Emerging Facts About Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten
Facts are beginning to emerge indicating that the federal investigation into Sarah Palin's alleged abuses of power may actually stem from an investigation into his conduct Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten.
At issue is whether Palin used her office in an attempt to have Wooten -- her former brother-in-law -- fired from his job. Palin says she didn't. Further complicating the debate is the allegations of a former commissioner Palin , who claims he was pressured by the governor to fire Wooten and when he wouldn't, he says Palin fired him instead.
But the details are clearly much more complicated.
Palin has claimed all along that the facts of the case will bear her story out, and it appears they might. CNN is airing an interview with Wooten tonight that may cast considerable doubt on Palin's alleged wrong-doing. Wooten, a four-time divorcee with an extensive record of questionable conduct, isn't exactly the sympathetic character the Democrats and the media have been making him out to be.
The question, it appears, shouldn't be, "Did Palin try to have him fired?" but, "Why has this guy not been fired?"
Wooten has a history of reprimands as a trooper, along with a series of personal indiscretions as well. Perhaps the most heinous of these is the one Wooten has admitted to: electrocuting his 11-year-old step son with a taser, allegedly to teach him a lesson. He's also been accused of drinking on the job (which he denies), killing a moose illegaly (which he also denies), and according to this story at DigitalJournal.com threatening to kill Palin's father -- a retired elementary school teacher.
More is sure to come, so we'll have to stay tuned, but in the meantime it's easy to see why Palin was so eager for this investigation to unfold.
Palin Photo © Alaska Governor's Office
Comments
This is a conservative blog right? What else are you going to say. To say that Palin is “eager to have the events unfold”??? Sure, sure…that’s why after McCain got hold of her she all of a sudden had a private lawyer. The state’s lawyer (who’s job it is to handle these matters)wasn’t good enough? And her earlier proclamations that she would cooperate fully, what about that? Her “private McCain” lawyer is pulling every delaying tactic in the book. Palin wants the whole matter turned over to her personally appointed Personnel Board. Isn’t that like asking the fox to guard the chicken coop? Subpoenas had to be ordered because the McCain people had gotten to the staff who had previously welcomed the investigations and had already scheduled appointments to be questioned. That is until the McCain people got hold of them and then the private lawyer (who now represents not only Palin but anyone connected to her that the Commission may want to question)had them all refuse to comply thus delaying it until subpoenas could be ordered. Now the campaign wants to take advantage of Wooten and display him as an unlikeable character. Look, divorce is ugly. Everyone knows that. It leaves people damaged and bitter. Everyone knows that. But this isn’t about an ugly emotional divorce. It’s about the law. Even if Wooten is the the most repulsive personality on the face of the planet…legally it doesn’t give the the governor the right to abuse the power of her office to dole out years old vendettas against someone she wants to exact revenge on. And that’s the law. Did Palin and her staff place many phone calls to the head of the police and placing pressure on him to fire Wooten…did she fire Monegan because she didn’t gets the results she wanted? Did her staff illegally obtain Wooten’s classified employment file. This is what the investigation is about – not an episode on the latest soap operas that the conservatives would like to people to believe and then somehow come to the conclusion that it’s just messy divorce stuff nothing of consequence so just ignore the corruption and abuse of power and broken laws. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
The fact that Wooton may have tasered his stepson or has a history of reprimands has nothing to do with whether Palin used undue influenced of her office.
If she did so, she should be appropriately censored. Palin, not Wooton is under investigation.
We in alaska know a lot about the department of safety and how they let their Rogue, childmolesting, killers get away with thier dirty deeds done behind the blue wall.
This specific pig is nothing but a thug. He drank in his police cruiser on several occassions. One time he was so out of control and speeding that his children and wife were crying in fear and begging him to pull over and stop drinking. Yep that is an example of how the department of safety does their job.
He is not the only one they are protecting. Just go to state of alaska web site and follow the route to the courtview and look up Bryan Herrera. He is in jail again on new child pornography charges. They let him off real easy for the other three felony charges of child pornography and videotaping his young daughter and her friends undress in her bedroom. The porn was found on his computer at the police dept. This pig also got away with killing an elderly woman as she was walking home from church. Let him off scott free. Yep no trial or anything. The familly is devistated and does not know how to get this info out.
The ends cannot be used to justify the means. Elected officials using their office for favors is exactly what the people of the U.S. want to eliminate in Government. And if Sara Palin can’t withstand the desire to abuse her power at the state level how can we trust that she won’t go even further at the national level?
Walter Monegan stated that “Palin never asked the trooper be fired”. Palin as Govenor reported improper behavior by a law enforcement officer. Regardless of whether the trooper (who himself has abused his powers time and time again) is related to her or fighting with her, the case should have been investegated.
In the end the truth will come to light and the liberal left along with the Democraps will look as stupid as they normally do.
