two weeks ago. He now is out of the country on
a long-planned vacation, said John Cyr, executive director of the Public Safety
Employees Association, the union for troopers. They are not in touch. An e-mail
to Wooten was answered with an out-of-the-office auto reply.
Wooten is 35, a state trooper since March 2001 and an Air Force veteran. He's a
father of young children who has been married and divorced four times.
The accusations are detailed in two thick binders, the result of a nearly
yearlong investigation by troopers. When the investigation appeared to stall,
Palin -- more than a year before she was elected governor, and about two months
before launching her campaign -- pushed trooper commanders to take action
against Wooten. At one point, Palin and
her husband, Todd, hired a private investigator.
Wooten recently gave his union permission to release the entire investigative
file, all 482 pages and hours of recorded interviews.
"The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable
and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which
establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our
profession," Col. Julia Grimes, then head of Alaska State Troopers, wrote in
March 1, 2006, letter suspending Wooten for 10 days. After the union protested
it, the suspension was reduced to five days.
ADVERTISEMENT
She warned that if he messed up again, he'd be fired.
"This discipline is meant to be a last chance to take corrective action," Grimes
wrote. "You are hereby given notice that any further occurrences of these types
of behaviors or incidents will not be tolerated and will result in your
termination."
It's nearly impossible to know whether other complaints have come in about
Wooten in the last two years. His personnel file is confidential. But the fact
he remains on the force is an indication that he hasn't had the sort of trouble
that Grimes warned against.
Grimes declined to comment, as did various troopers involved in the
investigation.
'... NOT WITHOUT A BLEMISH'
As the investigation got under way in 2005, Wooten was in the midst of a bitter
divorce from Palin's sister, Molly McCann. The couple was fighting over custody
of their two young children. Accusations flew from both sides.
|
Troopers eventually investigated 13
issues and found four in which Wooten violated policy or broke the law or both: • Wooten used a Taser on his stepson. • He illegally shot a moose. • He drank beer in his patrol car on one occasion. • He told others his father-in-law would "eat a f'ing lead bullet" if he helped his daughter get an attorney for the divorce. |
Beyond the investigation sparked by the family, trooper commanders saw cause to
discipline or give written instructions to correct Wooten seven times since he
joined the force, according to Grimes' letter to Wooten.
Those incidents included: a reprimand in January 2004 for negligent damage to a
state vehicle; a January 2005 instruction after being accused of speeding,
unsafe lane changes, following too closely and not using turn signals in his
state vehicle; a June 2005 instruction regarding personal cell phone calls; an
October 2005 suspension from work after getting a speeding ticket; and a
November 2005 memo "to clarify duty hours, tardiness and personal business
during duty time."
"Mike is not without a blemish," the union's Cyr said. But some of the problems
noted by Grimes were small matters, he said. Many troopers were told to
reimburse the state for personal cell phone calls, he said. Wooten had to miss
work for court during the divorce, he said.
The union president, Rob Cox, is a 17-year trooper veteran who worked alongside
Wooten in the Valley. Cox said he never thought of him as a rogue cop.
It's significant that Wooten served for a while on the Special Emergency
Reaction Team -- like a SWAT team, Cox said. Officers have to be especially
cool-headed to perform in crisis situations, Cox said.
Wooten was the first backup officer to arrive at the scene of a standoff in 2006
at the Valley trailer home of Donald Voorhis.
TROOPER INVESTIGATION
Wooten's history spilled into public view after the July 11 firing of Public
Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The former commissioner has said he doesn't
know why Palin wanted him out but wonders if Wooten's situation was part of it.
He has said that members of Palin's administration, and the governor's husband,
talked with him about the accusations against Wooten, which he considered
improper.
"Never put pressure on Walt Monegan to fire -- hire or fire -- anybody," Palin
responded.
The troopers' investigation into Wooten began after Chuck Heath -- Wooten's
father-in-law and Palin and McCann's dad -- alerted troopers about a domestic
violence protective order McCann had obtained against Wooten on April 11, 2005.
