Bar owner faces felony counts

PALMER -- A grand jury said "no" to attempted murder charges in the case of the Valentine's Day assault at Call of The Wild, a bar on Big Lake.

Bar owner James P. "J.T." Thurston was indicted on a charge of second-degree misconduct involving weapons and two counts of third-degree assault Feb. 19, but the grand jury refused to indict him on two counts of attempted murder that were forwarded to prosecutors by Alaska State Troopers.

The weapons charge is a class B felony and the assault charges are class C felonies. The affidavit filed by troopers in the case against Thurston indicates he arrived at the bar when his wife was there having sex with another man.

Troopers were called to the bar at about 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14. The initial call reported that a woman had been shot, according to troopers, but when officers arrived they found the building empty. The affidavit filed in the case against Thurston notes that clothes were scattered about in a back bedroom of the bar and a television set appeared to have bullet holes in it.

The alleged victims in the case are Thurston's wife, Barbara Anderson, and a man named Geoffrey Flaherty, both of whom testified before the grand jury.

According to the affidavit, Anderson and Flaherty spent part of the day riding snowmachines on the lake before going to the bar. Both Anderson and Flaherty told troopers that Anderson called her husband's cell phone before she and Flaherty went to the bar, according to the affidavit, and Thurston apparently told her he was in Anchorage.

When Thurston interrupted the sexual encounter, Flaherty escaped the bar through a window in the men's bathroom, according to troopers. Flaherty called troopers later that evening from a house he had broken into after running, apparently naked, across the lake, the

affidavit says. Flaherty had cuts and cold injuries when he was found by the troopers.

Anderson, who is Thurston's business partner in the company that owns the bar, contacted troopers at about 9 p.m. at the Klondike Inn on Big Lake. Troopers wrote in the affidavit that Anderson was cold, wet and scared when she arrived at the Klondike.

Troopers did not write in the affidavit how they eventually found Thurston, but did say in a press release that he was arrested "without incident" soon after the troopers started looking for him.

Anderson and Thurston each own 50 percent of a company called Wild Call Inc., which holds the liquor license to operate Call of the Wild, according to records of the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. ABC director Doug Griffin said the ABC board might take action against the licensees, but that the board generally waits for criminal proceedings to be resolved in court before a suspension or other action is taken.

"We can't be hasty, but we will certainly be listening to the troopers and any comments that they have about the operation of the bar," Griffin said. "Our focus would be whether or not this business should be operated by this corporation with him as president."

According to Griffin, there have been cases in the past in which bar owners have been banned from their own property after being found guilty of serious assault charges.

Call of the Wild's license history from the ABC board shows that the bar itself dates back to at least 1956. Wild Call Inc. became the licensee in 1998.

Thurston was released on $15,000 bail on Feb. 20, the day after the grand jury indictment was handed down.