Judge Schulz waded into the controversy on Thursday, September 5th. In a conference call from Glennallen, Alaska, where he was vacationing, the judge blasted the defense attorneys. “There are acceptable ways to make contacts with grand jurors,” he exploded at Weidner and McGee. “That was not done in this case.” He added that their conduct was “inexcusable.”
“It was a disservice to your client, a disservice to the court, and I will not put up with it,” Schulz told them angrily. “Acceptable requests for court or district attorney intervention in the grand jury process are not made through the Anchorage newspapers.”
Schulz added that the grand jury had the right to request defense information if they wanted to hear it. And the judge sharply repeated his ruling that there was no factual support for defense allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Schulz was so angry that he told defense attorneys he would consider sanctions at their next hearing — scheduled for October 4th — and hung up on them when they started to protest.
Still, the defense hung on like little pit bulls. In a brief telephone interview he gave to reporters after the judge hung up on defense attorneys, Brant McGee made an announcement. The defense, he said, would ask the judge to reconsider his rulings against defense requests for grand jury intervention.
And so it went. The fighting, once started, threatened not to end. Everyone knew this was for all the marbles.
Excerpts from the unpublished original manuscript, “Sailor Take Warning,” by Leland E. Hale. That manuscript, started in 1992 and based on court records from the Alaska State Archive, served as the basis for “What Happened in Craig.”
Copyright Leland E. Hale (2019). All rights reserved.
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