McCann filed for divorce the same day, according to the court docket.
The trooper had not physically assaulted his wife but intimidated her and
threatened to shoot him, Heath told troopers, according to a memo about the
complaint.
The same day, a concerned neighbor of the couple called troopers with more
accusations, including alcohol abuse, based on what Heath and McCann had relayed
to him. Wooten seemed "disconnected" lately, the neighbor said. He told troopers
that Heath and McCann were afraid to call troopers themselves.
"Extreme verbal abuse & violent threats & physical intimidation," McCann wrote
in her April 11, 2005, petition to the court. He had driven drunk multiple
times, threatened her father, told her to "put a leash on your sister and family
or I'm going to bring them down," her petition says. A judge issued a 20-day
protective order to keep Wooten away.
In written orders to Wooten sent the next day, trooper Capt. Matt Leveque echoed
the court's directive. Leveque, now a major, also told Wooten to give up his
department-issued guns, badge, credentials and vehicle during his off-duty time,
while the order was in effect.
On April 27, 2005, trooper Sgt. Ron Wall began the internal investigation,
interviewing and re-interviewing more than 15 people over a period of months.
Witnesses included Palin, her husband, Todd, two of their children, Heath,
McCann, her son, Wooten, friends, neighbors, a bartender, and other troopers.
Here's what the troopers found out:
ILLEGAL MOOSE HUNT
In September 2003, Wooten, McCann and a friend who was a Wasilla police officer,
Chris Watchus, hunted moose from a boat in the Jim Creek area.
McCann had drawn a permit for a cow moose but had never done that kind of
hunting before, she told troopers in the investigation. They brought Wooten's
rifle, a .300-caliber Winchester Magnum. Chuck Heath had been riding her to make
sure the permit was used, Wooten told Wall. It was the last day for the hunt,
McCann said. The Mat-Su lottery tags are highly coveted.
Minutes into the trip, they spotted a cow. "Do you want to shoot the moose?"
Wooten says he asked his wife. As he recounted it, she told him that she didn't.
McCann said that Wooten took out the gun and shot the moose.
"I guess I assumingly thought that he would help me sight it in and whatever you
do you know to tell me, show me how to do it. Unless he planned all along of
just shooting it," McCann told Wall, according to the transcript.
The first shot didn't bring it down, so Wooten fired a second time. During the
personnel investigation, Wooten initially insisted there was nothing wrong with
killing a moose under his wife's permit. At the time of the interview, he was a
wildlife investigator for troopers. He was assigned that job in October 2004,
about a year after killing the moose. Before joining the force, he was a
wildlife conservation agent on Elmendorf Air Force Base but wasn't responsible
for enforcing rules on moose hunts, he said.
The killing of the moose without a
permit was a criminal misdemeanor, Grimes wrote in the March 2006 letter to
Wooten. He was removed from wildlife investigations.
Wooten was never charged criminally. Troopers say the moose shooting wasn't
investigated as a crime.
"Once a complaint is received on a trooper, more often than not it goes into
what we call an administrative inquiry, and that's how the discipline is
handled," said Col. Gary Folger, now director of the state Division of Alaska
Wildlife Troopers, which was formed after Palin took office in 2007. At least
that's true for wildlife offenses, he said.
Col. Audie Holloway, director of Alaska State Troopers, said he couldn't speak
about wildlife cases in the separate division but said generally, "a trooper has
to answer for his crime." He said he couldn't talk specifically about Wooten's
situation.
The statute of limitations for shooting a moose without a permit is five years.
TASING THE STEPSON
One day -- maybe a year or two before the investigation -- Wooten showed his
stepson his Taser. He had just been to Taser instructor school. Wooten told Sgt.
Wall that the boy was fascinated and pleaded to be tased.
