Alaska Public Safety Commissioner dismissal

The Alaska Public Safety Commissioner dismissal, also known as Troopergate, involves the July 2008 firing of the Public Safety Commissioner for the State of Alaska by Governor Sarah Palin.

Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election, said that she dismissed commissioner Walter Monegan because of performance-related issues. Monegan said that his dismissal may have been tied to his reluctance to fire Mike Wooten, an Alaska State Trooper who is also Palin's ex-brother-in-law. At the time Palin dismissed Monegan, Wooten was involved in a custody battle with his former wife, Molly McCann, Palin's sister.

Before Palin became Governor, she and other members of her family had made various allegations of misconduct against Wooten. An internal investigation upheld some charges and rejected others. On March 1, 2006 the chief of the Alaska state police issued a letter of reprimand to Wooten, and he served a five-day suspension as penalty. After Palin became Governor in December 2006, she, her husband Todd Palin, and various aides had further contacts with Monegan about Wooten. Monegan told both Sarah Palin and Todd Palin that the disciplinary proceeding against Wooten was concluded and could not be reopened.

Several news sources have referred to this controversy as Troopergate.

Palin is being investigated by an independent investigator, hired by a unanimous vote of a bipartisan committee of the Alaska Legislature, to determine whether she abused her power when she fired Monegan. Palin has denied any wrongdoing. The investigator's report is expected by October 10. Democratic state Senator Hollis French, who is overseeing the investigation, stated the report will "likely be damaging" to the Palin administration, and may be an October surprise. In response to those remarks by French, Republican state Senator John Coghill pushed an unsuccessful effort to have French removed from managing the investigation.

Allegations against State Trooper Mike Wooten

On April 11, 2005, before Palin became governor, her sister Molly McCann filed for divorce against her then-husband, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten. The same day, Chuck Heath, father of both McCann and Palin, called police to notify them that he had obtained a domestic violence protective order against Wooten.

Charges

During a subsequent phone call that day McCann complained to police that in February 2005 Wooten had threatened to shoot Heath if he hired an attorney to help in her divorce, had threatened to "take down" Palin if she got involved, and had driven while intoxicated on several occasions. McCann, Palin and Heath subsequently made several further allegations against Wooten.

In May 2005, Palin told police investigators that she had witnessed the death threat against her father (Heath), but had not called the police immediately because she did not want to put Wooten's career in jeopardy and the situation had not yet progressed to physical violence. On August 10, 2005, Palin sent an email to Julia Grimes, chief of the Alaska state police, urging that Wooten be dismissed and giving more details about the alleged death threat. The email from Palin to Grimes said that in February 2005 Wooten had threatened to shoot Heath after McCann had accused Wooten of attending an event with another woman:

I heard this death threat, my 16-year-old son [Track Palin] heard it, Molly heard it, as did their small children. Wooten spoke with his Trooper gun on his hip in an extremely intimidating fashion, leaving no doubt he is serious about taking someone's life who disagrees with him....Wooten's words were, "I will kill him. He'll eat a [expletive] lead bullet, I'll shoot him," if our father got the attorney to help Molly.

In her email to Grimes, Palin offered that description of the threat, including her description of Wooten's appearance. In a police interview discussing this event, Palin explained that she and Track were not in the same location as Wooten and McCann; rather, Sarah and Track were listening over a telephone.

That email from Palin to Grimes also said that failing to fire Wooten "would lead a rational person to believe there is a problem inside the organization". As a result of the email, Palin was interviewed again by state troopers on August 18, 2005. During this interview, she stated that she did not warn her father Heath of the death threat until two weeks after it was made: she explained the delay by saying that Wooten had no reason to shoot Heath. According to Heath himself, the delay was a month: "Heath stated that his daughters didn't report the incident to him until a month later."

In addition to the alleged death threat against Heath, Palin has alleged that Wooten has made other threats against the family. Molly is the only witness to those threats. For example, in a legal filing on September 1, 2008, Palin accused Wooten of making a threat to "bring Sarah Palin down." When Palin was asked about this threat in 2005, by Sgt. Ron Wall, a police investigator, Palin explained this threat as follows:

… as MOLLY had explained. "I'm gonna take your sister down … I'm gonna ruin your family … I know people in all the right places, in high places. I know judges. I know attorney's. I have relationships with these guys. You guys are all going down."

