Federal charges add to septic pumper’s woes

PALMER - The other shoe has dropped on a Houston-area septic pumper charged with threatening Alaska State Troopers and growing marijuana.

Kenny Champ has been charged with new counts of water pollution, water pollution without a permit, criminal impersonation, trespassing, obstructing a highway and illegally burying tires. When he was arrested Dec. 7, Alaska State Troopers mentioned charges were pending on some environmental crimes.

Reached Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Carole A. Holley, who drew up the charges as the state's environmental crimes prosecutor, said that there wasn't much she could say beyond what was already public record.

"It's really to make sure that justice is done," Holley said, explaining her silence. "You don't want to pollute the jury pool."

She said there are instances in which a person can get a permit to pollute a stream, but not all applications to do so are granted, and a person has to apply and notify the Department of Environmental Conservation's commissioner before starting work.

The pollution charges for Champ suggest that the state believes he did none of that.

The case dates back to Sept. 26, 2011, when troopers were summoned to Champ's property to investigate a neighbor's complaint that he was dumping sewage into a nearby stream on his property off of Bench Lake Drive.

Troopers say that as an officer left the property he heard over his radio that Champ had told police dispatchers he had a gun and would shoot if the trooper didn't leave.

Still, Champ remained free until Dec. 7, when troopers returned to his property with a search warrant. The search allegedly turned up 1,700 marijuana plants, leading to a federal drug case against Champ.

On Dec. 20 in federal court, Champ asked to be released on bail into the custody of his sister-in-law. In a motion filed with the court, his lawyer, Michael D. Dieni, outlaws some of his client's history and pours water on the case against him in state court.

Dieni writes that Champ is a father of three with no criminal history, a long-haul trucker with a decade in the septic pumping and septic tank repair business.

"Mr. Champ holds a current contract with the Mat-Su area State Parks, awarded to him by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. Over the past year, he also had a contract with the Mat-Su Borough School District."

As for the state court charges, Dieni notes that the trooper arrived on Champ's property at night and "bush-wacked through the woods" rather than walk down Champ's driveway.

"Mr. Champ was surprised by the knock on the door. He had ‘no trespassing' signs on his driveway, so he did not expect unannounced visitors at night," Dieni wrote. "The trooper did not have a warrant, nor did anything like an emergency appear to be taking place."

Champ told him he was trespassing and told him to leave.

"The trooper did not take no for an answer. He knocked loudly on the door and called out to Mr. Champ to answer the door," Dieni wrote.

Not getting a response, the trooper started writing down license plate numbers on vehicles in Champ's driveway. Champ called 911.

"He told the dispatcher that he had a gun and that he would shoot if the officer did not leave. Mr. Champ stayed on the phone line with the dispatcher for a long time," Dieni wrote. "Mr. Champ took no action to confront the officer with his weapon. He remained patiently on the phone with the dispatcher."

Noting that the state took two months to file charges, Dieni describes Champ's discussion with dispatchers as "an idle threat."

"It defies reason to believe that a man with Mr. Champ's peaceable background would incite a firefight with a trooper by issuing a warning through a 911 call. It truly remains to be seen whether an actionable ‘assault' really occurred here," the lawyer writes.

A federal judge denied the bail request. Alaska jail records Thursday afternoon listed Champ as an inmate at the Anchorage Jail.

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