"So we went in our living room and I had him get down on his knees so he
wouldn't fall. And I taped the probes to him and turned the Taser on for like a
second, turned it off. He thought that was the greatest thing in the world,
wanted to do it again," Wooten told the investigator. The boy flinched but
nothing more, he said. The boy was about 11 at the time.
In his interview with troopers, the stepson said it hurt for about a second,
according to Wall's report. The boy said he wanted to be tased to show his
cousin, Palin's daughter Bristol, that he wasn't a mama's boy. The probe left a
welt on his arm, he said. His mother was upstairs yelling at them not to do it,
the boy said.
As Bristol remembered it, the jolt knocked the boy backward, the trooper report
says. She said she was afraid.
The probes are attached by thin wires to the Taser cartridge. In the field, an
officer fires the probes into a suspect's skin or clothing and the suspect
receives a jolt of electricity for five seconds, said Steve Tuttle, a spokesman
for Taser International, which makes the devices. They are only incapacitated
during that time. In demos, the probes might be taped to a person so that they
don't accidentally strike an eye or injure the volunteer, he said. If the Taser
is fired for just a second, it would feel like your funny bone was hit but the
quick jolt wouldn't knock you over, Tuttle said.
DRINKING AND DRIVING
Wall evaluated several accusations that Wooten was drinking and driving. He
didn't substantiate them. Some came only from McCann and family.
But Grimes re-interviewed a couple who lived nearby and found them believable
about an incident that occurred in the summer of 2004. Adrian and Marilyn Lane
told her they are friends of the Heaths but wouldn't lie to help the family.
Wooten stopped by their house one
morning in his white patrol car and drank a beer from the fridge in the garage,
the couple said. On his way out, he grabbed another beer, popped it open, and
got behind the wheel, they both told Grimes.
"And I was like "Whoa!" Adrian Lane said. They both thought he needed to watch
himself.
Wooten contended he never drank in his patrol car. Grimes determined that he
did.
Troopers looked into another drinking episode that occurred late one night in
March 2005.
 |
|
Barely two blocks away, Trooper Dave
Herrell
pulled them over. Wooten jumped out to talk to him.
Herrell
told the trooper investigator that he "felt
kinda
weird" when he realized the driver was another trooper.
The bartender had called in to report Wooten as a possible drunken driver. "Said
that you guys were severely intoxicated and caused a fight in the bar and then
you guys left," Wooten told the investigator, recounting what
Herrell
said.
As Herrell remembered it, "I was sitting there talking to him and I smelled ...
just a faint odor of alcohol that was coming from his breath," according to a
transcript.
Herrell, who said he was No. 1 at the Palmer post with more than 250
drunken-driving arrests, didn't think Wooten seemed drunk. He didn't slur, his
eyes weren't bloodshot or watery. Herrell didn't ask him to take any field
sobriety or breath tests. That's always up to the officer's discretion, troopers
say.
Was Wooten drunk?
"No," Herrell told Wall. "I believe that he consumed an alcoholic beverage, but
I don't believe that he's intoxicated. Or overly intoxicated above .08."
That's the legal limit for driving.
Still, Herrell, who is now a sergeant, told Wooten to park the car. He gave the
men a lift back to the friend's house.
McCann told the trooper investigator that Wooten called her about 3 a.m. to pick
him up. They were separated, but he still came to the house to shower and get
his things. He told her he and his friend "tore down the house last night" and
were pulled over. "Oh I can play a good sober when I need to," he said,
according to what she told troopers.
In his investigation, Wall didn't find that Wooten broke any policies or laws
that night.
"F'ING BULLET"
The other incident happened in February 2005. Both McCann and Palin gave
troopers detailed accounts of what happened. Wooten was headed home in a rage,
McCann said.
She called Palin and put the phone on speaker so Palin could listen when Wooten
got there and get help if things got bad. Palin had her teenage son Track listen
in, too.
As McCann remembered it, Wooten said if their father got a lawyer for her "he
would eat a f'ing lead bullet. I will shoot him."
