Fair a busy time for police

Sept. 3, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER - The man who called himself Jesus Christ sat in the lobby of Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility Tuesday night, happy to chat, but preferring to wander.

He was waiting for a return trip to Anchorage, according to Kelly Turney, a Palmer police detective. Turney was working Alaska State Fair enforcement when police received a late afternoon call from the Alaska Psychiatric Institute.

&#8220They'd brought a group out to the fair, and they forgot one,” Turney said. &#8220At first, they wanted us to bring him back to API after we found him.”

With the additional traffic flow in the Valley during the fair, Palmer police beefed up patrols around the clock, Alaska State Troopers brought in extra officers from around the state and Wasilla police added two dispatchers. So there were enough officers on duty to locate the man, who said he had schizophrenia and had been hitchhiking for 10 years. Officers learned from dispatch the man was a sexual predator, Turney said. But there weren't enough officers to drive a left-behind mental-health patient back to API, so they brought him to the MSPTF lobby.

The man who called himself Jesus Christ talked with visitors and waited. In between calls for shoplifters, speeders, counterfeiters, a possible kidnapping, a car crash, warrant arrests and traffic stops, police kept an eye on &#8220Jesus Christ.” When he went on a walkabout, there was an officer available to bring him back to the jail lobby.

In some ways, Tuesday night's fair patrol was quiet. There were no traffic jams like Sunday night.

&#8220We had a REDDI vehicle,” Turney said, referring to a Sunday report of a reckless or drunk driver. &#8220We had to walk to get to him. It was like parting the Red Sea.”

There were no bar fights in downtown Palmer as there had been the night before. Still, late afternoon and evening called for some multitasking skills and teamwork.

&#8220We thought we had a kidnapping,” Turney said. &#8220It turned out to be a custody dispute. Then we had the API guy, a theft at Carrs and this kid who lost control on a curve and rolled his parents' brand-new Audi.”

Turney responded to a call about a shoplifter at Fred Meyer and then returned to patrolling the streets. For him, extra hours working the fair involve the thrill of never knowing what's next and the camaraderie of spending time with other officers.

&#8220Working with others gives you a chance to learn from them,” he said. &#8220It makes you a better officer.”

After writing a couple tickets, Turney met with Officer Peter Steen, who needed a book of tickets because he had just written his last one to Steve Menard, a Wasilla city council member who drove by with studded tires and had no proof of insurance.

The officers talked shop briefly, Turney getting the details of who was involved in bar fights, who lied about their identities and who claimed what about whom.

Two hot-air balloons ascended from the fairgrounds, passed over Palmer and began a rapid descent. Turney headed out the Palmer-Wasilla Highway and waited while one balloon continued downward until is was just above the power lines, drifting slowly toward the road.

A landing on the power lines or on the road would require traffic control, at the very least. As a pilot fired the burner, the yellow and orange balloon paused and finally drifted up again.

Someone passed counterfeit $50 bills at the fair Tuesday morning, but an evening report was about fake $20s. Fair security had two suspects in custody. Turney and officers Ed Mooney and Andy DeVeaux grilled the duo and questioned two more people who could have been involved. As the sky deepened from blue to black, Turney and DeVeaux strolled the grounds, looking for five men amid the neon, chatter and clatter.

&#8220Hey officer, how you doin'?” said a young man hawking wares at a booth. He grinned and waved.

Turney recognized the youth who'd rolled his parents' Audi a few hours earlier.

The search for more suspects was fruitless, but the time wasn't wasted. Turney and DeVeaux greeted many folks, chatted with some and assisted a man who may have broken his arm.

As Turney ended his shift a half-hour late, DeVeaux headed out to patrol Palmer, cruising quiet streets of darkened houses. At the stroke of midnight, Palmer's dispatch had logged 27 calls from people who needed an officer's response. Two calls came in at 11:45 p.m.

One woman called to say one of her children brought a 4-year-old beagle home that day and she needed a police officer to take it to the animal shelter. Steen took on the once-again homeless dog.

Another distressed mother called about her 14-year-old daughter. The girl was outside crying, disturbing a neighbor. The teen refused to come inside because she didn't want to be grounded.

At that age, small issues seem like the end of the world, and sometimes they are, DeVeaux said.

&#8220Kids can be more dangerous than adults,” DeVeaux said. &#8220They don't think the same.”

After some patient listening and talking, DeVeaux convinced the girl to go in and get some sleep. Steen discovered the lock had been changed at the animal shelter and his keys no longer worked.

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@frontiersman.com.