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

At a hearing in Haines District Court Monday morning, the state’s assistant district attorney Dara Gibson dismissed a case against Paul Nelson for driving while his license was canceled, but added two additional charges of reckless and negligent driving for Nelson’s actions behind the wheel of a float in the Fourth of July reverse parade.

Nelson was initially charged last month with a misdemeanor by police officer Michael Fullerton after he drove his float, a car cut in half and balanced on caster wheels, in the Southeast Alaska State Fair parking lot while his license was canceled.

The charge was downgraded to an infraction at his arraignment because the police had mistakenly charged Nelson with a misdemeanor that’s applied after a DUI charge. Regardless, Nelson fought the infraction arguing that he can’t be cited while driving on private property. On Monday, district attorney Gibson said that Nelson “had a very good point with the fact that he was driving on private property and so that count is dismissed.”

“However, after viewing several videos that were taken on the Fourth of July while Mr. Nelson was driving his half-of-a-car and after hearing about witness testimony saying they had to stop what they were doing and move out of Mr. Nelson’s way, the state added two charges,” Gibson said at the hearing.

Court documents provided to the judge stated that Nelson “drove a motor vehicle in a manner in which created a substantial and unjustifiable risk of harm to a person or property” but the district attorney’s office did not include evidence supporting the claim.

The state had yet to serve Nelson with charges, and officer Fullerton failed to appear at the hearing.

“I had anticipated we would need officer Fullerton to give sworn testimony,” Gibson told district court judge Linn Asper. “It was my understanding he intended to be at this hearing.”

Asper did not accept the additional charges during the hearing.

“I can’t accept this amended information in this case because, A: you haven’t served Mr. Nelson, (and) B: there’s no statement of probable cause,” Asper said. “You just mention bad driving conduct but there’s nothing like that in the information.”

The “reverse parade” consisted of stationary floats that onlookers drove by. Nelson told the CVN that he drove his car around a roughly 100-foot-diameter area designated by parade organizers for his float. When asked if he remembers endangering anyone, he said at one point the Chilkat Dancers marched through the area he was driving, and he circled around them.

“If anybody felt jeopardized, they didn’t move or run away during the parade,” Nelson said. “The police were there. If I was reckless, why didn’t they stop me then? If I was endangering someone, they should have stopped it then and there.”

Nelson was awarded first place and a $50 prize from the Haines Chamber of Commerce for his float. He wore a Donald Trump mask while driving and attached a sign to the roof of his vehicle that read “UNKLE SAM I AM ½ OFF.”

Nelson said Monday he doesn’t think the state or local police will pursue charges.

“I don’t think they will because they know I will fight them tooth and nail,” Nelson said.

Nelson’s license was canceled in 2019 after he had a seizure while driving. He said he was aware he wasn’t legally allowed to drive, but after researching case law determined he was allowed to drive on the lot owned privately by the Southeast Alaska State Fair. He said friends towed his float to and from the fairgrounds parking lot where the parade took place.