A demonstration was held on Wednesday, March 30 outside the Kenai Courthouse to voice opinion that grand juries should investigate government corruption. The gathering was organized by David Haeg, who said there will be another demonstration this Wednesday, April 6 in support of grand jurors. The event will be from 7:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Haeg told KSRM:
“The main issue is that our grand juries have a constitutional right to investigate government officials and over the past three/four years, there have been five different grand juries – two in Anchorage and now three down here in Kenai – that try to investigate misconduct by government officials. In each case, the grand juries have been ordered to stop and at times ordered to stop by the very government officials that they’re trying to investigate. Alaska constitution is very specific it says, ‘The power of grand juries to investigate concerning the public welfare and safety shall never be suspended.’”
Haeg said another grand jury was recently stopped in Kenai:
“We decided we would just have to go down there and start protesting at the courthouse (in Kenai) itself on the days the grand jury go in, which is Wednesday, to try and give them the courage to continue to investigate even though the judges inside the Kenai Courthouse are ordering them to stop investigating. The last grand jury, actually, Alaska’s Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore was on the phone and ordered them to stop. It’s incredibly serious. That’s not even getting into what the grand juries are trying to investigate.”
In January, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly passed a resolution supporting the constitutional right of Alaska Grand Juries to investigate and make recommendations on public welfare and safety concerns. Concerns regarding impartial justice were brought forward by borough residents about the court system. In passing the resolution, the assembly said that the alleged denial of constitutional rights guaranteed by the Alaska Constitution is of great concern.
NOTE: photo credits courtesy of David Haeg
