No new charges for Valley coach

PALMER — Probably the biggest save in the personal and professional career of longtime Valley teacher and hockey coach Jamie Smith is with the shot that never came.

Nearly 120 days removed from the dismissal of five felony charges alleging he defrauded the Alaska Avalanche Junior A hockey program’s Spirit Booster Club of more than $48,000, the window of opportunity for state prosecutors to re-indict Smith has closed.

“There’s nothing that can be done from the prosecution’s side,” said Josh Fannon, a Palmer-based lawyer representing Smith. “There’s no more action to be taken.”

Superior Court Judge Vanessa White threw out the indictment against Smith Oct. 8, 2013. At that time, Lisa Kelley, who was prosecuting the case for the Office of Special Prosecutions, said the state “has a few options.”

One was to go back to the grand jury and seek a new indictment, while another was to accept the dismissal.

“The state can do nothing and leave it as is, the state can go back and re-indict in a way that is true to the judge’s order or the state could charge lesser crimes, if they fit,” Kelley said following White’s ruling.

Reached for comment last week about whether the state had decided to pursue another indictment of Smith, Kelley said she had no comment.

Because the time the prosecution had to re-indict has passed, Fannon said he believes Smith’s legal troubles relating to this case are over.

“I’m glad this case was dismissed,” he said. “It was the appropriate ruling and there’s not going to be any more prosecution of Jamie Smith, and I’m pleased with that outcome.”

Also pleased is Smith, who said he feels relieved that the ordeal is over, but said his reputation and standing in the community have taken a huge blow by the charges and subsequent events leading up to the dismissal.

“I feel relieved, obviously,” Smith said. “It’s been a nightmare for the last year. It’s cost me a lot of money, a lot of time and my family a lot of anguish.”

As for his reputation as a longtime teacher and hockey coach in the Mat-Su Borough School District, Smith said he’s learned a lot over the past couple of years during the state’s investigation and since his indictment was handed down in February 2013.

“Obviously, nothing good comes out of it,” he said about the damage done to his reputation. “The one positive is you learn exactly who your friends are and who your enemies are. Nothing can be done now. The frustration is I’ve always had to sit back and not be able to tell my side of the story.”

Adding to that frustration was that the state’s case against him was built on the faulty grand jury testimony of a state investigator, Smith said. It’s an argument Judge White agreed with in her ruling to dismiss, writing that the investigator “misled” the grand jury and withheld crucial evidence that Smith worked for a nonprofit agency, not a for-profit business. Legally, that makes a world of difference, the judge wrote.

“The state acknowledges that the Alaska Avalanche hockey team, operated by Smith, was a nonprofit organization,” White says in her ruling. “The use of the (Spirit Booster Club’s) gaming permit funds to support the nonprofit hockey team was lawful and the state concedes that (the charges) … should be dismissed.”

Smith said he learned some other things from his legal ordeal, like the notion that a person is innocent until proven guilty doesn’t always translate outside the courtroom. Reporting on the story by local news agencies has also been difficult to handle, he said, especially for his family.

“It was tough. I have a network of very good friends and my family has been unbelievable,” he said. “That was the toughest part of the whole thing for me — sitting down and telling them exactly what was going on. … I’ve learned that you’re innocent until proven guilty, but they can just throw some things at you and it’s blasted all over the news and everything.”

While 2013 may have been the most trying year of Smith’s life, 2014 has started out considerably better. The Career and Technical High School physical education teacher is also head coach of the Colony High School varsity hockey program. In addition to finally being confident his legal troubles are behind him, as of Friday his CHS program was tied for the North Start Conference lead. Including junior varsity and his competition squad, Smith’s teams have gone 29-2-1 in the month of January.

“This month has been unbelievable, certainly a lot different than the past year,” Smith said. “Personally, I’ve coached 32 games with JV, varsity and my bantam comp team, and we’ve lost two games all month. I hope 2014 is a solid year, and it’s definitely started out well.”

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.