This interpretation of Wooten's alleged threat to "bring Sarah Palin down" is also documented in Sgt. Wall's Memorandum of Findings:

Sarah Palin and Molly McCann both stated that Investigator Wooten made threats that he would "bring down" Sarah and her family. Sarah Palin had no first hand knowledge of the threats. Molly McCann stated that Investigator Wooten made this threat to her several times and that she understood him to mean that he could use his position as a trooper to make life difficult for Sarah.

Contact between Palin and Wooten prior to controversy

On January 1, 2000, Sarah Palin wrote a character reference for Mike Wooten, describing him as "a fine role model for my own children." At the time, she was Mayor of Wasilla, and the letter uses her official letterhead: "Character Reference for Mike Wooten"

The letter does not mention that Sarah Palin's sister Molly McCann was (at the time) Mike Wooten's girlfriend. (On May 2, 2005, Molly McCann told Sgt. Ron Wall, a police investigator, that she had been married to Wooten for four years and had dated him for two years prior to the marriage.)

With the aid of this character reference and various other state prerequisites, Mike Wooten became an Alaska State Trooper in March 2001.

Court-imposed Domestic Violence Protection Order

On April 11, 2005, the day Molly McCann filed for divorce, a judge granted a DVPO (Domestic Violence Protection Order). This was apparently based on allegations made by McCann in a written application. In a later interview, McCann stated that on two occasions Wooten "pushed" her. These are apparently the allegations that she included on her application, and it was apparently on the basis of these allegations that the DVPO was granted.

On the same day, Molly McCann told police "he [Wooten] has never physically abused her." Chuck Heath (father of Molly and Sarah) told police the same thing: "Heath stated that … Wooten had not physically assaulted his daughter."

On 5/9/05, a court hearing was held regarding the DVPO. "As a result of the hearing the DVPO was quashed [because] McCann's counsel was unable to produce any acts of physical or implied violence." This fact is also documented in Sgt. Wall's Memorandum of Findings: "during the DVPO hearing, the judge found that there was no basis for issuance of a long-term DVPO."

On 8/10/05, Sarah Palin wrote an email making various allegations against Wooten. Even though a judge had already ruled that Molly had been "unable to produce any acts of physical or implied violence," Palin said "Wooten's physical abuse of his wife is documented in their pending divorce case."

On 8/18/05, Sarah Palin was interviewed by police, for the purpose of investigating the allegations in her email: "Palin was asked about her allegations of Wooten physically assaulting her sister and again she had no personal knowledge. Palin advised that Molly told her Wooten had pushed her down and further believed it was substantiated because the judge issued a restraining order. Palin was asked if she was aware that the order had been dissolved by a judge and she stated that she was unaware."

In a legal filing on 9/1/08, Palin again makes reference to the DVPO:

In 2005 and early 2006, State Trooper Mike Wooten was the subject of a court-imposed Domestic Violence Protective Order and, as Governor Palin learned only in 2008, an order suspending him from the Alaska State Troopers for violent behavior.

This filing does not mention that "the DVPO was quashed [because] McCann's counsel was unable to produce any acts of physical or implied violence." An official statement from the McCain campaign also references the DVPO ("Wooten … made threats against his wife and father-in-law… These threats, which resulted in a court-imposed Domestic Violence Protective Order …"), but does not mention that the DVPO was dissolved at the first hearing, due to a lack of evidence.

Divorce Trial

In October 2005, the McCann-Wooten divorce went to trial. During the trial, the judge expressed puzzlement at the efforts of McCann's family to get Wooten fired, since it would harm his earning capacity and damage his ability to pay child support. The judge said "It appears for the world that Ms. McCann and her family have decided to take off for the guy's livelihood -- that the bitterness of whatever who did what to whom has overridden good judgment." A representative for the Alaska State Trooper's union characterized in testimony that the union viewed the dozen complaints filed by McCann and her family against Wooten as "not job-related" and "harassment" and the presiding judge repeatedly warned McCann and her family to stop "disparaging" Wooten's reputation or risk the judge granting Wooten custody of the children. At a court hearing in October 2005, Judge Suddock said "disparaging will not be tolerated—it is a form of child abuse … relatives cannot disparage either. If occurs [sic] the parent needs to set boundaries for their relatives." In the divorce decree that was granted on January 31, 2006, the judge expressed concern about continued criticism by McCann's family towards Wooten and noted that he would pay particular attention to problems raised by a custody investigator. Legal disputes between Wooten and McCann over custody, child support and visitation rights continued through 2007 and 2008.

