Ramming pickup might land man in Arkansas jail

KNIK — Allegedly drunk and not registered as a sex offender as required, a man smashed his work pickup into his wife’s truck, ran into the woods and later was arrested.

Alaska State Troopers say that in addition to an impressive list of Alaska up, Charles Slack, 41, also might be headed, eventually, to Arkansas to face a charge of possessing a firearm illegally.

According to documents Trooper Ryan Anderson filed in court against Slack, the incident first came to light at 3:51 p.m., Friday at a home off of Tidal Way, Mile 16, Knik-Goose Bay Road.

A woman there said that Slack had arrived there drunk and driving his work pickup. He threatened to hit her. She said he’d done it before and she was afraid he’d do it again. She told him she’d call police if he didn’t stop, so he did and she locked him out of the house.

“This angered Charles and he began beating on the door and asking for the keys to her Ford Ranger,” Anderson writes. The woman “would not give him the keys because he appeared intoxicated. According to (the woman) Charles got his work vehicle, a Ford F-350, and rammed the vehicle into the Ford Ranger. (She) asked why he did that and Charles replied, ‘if I can’t drive it, neither can you.’”

Anderson writes that he didn’t see any injuries on the woman. The Ranger, however, didn’t fair as well.

“It appeared to me, based on how the vehicles were parked and the tire marks in the dirt, that the vehicle drove directly into the parked vehicle. The red Ford Ranger’s driver door was completely smashed and it appeared there was more than $500 damage,” Anderson writes.

After the altercation, the woman told him, Slack fled into the woods. Anderson said troopers found him a few miles away where they read him his rights and he asked for a lawyer.

Anderson writes that Slack’s eyes were bloodshot and watery, his speech thick and slurred and he smelled of booze. He had scratches on his hands and body from running through the brush.

But, Anderson writes, he wasn’t able to get Slack to a Breathalyzer machine until four hours after he’d reportedly been drunk.

According to trooper records Anderson consulted, Slack should have been registered as a sex offender but wasn’t. Court records show he pleaded guilty to felony sexual abuse of a minor in 2003.

His new charges include misdemeanor assault, drunken driving, felony criminal mischief and failure to register as a sex offender.

The warrant out of Arkansas for the gun possession charge is extraditable, meaning that state could ask to get him back. As of Monday afternoon, Slack was still jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility. His bail was set at $10,000.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.