Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

For the second time in two months, a 40-year-old transient man has been arrested in Haines on charges of assault. On Tuesday, the man allegedly brandished a knife at a woman and her two-year-old and five-month-old children on Main Street. According to the charging documents, the woman and her children were about six feet behind the man on Main Street, near IGA supermarket, when she asked one of her children if they were ready to go home. He apparently turned around, pulled out a folding knife, opened it, pointed it at them, and said, “Yes, I’m f*****g ready.”

He was charged with two counts of assault in Haines last month: accused of pushing officer Brayton Long to the ground and placing a 24-year-old woman in fear. He was detained at the Lemon Creek Correctional Facility in Juneau until May 13, when the district attorney dismissed the case.

“The DA’s office couldn’t articulate whether (he) pushed Long and he fell, or if Long fell and (he) fell on top of him,” said police chief Heath Scott. The district attorney also dismissed the assault charge of placing a woman in fear, in which he allegedly watched a woman through binoculars for over an hour. The district attorney’s office did not respond for comment.

He returned to Haines within days of his release from jail. Scott said the police department was aware when he returned, and kept an eye on him. On Tuesday morning, Scott said he saw him at the gas station, and they had a strange exchange: he opened his mouth as if to yell, but then said nothing, according to Scott. Around noon, Scott was dispatched to Main Street, where there was a report of a man who pulled a knife on a mother and two children. Scott found him on a bench at the Small Boat Harbor and there was a folding knife in his right front pocket, according to the charging documents.

At the arraignment Wednesday morning, he remained largely silent, refusing to answer several questions from the judge and the public defender representing him, but he raised a motion to dismiss the case. He said there was no factual evidence to support the charges.

“Based on the information in the charging documents, I do find evidence for the case,” said Magistrate-judge Mary Kay Germain.

The prosecutor raised the man's criminal history as a reason to detain him, including two convictions in Fairbanks in 2012, for assault in the fourth degree and for criminal mischief in the third degree. He has several convictions in California and Minnesota, most from between 2000 and 2002. The public defender representing the man said she was concerned that detention and bail would be unfair to his rights.

“I would think that if the community feels unsafe, it is because of a mental health issue,” said the defender, “but really that is not the purpose of bail.” The defender noted that his state of mental health was her conjecture, because he was not speaking.

“I think that the purpose of bail is to protect the public. He has a criminal record in and out of the state. The public is not going to be protected enough,” said district attorney Rick Svobodny.

The judge ultimately decided to detain the man on a performance bond of $1,000, in part because he could not provide a physical address in Haines. He did provide a post office box number in Haines, and said that he is tied to the community, including through his license and vehicle registration. In April, the man was held under an $8,000 bail.