Appeal denied for subject of 2006 standoff

ANCHORAGE — A Talkeetna man who barricaded himself in his trailer for three days in 2006 against an onslaught of tear gas and pepper spray from Alaska State Troopers saw his appeal denied in a ruling released Friday.

Donald Voorhis initially came to troopers’ attention after he fired a round into the ground while threatening a neighbor. Troopers tried to arrest him, but were greeted at the door with the business end of his rifle. The standoff ended when troopers used a borrowed a bulldozer to rip a wall from Voorhis’ trailer.

A three-week trial was the result of all of this, at the end of which Voorhis was found guilty of attempted murder and numerous assault counts. Most of the victims named in the charges were troopers he fired at during the standoff. He was eventually sentenced to 52 years in prison with seven suspended for a total of 45 to serve.

He later appealed, claiming that Superior Court Judge Eric Smith should have released medical and personnel records for the responding troopers and that the sentence was excessive.

Appellate court judge Joel Bolger wrote in Friday’s opinion that Smith had decided the personnel records were not germane to Voorhis’ claim that troopers had used excessive force. Indeed, only one of the troopers had a letter of reprimand in his file, but Smith ruled that letter had nothing to do with the case and wouldn’t do anything but prejudice a jury against the trooper.

“This part of the judge’s ruling appears to refer to a letter of reprimand, which states that one of the troopers had committed violations of various personnel rules relating to three incidents: (1) using a Taser on his 10-year-old step-son; (2) shooting a cow moose using a permit held by his wife; and (3) drinking beer during the operation of a marked trooper patrol vehicle,” Bolger wrote.

Though Bolger’s ruling does not identify which trooper the letter related to, its contents and later references to it being released to the media seem to indicate the letter was in the file of Trooper Mike Wooten.

The three allegations Bolger cites became well known in Alaska as the center of a “Troopergate” controversy that involved allegations that Wooten’s sister-in-law, then-Gov. Sarah Palin, had tried to get him fired.

Voorhis’ 2008 trial happened to coincide with a lot of the Troopergate saga. As for his involvement in the Voorhis case, Wooten was the negotiator on scene who seemed to have the greatest rapport with Voorhis and he was used whenever possible to try to talk him out of the trailer.

Bolger sided with Smith in his decision not to release the letter and in his decision to keep all the other records private.

As for the sentence, Bolger compared it to other sentences upheld on appeal in similar cases and found that Vorohis was well within the established range for this kind of crime, even when it relates to defendants who, like Voorhis, suffered from psychological problems.

“After reviewing the entire sentencing record, including Voorhis’ prior criminal history and the circumstances of this offense, we conclude that the sentence was not clearly mistaken,” Bolger wrote.

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