Palin was interviewed by troopers too.
"Mike in the conversation never did get to the bottom of what, what the
foundational issue he was dealing with, he just kept screaming, "I'm gonna F'n
kill your dad if he gets an attorney to help you," Palin told troopers,
according to the transcript.
Track told troopers he heard the comment, too.
Palin drove over and watched through the window. She and McCann both said Wooten
was all wound up. A neighbor who stood watch as well later told troopers that
Wooten looked angry but that McCann wasn't cowering or anything.
Wooten told troopers he never said anything like that about his father-in-law.
The investigation concluded he did. It wasn't a crime, because he didn't
threaten Heath directly. But it did violate trooper policy, the investigation
found.
In August 2005, nearly four months after the investigation began, Palin wrote a
lengthy e-mail to Grimes about Wooten that included some new accusations and new
witnesses. She wrote that she was writing not as his sister-in-law but to
express concern over the lack of action about a trooper whom she said many
described as a "ticking timebomb" and "loose cannon."
In October 2005, Palin announced she was running for governor. Sgt. Wall, who is
now a lieutenant over patrol in Fairbanks, finished his investigation the same
month. The following March, Grimes handed out the punishment.
The union's Cyr says that ultimately Wooten was treated fairly by the Department
of Public Safety.
"Clearly the folks have the ability to file complaints, and the state has the
obligation to investigate them and that is what was done. He was disciplined,
appropriately so we believe in the end. And you know, basically end of story.
The only question in our mind would be has this pattern continued and has
pressure been brought on anybody, I mean, after this whole sorry mess."
Wooten and McCann's divorce was finalized in January 2006. They continue to have
disputes over custody and visitation.
Since that divorce, Wooten remarried and divorced again.
He remains on the force in Wasilla.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390. Megan Holland
contributed to this story.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timeline
Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten is the ex-brother-in-law of Gov. Sarah Palin.
Here is a chronology of developments in a trooper investigation into accusations
against him. The investigation occurred before Palin became governor. It wrapped
up around the same time she announced her candidacy.
2005
4/11: McCann gets a domestic violence protective order against Wooten and files
for divorce. Chuck Heath, the father of McCann and Palin, alerts troopers about
the restraining order. A neighbor of McCann and Wooten calls troopers with
concerns about Wooten, including alcohol abuse accusations.
4/12: A trooper captain orders Wooten to obey the protective order and turn in
his weapons, badge and patrol car when he's off duty.
4/27: Troopers open an investigation into Wooten.
8/10: Palin e-mails Col. Julia Grimes, then head of the troopers, with
additional allegations against Wooten and calls him a "ticking timebomb."
10/10: Chuck Heath writes Grimes saying that the investigation is dragging on
too long and Wooten is "a dangerous person, a loose cannon, ready to explode."
10/18: Palin announces she is running for governor.
10/29: Troopers issue memo of findings on Wooten. Wall investigated 13 issues
and substantiated three.
2006
1/17: Grimes re-interviews two witnesses.
1/31: Wooten and McCann's divorce finalized.
2/1: Grimes substantiates a fourth allegation.
3/1: Grimes issues a letter suspending Wooten for 10 days and warning that the
discipline is "a last chance for corrective action" and that further occurrences
"will not be tolerated."
8/22: Palin wins Republican primary, defeating incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski.
9/5: Wooten's suspension reduced to five days after union files a grievance.
11/7 Palin wins general election.
Sources: Alaska State Troopers investigative files; court records; interviews.
CommentsPlease log in to post comments.
202Friday, August 15, 2008 - 8:24am | parkerfam
Investigate the AST
Monegan did squat with Wooten, who should have been fired, what didn't he do
with others. Once the legislature is done with Palin they should move on to AST.