In Chicago, an effective Police Superintendent resigned under pressure from the mayor concerning police misconduct. This happens everywhere. If she was trying to intervene to get rid of a policeman who threatened her elderly father and tazered his 10 year old kid, she was doing her job. I support her and commend her for doing her job.
inawe1…… Bryan Herrera was employed by the Anchorage PD NOT the Troopers. At least try and get your facts right beforespouting off any more BS
Palin is a vindictive broad. Just watch her eyes carefully as she stares into the camera after reading her speech!. at the NRC. He tone and inflection of voice gives me the creeps…
I belive in frst impressons. I am a republican, but not on this plain Palin who exhorts lipstick.
Lisa you are an ignorant naive no doubt feminazi
guess what there are some really bad people and worse bad corrupt democrats that would attempt to use this story THE BEAUTIFUL THING ABOUT IT IS IT WILL BACKFIRE-
so please go out to everyone you know in your small wacko lefty world and talk about this- it helps – do you need some lipstick?
How can you tell if Sarah Palin is lying? Her lips are moving!
Thank goodness the Obama fringe are still posting their nonsense. This will ensure that McCain and Palin win. People are so sick and tired of the nasty Obama posters and their lies that they just turn their heads and rack up another vote for McCain. Who wants a candidate that inspires idiots to post on message boards all over the internet, some of them even being paid to do so, because they think Obama is some kind of Christ figure.
Give it a break already if you have any hope of getting your man in office. The general public hates the Obama bots showing up every time they try to have a conversation.
The Obama posters are no different than the Obama supporters who committed voter fraud during the primary season. It will be great when this all comes out in a court of law.
Obama is trying to cover his steps, yet again, by accusing the other party of planning to commit voter fraud, but the problem is, that it is already documented that it was Obama’s people who committed voter fraud during the caucus elections.
Results are tallied, and it will come out. Bye bye Obama in flames. Bye bye Clintons who bought into the lie, they knew better, and agreed to it no matter that it kept Hillary out of the election that she should have been in.
Nice job. Way to go corrupt Dems.
If Palin and her staff pressured Monegan and his staff to fire Wooten, who was in the middle of a child-custody battle with Palin’s very own sister… then fired Monegan when he didn’t do as Palin commanded, this is ABUSE OF POWER, plain and simple.
The fact that Wooten was a problem is a completely separate issue and should be dealt with appropriately. If any of you Palin-backers think she would have showed ANY interest in Wooten if her sister was not involved, please come back to reality when possible.
I have had enough of this from President Shrub. The executive branch over the last seven years have been a quasi-dictatorship an I, for one, have had enough of these self-serving *******s. And you want to elect more that will pretend the Constitution is nothing more than a rough guideline. What ever happened to the real Republican Party?
Wooten wasn’t fired??
Case closed.
After hearing the facts, the real question is why ISN’T he fired.
Ummm…the police commissioner serves “at the pleasure” of the mayor…she can fire him at any time, for almost any reason…”he’s no longer needed” is enough, and it’s beyond scrutiny. Abuse of power? It’s one of the many various powers given to many folks who hold office. (Pres. Bush wanted to get rid of a bunch of presidentially-appointed lawyers in the justice dept.? Guess what? He can replace them all any time he wants…Don’t forget: “at the pleasure of the president”…)
Wooten’s a criminal and should have been dealt with long ago; any superior keeping him around deserved to be released.
Surprise, surprise…don’t hear much beyond “divorce”, “ex-brother-in-law”, and “released for not firing” on the news…..if more of the story got some attention that guy would be the next OJ…whoops, did I just say that?
…whoops again…”at the pleasure of the governer” in that case…I’m sure someone serves at the pleasure of the mayor..?
It really annoys me when people judge someone that they know nothing about. The media frenzy has made Trooper Wooten seem like some horrible person! Let me say a few things from personal experience.
This was the most horrible nightmare I have ever been through. I had never been away from my babies unitl then, and to have no idea where they are or if they are ok, is more than a parent should have to bear. I thank God for Trooper Wooten and his help.
As soon as my divorce was finalized in 2003, I moved to another state with my children and left all of this behind us, but when this story came out I felt I should let people know the truth of my experiences.
Mike Wooten has a long history (past and recent) of abusing his family because “he was abused as a kid”. Mike Wooten is a liar and this will soon be evident to everyone interested. He has driven drunk. Threatened people. Had affairs. Abused his badge. Mike Wooten is a half-cocked threat to Alaskans.
As a retired Alaska Trooper and a former representative of the Alaska Troopers’ union (PSEA), it appears that, if the allegations against Trooper Wooten are true he should have been terminated for cause. There is a process to be followed, but it certainly seems that the elements are there. Just the moose poaching alone (if true) would have resulted in a quick firing from my experience. Mike Kincaid, author of Alaska Justice.
