96 months for former marathoner

ANCHORAGE — A Palmer man who was formerly a marathoner before losing himself in the drug world was sentenced to 96 months in federal prison Thursday.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Brandon Wayne “Scooter” Moen, 28, of Palmer, will serve five years of supervised probation upon his release.

Moen was arrested in June 2012 on an outstanding warrant for a probation violation. At the time, Alaska State Troopers said, he had a gun on him in violation of his felony probation. He also had methamphetamine on him and $2,599 in cash.

An AST report from the time says an officer who knew of the warrant arrested him at a business off of Hollywood Road.

“Troopers impounded the vehicle Moen was in at the time of his arrest and a drug detection dog subsequently alerted to the odor of controlled substances in Moen’s vehicle,” the report says. “A search warrant was obtained and troopers found and seized … methamphetamine, a bulletproof vest, syringes, hundreds of unused gram-sized baggies used for distributing narcotics, four grams of heroin, a digital scale, a pistol magazine, ammunition and a tattoo gun.”

The meth turned out to be 99.4 percent pure.

Prosecutors say Moen’s life wasn’t always like this.

An April 2008, a news article out of central Illinois reported he had aspirations to break the 1:05 half-marathon mark and qualify for the 2012 Olympics and described his talent as one that could not be “fully appreciated by a review of his stellar times and margins of victory,” according to troopers.

“Moen was piling up marathon victories at the time and running 80 to 90 miles a week,” according to the press release.

His attorney, Federal Defender Jamie McGrady, is quoted in the press release as saying that the turning point for her client was the suicide of his brother.

“His was a rare talent and it was wasted because of his drug abuse,” McGrady said in the press release, adding that his arrest probably saved his life.

“The destruction and waste of enormous talent caused by using drugs is sad and cannot be undone,” U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler says in the press release. “While our entire community as a whole suffers from the corrosive harm caused by illegal narcotics, Mr. Moen is yet another reminder that the harm and resulting consequences occur at a very tangible, individual and personal level.”

Moen’s criminal record in state court shows a 2011 guilty plea to felony theft and another that year to driving on a suspended license, as well as a 2010 guilty plea to shoplifting,

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.