Palin stalkers to plead

ANCHORAGE - A Pennsylvania father and son jailed for repeatedly calling and threatening attorneys who helped Sarah Palin get a restraining order against them have agreed to plead guilty to making harassing telephone calls.

According to a document Shawn Christy, 20, signed that was entered into the federal court record, Christy will admit he made a string of phone calls to the Fairbanks law firm of Clapp, Peterson, Tiemessen, Thorsness, Johnson LLC.

He filled voicemail boxes for numerous employees as well as leaving messages on home and cellphone numbers.

“The defendant also violated the six-month protective order issued in (Alaska state court) by posting on the Facebook page of Sarah Palin,” according to his plea agreement.

His father, Craig Christy, 58, also has agreed to plead guilty to one count of making harassing phone calls.

According to the younger Christy’s plea agreement, Shawn Christy will formally plead guilty and receive his sentence Dec. 1. After that, he wants to go back home.

“The parties anticipate Mr. Christy’s release from pre-trial detention after sentencing and agree that he should immediately return to Pennsylvania,” according to a document his attorney, Mary Geddes, filed Tuesday.

Geddes was seeking to have the U.S. Marshall’s service pay for the flight, something it’s allowed to do for people ordered to travel as part of their probation who lack the means to pay for it themselves.

The terms of the elder Christy’s plea agreement hadn’t been filed as of press time Wednesday. His attorney has asked for a day other than Dec. 1.

Other terms of Christy’s agreement include that he will not “possess a firearm, destructive device or other weapon” and that he “shall not use or possess a computer or cellular telephone with access to any on-line service at any time without prior approval form the probation officer.”

The agreement also proscribes a list of people in Alaska that Christy can communicate with, including the judge and lawyers in his state court case.

“The defendant shall not communicate in any manner with any other individual in the state of Alaska, other than defense counsel, without permission of the court,” the agreement states.

As for sentencing, the maximum is two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors didn’t make any recommendations in the publicly available documents.

“This agreement reflects the seriousness of the offense and promotes respect for the law as well as providing the defendant with needed vocational training and mental health and medical treatment,” according to the agreement.

State court cases filed against Christy have all apparently reached conclusions, according to court records.

Though the charges they eventually faced related to calls to the lawyers, the Christys — especially Shawn — first gained public notoriety in September 2010 when Palin and her longtime friend Kristan Cole filed for and were granted restraining orders against Shawn Christy.

Shawn Christy’s saga has lots of twists and turns and includes arrests by the Secret Service, an uneventful plane trip to Anchorage, and mailing Cole and Palin the receipt from when he sold his shotgun.

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