First, thank you Lucy, for your comments. Trooper Wooten has been torchered by the media and others. He made some mistakes, but paid for them, was punished, and has been doing good work ever since. The people who keep piling it on don’t know anything(You also got it right about Lt. Haun). As for the other blogger, Kincaid, the retied AK State Trooper, I am also, only more recently and of higher rank than you were years ago when you left. Surely, Mike, you understand the concept of double jepordy. Do you advocate that someone who was punished (very nearly fired), then got past it, has done good work and became a better person, be fired because of Sarahas and Todd’s vendictive nature? You didn’t even know them… I do. They are frightening with power.
The trooper was not “teaching the kid a lesson”. Whatever happened to telling the truth? This state employee has made some enemies, but the political debate is not about him – it is about how the record is stacking up against the Republican running mate.
For heaven’s sake choose someone with integrity as a running mate at the next election. You’ve lost this one.
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.
Shut up Pal
i hate this site it is supposed to be easy facts about alaska
Unfortunately, I personally know Mike Wooten. He has ALWAYS been nothing but a lying, cheating scoundrel, dating back to his California days and obviously, he has NOT “learned from” his “mistakes.” Those traits certainly spill over into one’s professional judgment, so I believe every negative thing printed about him, because his character makes it easy to believe.
Anyone truly interested in learning the truth about Wooten need not dig too deep. He now dates the women (Angela Johnson) he had his affair with which ended his marriage to Molly (Sarah Palin’s sister). Fact is he later divorced Angela after abusing her. This was his 5th or 6th marriage.
1. Divorced and remarried 5 or 6 times with abuse of children and spouse alleged if not proven.
2. At least 5 instances, three wherein police were involved, concerning driving while intoxicated. Two involve assaults: Mugshot Saloon and one involved assault of a federal law enforcement officer who tried to stop him from driving drunk with his then wife at The Woodshed.
3. Troopers in Alaska enforce hunting laws; he shot a moose illegally (actually a very big deal in Alaska)
4. Lied to investigators, media, and union stating he “never assaulted anyone or drank and drove”.
5. Stole fraudulently worker compensation while fiegning and injury was photographed snowmachining and even lifted and turning over a 500lb snow machine.
Its almost humorous that after he boldly trailed and tormented the Palin’s with a State of Alaska issued weapon on his side that anyone would question the Palin’s or Heath’s for wanting him fired.
Its similarly funny how the Troopers did nothing to him and still support his activities blaming a union.
Personally knowing of Wooten I suspect he will soon do something even more noteworthy and hope then Alaskan’s will support any effort regardless of who takes it to remove his gun and badge. Wooten is a loose canon who has obviously failed his anger management training again, and really needs help but regardless should not be carrying a weapon. I say this knowing much more than the general public about his character yet feel there is enough out there for a decision to be made and Alaskan’s should take note of how the Troopers have protected him. Walt was a great politician and mediator with the AST unions however was not doing his job by allowing a Governor or anyone to have to be threatened on the streets by someone paid to protect the public. The real outrage over this should focus on Alaska State Trooper’s passive aggresive handling of Sarah Palin, and their lack of leadership with regards to an alcoholic, family wrecker, liar, combative-assaultive Trooper: Mike Wooten.
As mentioned by othe posts the facts are now in that vindicate the Palin’s and show the true face of Mike Wooten. I believe the info attached to the report will be enough evidence to further allow the right decision to be made by the District Attorney’s office concerning Mike Wooten’s criminal charges that should be immediately brought against him. The report mentions an affidavit by Ronnie Kimball rather its Lonnie Kimball a good, honest retired AF Special Agent who was also assaulted and arrested as a result of his efforts to stop Mike Wooten from driving drunk at a bar in Anchorage.
A federal case was run on the incident finding Wooten had lied to a 911 operator resulting in Kimball’s false arrest. AST ignored it and did nothing.
Kimball testified recently and provided the information as directed to the FBI since the State Troopers failed to investigate Mike Wooten.
Sarah is VINDICATED like we all knew she would be. Wooten is again called out for the gutter-scum he is. Monague failed as a leader to enforce laws with his Troopers while they were out enforcing them with guns and badges against Alaskans.
When ever i hear anything prefaced as “liberal” or “conservative”, I just tell myself that what I’m about to hear is not going to be the truth, and I have never been proven wrong.
You can hate Sarah Palin and all her political stands but tasering an 11 year old step son out of spite is not the kind of person I want to protect my family. This guy sould have removed by any means possible. Not backing Palin because you don’t believe in everything else she stands for is tantamount to supporting child abuse.
Here it is a year and a half later and NOTHING was ever done or pursued. The investigators were pressured out of it and others were paid off by the RNC. Palin is untouchable. Fortunately the American People (and the world) have gotten a good look at her and she’s toast.
Well, uh……these are yankees we are talking about here! This is all to be expected. Hello.
I have my suspicions that palin vindicated is actually Lonnie Kimball himself. I hear he has a real reputation for twisting the truth to match what he wants the story to be. I wouldn’t believe a word from that guy.