State Supreme Court denies cop killer’s appeal

MAT-SU — In a split decision Monday, the state’s highest court again rejected the appeal of a man who convicted of killing a Palmer police officer in May 1999.

Kim Michael Cook, now 66, was convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting of James Rowland Jr., the only Palmer Police Department officer slain in the line of duty.

His appeal stems from the civil trial that proceeded parallel to his criminal trial. Less than two weeks after the shooting, Rowland’s widow filed a lawsuit against Cook. Her attorneys managed to freeze his assets, which totaled more than $300,000 at the time.

With no money to hire a private attorney, Cook went to trial represented by a public defender, who he eventually fired, choosing instead to represent himself.

On this most recent appeal, Cook argued that when the judge in the civil case — who was the same judge, Beverly Cutler, who was hearing his criminal case — failed to consider that the freezing of his assets would deny him the right to hire an attorney of his choosing. That decision denied him his constitutional right to counsel.

In slapping down this line of reasoning, the three judges who ruled in the majority — Chief Justice Dana Fabe and justices Daniel Winfree and Robert Eastaugh — said they could not clearly draw a line where a ruling in Rowland’s favor would not create a duty of judges to not rule on anything that might impact a defendant’s finances.

“Why would entering a judgment in any civil matter without considering the effect of the judgment on the losing party’s ability to exercise any constitutionally protect right not impermissibly burden that right?” the judges asked.

Two judges dissented from that opinion — Craig Stowers and Peter Maassen.

Maassen, who wrote the dissent, pointed out that the civil trial proceeded incredibly fast. In 31 days, Rowland’s widow had managed to get a judgment of $7 million entered against Cook.

“In 2003, the first year for which the Alaska Court System can perform a reliable computerize search of such data, the average time to disposition of a case filed in Palmer and resolved by default was 169 days.”

That judgment was later overturned. The parties settled out of court with Rowland’s widow agreeing just to take the money frozen in the first place.

Maassen said that Cutler should have considered that Cook would not be able to afford a lawyer if she entered that judgment.

“It may well not have tipped the equities in Cook’s favor, but it should have been expressly weighed in the balance,” Maassen wrote.

And it need not be the case that a ruling like that would open floodgates for other cases, Maassen wrote. It is unlikely that the situation would be repeated, that the same judge would preside over both cases that originated from the same criminal act.

“If the issue has not been raised, it is seldom error for the court not to think about it,” Maassen wrote. “That is not the case here. That the Superior Court judge was aware of Cook’s efforts to get access to his funds so that he could retain his counsel of choice is not subject to serious debate.”

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