The eviction at the 'compound': A Q&A with a member of the AST command staff

BUTTE — Friday morning at 9 a.m., Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Wildlife Troopers, an officer from Court Services and AST Command staff responded to South Bodenburg Loop to evict squatters from the property.

Judge Estelle granted a writ of assistance and judgement of possession to one of the owners of the property, Mason Henry. Troopers posted the court documents on the property known as ‘the compound’ and the property was cleared of all individuals, according to AST Dispatch. Trooper Lieutenant Brent Johnson was one of the command staff on scene for the long-awaited eviction and answered questions about the process on Friday.

Q: Lt. Johnson said he informed the squatters that AST would be making a visit last [Thursday, November 14] night. (I assume that was an effort to thwart confrontation and keep residents safe?) Does AST feel that informing the squatters ahead of time made the eviction safer?

A: Yes absolutely. In the end this was a civil matter and nothing more. AST’s job was to assist the landowners via their representatives to clear the property and return to their possession.

Q: While the squatters were evicted, the property is still private and the Borough can do little to clean it up. Does AST have plans to continue to monitor that property specifically even after today?

A: AST is not empowered to enforce Borough codes and ordinances, thus this falls outside our enforcement authority. We will respond to all calls for service concerning possible criminal activity; to include trespassing as we always have. We are hoping to conduct more patrols in the short term near this particular property as staffing levels allow.

Q: Lt. Johnson said that there were no charges or arrests that happened this morning. Can you confirm that?

A: That is correct. As stated above our mission was to enforce a civil court order. Numerous persons were checked for warrants and dozens of vehicles and ATVs were also checked for stolen status, however no wanted persons were contacted and no stolen vehicles were identified.

Q: Can you confirm that there were 12 squatters and 9 Troopers/Law enforcement personnel?

A: Approximately 10-12 persons were contacted on the property. AST was able to enlist the assistance of 3 Alaska Wildlife Troopers, 1 Court Services Officer and for a brief time, 3 AST patrol Troopers. Two command staff members were also on scene to supplement manpower.

Q: This eviction is a long time coming and will make many people happy. How proud does Lt. Johnson/ AST feel about the actions taken today to increase safety for residents?

A: AST’s mission is public safety as well as public service. We were very happy to be able to assist the community of Butte today and hope to continue to partner with our communities and land owners on these and other types of problems. Unfortunately the reality is that this action doesn’t make the problem just go away. It can displace the problem to other locations. These are community wide problems that will take all of us working together to solve.