201Thursday, August 14, 2008 - 2:59pm | celiarn2003
There are a lot of Wootens in the state troopers
He is not the only problem officer. The state troopers are corrupt and out of
control. Wooten should have been fired along with a lot of other problems. They
all cover up for each other. It is a good old boys club. Monegan should have
been fired for allowing this. I realized the union is part of the problem. I am
pro union, but the ones I have belonged to had some pride in their membership
and did ...
read more
200Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - 9:01am | killforfood
Wooten shoulda been fired long ago,
Maybe the other troopers who covered up for Wooten should be fired also.
Obviously he is an insult to other good and fair troopers. Monegan is his
attempt to cover up for him was in refusal of a direct order from his Boss, the
Governor of Alaska. Wooten is a criminal and should be charged. carriedavid1995
is exactly right.
199Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - 7:31am | shasta2
Right or wrong..
Again both cops have lost their credibility.. Top Cop because he thought he was
above the powers that be (Prom-Queen) and top cop backing up the play of trooper
Wooten in a family squabble.....
198Saturday, August 2, 2008 - 5:08pm | anjildru
fair is fair then
so i guess then you would agree that thegov and her family then to r criminals,
with gov like that our state would be better without one, grow up, you think
becuase he pulled a trigger because his wife did not want to he makes our
streets dangerous that is just stupid. that is like saying because sarah and
chuck ate it they make the streets dangerous, come on now.
197Saturday, August 2, 2008 - 2:28pm | carriedavid1995
beyond The Gov The man is a criminal
HE is a criminal by the troopers own invertigations and he should be charged not
given a review. If you or I pouch a moose think the Judge is going to say take 5
days off work. Do we get out of tickets and get to drink and drive. With
troopers like this the streets would be safer with outany.
196Saturday, August 2, 2008 - 9:44am | anjildru
un-informed
I think that it is time that we all realize that you cant just judge someone on
what their ex-family is saying. This man has been fighting in court for his 2
children for almost 5 years now. There have been 2 custody investigations where
everyone involved is talked to including the children and in both situations it
was found that he was a great father and his children
\
I calledMr.Page who relayed mostly secondhand information that he was told by Mr. Heath and MollyWooten. Mr. Page said that Molly and the kids were afraid of Inv. Wooten and that Mike had threatened
to shoot Molly's father, Mr. Heath.
Page also relayed that Inv. Wooten may be taking some kind ofsteroid supplement and having problems with alcohol and relayed a story where (nv. Wooten drove while
intoxic;Cited Jrom the Mug Shot Saloon. Page said he had encouraged Molly and Heath to report this
behavior to the troopers but they are scared. Page has personally observed Jnv.Wooten's behavior
change over the last few months and described him as "disconnected."
 |
|
fA
Date:
4/11/05Telephone:
269-5409Subject:
Memo of Complaintthat in the past Mike has gone to neighborhood barbecues at Adrian and Marilyn lane's house driving his
patrol car. Mike would then drink at the barbecue and drive the patrol car home. She does not believe he
was intoxicated when
he's done this but the lane's have told her they do not think it is appropriate.Mike has also told Molly that he is taking a testosterone supplement that is illegal. He gets the substance
from a friend he weight lifts with whose name she does not know. She cannot recall the name of the
substance, just that it has a three letter initial name like MTD, and comes in small, blue pills.
.
.McCann also advised that Mike told her he Was taking an illegal steroid supplement. She stated
that he claimed to be taking a blue pill that he gets from a work out partner. She did not know the
name of the person who provided Mike with the steroids. She did advise that he "got big, fast" and
that she knows he takes creatine.
.McCann related that on SuperbowlSunday2005, Mike took her son Payton to a Pro-Wresting
show at the Sullivan Arena. She stated that Payton had told her that Mike was drinking Crown
Royal strait from the bottle and that Mike told Payton it was the "breakfast, of champions." She
stated that he then poured Crown Royal into a water bottle and took it inside the event with hiril.
-~er Ieaving the event, McCann advised that Wooten drove through Anchorage staggering drunk.
.,e then went to her sister's house in Anchorage where he picked her up and she drove them
home. '
McCann
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