Pete Kott Trial Day 6 PM - Don't Forget Your Helmet

This afternoon we heard from Bill Allen, the former CEO of the company that was known as Veco. Under Government questioning he told about his life. This could have been an Alaska oral history project. Allen was born in New Mexico in 1937, family moved to Oregon where they picked crops, and then back to New Mexico. He dropped out of high school at 15 and got a job in the oil fields as an assistant welder for El Paso Natural Gas. "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven."

I should say here that before he began this tale, Prosecutor Goeke asked him about an accident. He was in a motorcycle accident in 2001 without a helmet and hit his head on the pavement. He has images, but sometimes has trouble finding the words to convey what he's thinking. It was emphasized that his thinking is not impaired, only his speech. And it was slow and deliberate as he sometimes paused waiting for the word to come to him - long pauses. This explained some of the long, long (15-20 seconds) on the telephone tapes.

Anyway, he had his first test (welding I think) at 17 and was a welder foreman at 21 and a supervisor at 24 or 25. I don't have time tonight to go into all the details, but he made it to Alaska where he worked on Cook Inlet oil platform named King Salmon in 1968. Arco asked him to form his own company which got joined with a similar one owned by Wayne Veltri and the beginings of Veco were formed.

OK, this is not going to get to deep today. Tonight is Erev (the eve of) Rosh Hashona and we have people over for dinner and then we go to synagogue. Tomorrow I will again miss the trial , this time to observe Rosh Hashona.

I think the key points will be available at the Anchorage Daily News, and I'll get blogging again tomorrow night. But it is interesting to see the effect of education here, or rather limited education. At the Anderson trial, most of the key players had at least a college degree. They at least talked about right and wrong. There was some profanity, but not too much. Here, the focus is strictly on getting things done so I can get what I need for my company to get business or for me to get a job. The 'fuck's are frequent in the conversation. And there is no discussion at all about the public interest, the public good. The legislature is just an obstacle to be overcome and has no real legitimate role. At least it hasn't been mentioned or talked about. Of course, one can argue that those with education should be held to a higher standard and I don't have a response to that.

Anyway, people are here and I have to quit. Happy New Year to all.

Peter Kott Trial Day 6 - noon report

I got into the courtroom about 9:20am, while the jury was listening to a tape.

Overview of morning (from 9:20am-11:45am)

1. Listening to tapes Exhibits 56-62
2. Cross examination of FBI Agent Steve J. Dunphy who verified that the CD's placed in evidence were accurate copies of the original.
3. Some discussion among attorneys and the judge about how the defense could cross examine Dunphy and the possibility of their bringing in other audio evidence

The Tapes

While I was in the court they listened to Exhibits 56-62

Topics covered:

1. Polling data for Kott election campaign, how he was doing (not well) and Allen and Smith getting polls done for him by Dittman Research

2. Hardwood floor installation by Kott at Allen's house and the payment for that work - $19,993

3. Allen and Smith concerned about helping Kott get work for Kott's son

4. The reaction of the oil companies to the legislature's not going along with the Governor's gas pipeline bill and PPT legislation

5. Kott flying to Anchorage for an afternoon/evening (then returning to Juneau) so he can attend Don Young's pig roast and get a campaign picture of himself with Don Young (did he he get reimbursed by the state for that trip? That wasn't mentioned)

6. Going to Florida or Barbados to work as a prison warden and play with the pretty women

The conversations were from three tapped phones: Allen's home and cell and Smith's cell.

The conversations were between end of July and August 30. Other important events then were the state legislature's special session which was in July and August 2007. Also the Alaska primary elections were August 22. So the last tape - on August 30 was after Kott had lost his Republican primary reelection bid. In that tape Bill Allen asks him if he is ok. It also sounds like Allen now knows his phone is tapped. He asks Kott questions about how he got reimbursed :

Bill Allen: Did Rick get it done for you?

Peter Kott: Yeah.

BA: How'd he do it? Can you tell me?

PK: Laughing. Shit, what we talked about with you 4-5 weeks ago - add an extra to your bill or something.

The trial should be starting back now. I'll try to report more later.

Sunny Day in Juneau

DELTA Meeting in Juneau, Alaska

I'm here in Juneau for a steering committee meeting for DELTA, a Center for Disease Control (CDC) funded project to do an assessment of the needs and resources in Alaska for Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) prevention and to develop a state plan. I've posted on two previous meetings here and here. We've met a couple of times as a steering committee already. We now have an initial draft of the needs and resources assessment. There really is relatively little good data for evaluating much more than the actual incidence of intimate partner violence - and what we have there is a low count, data on people who report incidents.

A key problem is confidentiality. In small Alaskan villages just a couple of pieces of demographic data can identify someone, so attempts to get enough data to develop correlations between violence and other factors is very difficult.

Another issue we discussed and have discussed before is the dividing line between prevention and intervention. CDC money now is focused on prevention, but it seems there is a loosening of the resolve to create absolute separations. Intervention is seen is work done after there is a problem, prevention is work to prevent incidents in the first place. But if you work with children in a family where there was violence is that prevention (keeping the kids from repeating their parents' behaviors) or intervention (working the kids through the traumas they have experienced as witnesses)?

But I'm encouraged (again) by the wide experience, knowledge, and general reasonableness and understanding of the various group members, who represent different levels of prevention work - from the immediate village/urban prevention activities to policy makers and researchers.

Jocelyn was here from Atlanta to see what we were doing and to offer insights from the CDC perspective of what we're doing. According to her, we're well along on our project and that our initiative is impressive. We have to talk to people from the other DELTA project states and see if she tells them the same thing

Baranof Suite 604

Since I'm in Juneau I'm missing the Kott trial. ADN's coverage said that yesterday the jury heard the opening statements.

Kott even says on one of the tapes, "I sold my soul to the devil," Marsh said.

I did stay at the Baranof last night and took this picture of the room number where the tapes were recorded.

Juneau Pictures 2 - Biking to Mendenhall Glacier

Jonathan on the bridge.

Mendenhall Glacier through the spokes.

The path got a little wet part of the way.

Biking through the moss.

Talking to tourists at the Glacier.

Juneau Pictures 1

Sky and his mom walking the rainy night streets when I got in.

We stopped by at the youth center where Michel works.

Then in the International Hostel that Michel manages.

Downtown Juneau, the cruise ships are the biggest buildings in town.

Walking Juneau - this is a house across the street from the Governor's house.

Michel showing me the land he's building his house on.

Fairchild 24G at Anchorage Airport

It was raining in Anchorage when Joan dropped me at the airport. Good prep for Juneau. As I had lots of time, I did some walking around and saw this plane I hadn't looked at carefully before. I've put a picture of the sign for those who are interested in such things. I left it a fairly large file in case you want to click on it and read it. Also, the airport is designed so that on a clear day, Denali (Mt. McKinley to non-Alaskans) is framed exactly in the window at the end of this terminal.

Asiemut - Biking from Mongolia to Calcutta

Last night we got a lot more than we expected. We thought we were going to see a movie about a bike ride from Mongolia to Calcutta, India. We didn't know that the film makers - and bike riders - would also be there.



A delightful young couple from Quebec, they introduced the movie, and then a couple of times in the middle they talked about their trip and used the movie to help illustrate their points. The name - AsieMut - is a combination azimuth (azimut, I think in French) and Asie (Asia in French). It was a fun evening and a reminder that we can do much more than we think we can.

Blog Office

It's September already. Soon this office will have to be closed until spring. But in the meantime, it's my favorite place to work.