Henry v MOA: Long Pauses And Open Doors - Looks Like Feliciano/Kennedy May Be On The Table

I left at 4:30pm on Wednesday so I could get to the weekly video conference with the grandkids.  It was shortened because of the trial last week and I needed some pure joy.  And it was.

I left the courtroom as George Vakalis, the former Anchorage City Manager under Rick Mystrom and again under Dan Sullivan was being questioned by Sean Halloran, one of the hired attorneys for the Municipality. They were talking about his military background and his management experience and eventually got to how he authorized the hiring of Rick Brown to study the allegations that by Lt. Henry had leaked information about a confidential informant at the National Guard to the head of the National Guard.  (That's how the MOA (Municipality of Anchorage) characterizes it)

Halloran:  Was he bringing you known facts, allegations?
Vakalis:  Allegations.
H:  Did you authorize budgetary amount to be used?
V:  $30,000 - my authorization level without going to Assembly.  To oversee hiring and conduct of investigation. Told Wheeler to use other resources -manpowr, materials, whatever necessary.
H:  What point become aware he hired Mr. Brown?
V:  Mr. Wheeler informed me he hired an independent Investigator.  Sept or October.
H:  Did he keep you abreast of progress?
V:  I’d ask him how it was going.  Providing with info he requested.

It was stuff like this that made me think I could leave without missing too much.  At most there was 30 minutes to go.  

Today, Thursday, I had a mini-vacation from the trial.  It was the second lecture by retired Judge Karen Hunt on the Second Amendment.  I decided to go vote early first.  After five minutes scraping ice of my windshield, I voted quickly - no line that early, but other people - then to the church where the class was held, and I made it through security and into the court room by 11am.  I'd missed two and a half hours.  George Vadalis was still on the stand.  Meg Simonian was questioning him about whether the Office of Equal Opportunity actually had the authority to conduct discrimination and retaliation investigations and make findings.  

That's interesting since the office had done investigations of Jason Whetsell's complaint about discrimination over his medical condition and Henry had started an investigation there and at the EEOC.  Was the MOA saying the OEO officer didn't have the authority to make those investigations?  Lots of witnesses have said those investigations were a thorn in the side of the police chief.  And now they're saying she didn't have the authority?  This case is full of surprises.  

They were done with Vakalis shortly after I got there and as he walked out of the courtroom, I couldn't help but think that his hair was exactly the color and look that Trump is trying to achieve with his combover.  

Nancy Usera was next.  The former Employee Relations director at the MOA.  She'd had that job twice - in 2009 and then got called back from retirement to take over as acting ER director by Sullivan.  She started off, while being questioned by Halloran, by dissing Marilyn Stewart-Richardson, the OEO director who'd done the investigations.  

Usera:  Ms. Stewart us difficult, she came and went as she pleased, would not take direction.  Either unable or incapable of duties.  Very problematic for MOA.  What can you do?  Ask the mayor about finding another position for her, better suited.  Ask M Manager.  Have her report to him.  I was not effective as her supervisor.

[UPDATE Nov 4, 2018:  It wasn't until the day after I posted this that I saw the ADN article on legislative races and realized that Ms. Stewart is running for the House.]

Usera was also the person who was given the task of reading the Brown Report and making he decision whether to terminate Henry or not.  (She did.)

She got badgered this way and that over how she could have made the decision.  Dd you know that the FBI had already done two investigations and found nothing wrong at the National Guard?  Did you know this, did you know that?  I couldn't help thinking that we've spent three weeks now hearing from the writer of the Brown Report and hearing it picked and parsed by many of the people who helped him write it and who appear in it.  I really have no idea what I would have done if I were in her shoes.  I'd like to think I would have read it really carefully and looked at the attachments and that I would have found holes and raised questions.  But who can tell?

I don't think I would have made a decision just based on the report.  I would have had to have heard from Henry himself as well.  And she did during the appeal, but didn't believe him.

I'm going to skip down to the items in the title.  It's late and I want to go to bed so I an get up at 6am tomorrow.

Municipal Attorney under Dan Sullivan, Dennis Wheeler was up after Usera.  More of the same - the authority of the OEO, how he hired Rick Brown, why Usera became the decision maker.
While Halloran was asking questions, my eye-lids got heavier and heavier.  I must have had a dozen micro-naps.  Halloran talks slowly.  He pauses between words.  It's a sharp contrast to Ray Brown and Meg Simonian on the plaintiff's side who machine gun the witnesses with rapid fire words and insinuations.
But Halloran is slow.  I started noting long pauses between the witness' last word and Halloran's next question.  I counted the seconds as they ticked off on my computers.  15 seconds.  8 seconds, 10 seconds.  That's a half minute of silence already..  I counted again.  28 seconds!  No wonder I was falling asleep.

Ray Brown comes from the "when did you stop beating your wife" school fo interrogating.  There is a similarity to Trump's bullying style.  And today he abruptly stopped and said, "I can continue this tomorrow" right after getting Wheeler to whimper.

He was questioning him about the Brown Report, which Wheeler had commissioned.  Each question Ray Brown flung at Wheeler was a poison dart, striking Wheeler, but aimed at the jury.

RB:  Didn’t anyone tell you that FBI already investigated twice and said there was nothing there?  Wheeler:  No  I don’t recall.
RB:   Didn’t you know about Blaylock?
RB:  Mayor running for LT Gov,  and Sullivan's running mate, the Governor, was taking heat over the Guard scandal.  You had to do something.
W:  Issues went to  Henry.
RB:  You know Henry was the target?
W:  Regardless,
RB:  Based solely on this report by Fanning, who went around Mew’s back, made these salacious.   

W: I  take issue with the word  salacious.

Then there was a bit more and Brown says, threateningly:

RB:  You’re testifying under oath today, sir!

At that point, after calling Wheeler a liar in legalese in front of the jury, he pivoted to the judge, and said in a much cheerier tone, I think I can finish this up tomorrow morning your honor.  

I've been told by several lawyers that Ray Brown and Doug Parker are considered among the best Anchorage lawyers.  Ending questioning with the witness wounded seems to be a specialty, like scoring a basket at the buzzer.  

Then when the jury had left, he commented to the judge

RB: The door’s open, Feliciano/Kennedy case,

He said, there are two doors open.  The judge answered, "I'm aware of one open door."

I missed how the door was opened - I'm sure we'll get told tomorrow.  But I do know what the Feliciano/Kennedy case is.  I've been rereading Judge Pfiffner's angry decision on attorney's fees after the second Feliciano/Kennedy case.  It excoriated the Municipality and APD for intentionally hiding information from the court and the plaintiffs.  It accused them of setting up the plaintiffs.  But most relevant  to this case, Anthony Henry was the star witness against the two minority officers.  The APD had held up the investigation so he could testify.  

So far, all the jurors in this case know is that the Chief held up the investigation of Henry because Chief Mew wanted the EEOC case to be settled.  Clearly the Feliciano/Kennedy case has been ruled out of bounds for this trial.  Until now.  Maybe.

You can get to an index of all posts on this trial at the Henry v MOA tab under the blog header at top.  Or click here.