Man who fought authority and won is facing charges

August 8, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER - A Wasilla man who fought authority and won is facing authorities again on charges of domestic violence assault.

Mark W. Ruby, 45, won a civil rights lawsuit against the state Office of Children's Services late last year after the agency identified him as a child abuser in 1995.

Ruby was arrested shortly after midnight Friday by Wasilla police. According to the police report, Officer Don Ridge responded to Ruby's residence on Heritage Drive after his wife reported Ruby had just assaulted her. Ruby's wife was injured and in pain, with redness and scratches on her chest area, the report said. She told Ridge Ruby pushed her down, which caused her to fall on their 2-year-old son. Ruby held his wife down, took about $200 from her, and left their home.

About the same time Ridge was at Ruby's house, Officer Al Wysocki pulled Ruby's vehicle over for speeding, the report said.

Ruby was arrested and booked at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on charges of fourth-degree assault and reckless endangerment. Although an offender charged with a domestic violence crime in Alaska must not contact the victim in the case, Ruby called his wife from the jail three times, in spite of being warned not to do so.

As a result, Ruby also was charged with three counts of second-degree unlawful contact. Ruby was arraigned in Palmer District Court Friday afternoon. He is scheduled for a hearing in Palmer's mental-health-court project on Wednesday.

Ruby was sentenced to 245 days, with 200 suspended, in July 2002 on a fourth-degree assault charge.

In December, Ruby won a federal civil rights lawsuit against OCS and three defendants, including OCS Commissioner Joel Gilbertson, Deputy Commissioner Tammy Sandoval, and Ada Gleason, social worker. Although Ruby never was charged with any crime in the matter, in 1995 his teenage daughter accused him of sexually molesting her. Ruby found out that OCS named him as a perpetrator of sexual abuse only when he got a background check for a job and when his then-girlfriend failed to win custody of her three children in 2001.

In his lawsuit, Ruby claimed OCS violated his right to due process of law because he was given no opportunity to contest the charges.

Ruby's win was significant for every wrongly accused parent in Alaska, said Kenneth Kirk, Ruby's attorney, in a December press release.

The state paid Ruby $5,000 after the December settlement.

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