Results of internal police investigation in 2006

On March 1, 2006, Wooten was notified of the results of an Alaska State Trooper internal investigation. The probe found that Wooten violated internal policy, but not the law, in making a death threat against Heath (the father of Sarah Palin and Molly McCann). Wooten denied having made the threat, but the investigation decided that he had in fact done so. The trooper investigation concluded that the death threat was not a crime because Wooten did not threaten the father directly; therefore, the investigator deemed the threat to be a violation of trooper policy rather than a violation of criminal law. Although the death threat was listed as a violation of trooper policy in the Memorandum of Findings issued on October 29, 2005, it was not mentioned at all in the suspension letter sent to Wooten by Col. Grimes on March 1, 2006.

The Alaska State Trooper internal investigation also found that Wooten had committed a hunting violation in shooting a moose without a permit: he had been out hunting with McCann in September 2003 and had shot the animal himself even though their permit was in McCann's name only. According to subsequent news reports, McCann had obtained the permit but balked at killing the moose herself, so she handed the gun to her then-husband, who shot the animal.

Wooten was also found to have violated department policy in using a Taser on his then 11-year old stepson in 2003; he told investigators that he did so "in a training capacity" after the child had asked to be tased in order to show his cousin, Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, that he "wasn't a mama's boy". In a statement to the police, the boy said "that he wanted to be tased to show that he's not a mommy's boy in front of Bristol. Following being tased he went upstairs to tell his mother that he was fine." In a statement to the police, Molly McCann said "she was up stairs giving a bath to the kids … Mike was going to show Payton what it feels like and she told Mike that he better not." According to Molly's account, she remained upstairs during the incident.

In a September 2008 newspaper interview Wooten said that he "deeply regretted" the Taser incident. He said that he set the Taser to "test" mode, meaning that it was on low power. Wooten added that he attached clips to the child rather than firing darts from a gun, that he turned on the power for less than one second, and that afterwards his stepson "thought it was great and wanted to do it all over again". He stated that "everyone laughed about" the incident at the time. He also said that he "would like to put this behind me and get on with my life", and wished Palin and her family good luck. According to a spokesman for Taser International, "if the Taser is fired for just a second, it would feel like your funny bone was hit."

Although the Taser incident happened in 2003, it was not reported to police until on or after April 11, 2005, the day that Molly McCann filed for divorce. On June 6, 2005, Sgt. Ron Wall, a police investigator, asked Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol why they "waited so long and brought the incident up after two years." Bristol said "because of the divorce."

The investigation initially cleared Wooten on all of the alcohol-related charges, but Grimes subsequently overturned that result and found that Wooten did "take [an] open beer with him when he drove away in his trooper vehicle" on one occasion in the summer of 2004, violating both the law and internal trooper policy. Wooten was not on duty; he was wearing "civilian attire." And he "drove approximately one mile to his residence." Because Wooten "was a member of the SERT [SWAT] team … he [was allowed to] use his State vehicle for personal use." The only witnesses to this event were close friends of Sarah Palin's father: "Adrian Lane was a student of Chuck Heath's in Idaho when he was a child and they have been close friends ever since." This is apparently why the original Memo of Findings treated this allegation as "Not Sustained."

Wooten was also cleared of numerous other allegations made by McCann and her family, including that he had taken illegal steroid and testosterone supplements, that he had physically assaulted McCann, and that he had illegally shot a wolf.

Suspension of Wooten in 2006

As a result of these findings, Grimes announced on March 1, 2006 that she would suspend Wooten for ten days. In announcing the suspension, Grimes referred to seven other negative actions in his personnel file, saying that "[t]he record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession". In her letter informing Wooten of his suspension, Grimes mentions the Taser, moose, and beer incidents. She also mentions a number of minor infractions, such as "not using turn signals." However, she does not mention the alleged death threat against Heath, or any other alleged threats.

After a union protest, the suspension was reduced to five days, and Wooten was warned by Grimes that he would be fired if he committed any further misconduct. Union president Rob Cox has denied that Wooten was a "rogue cop" and pointed to his service on an emergency reaction team. Union executive John Cyr said that many of the negative items in Wooten's personnel file were minor, and that the only complaints ever filed against him were those by Palin and her family. As of July 2008, Wooten was still employed as a state trooper.

Contacts between Governor's office and Wooten's supervisors

In December 2006, Palin took office as Governor of Alaska and appointed Walt Monegan to be Public Safety Commissioner, a cabinet position. Monegan had just retired after working as police chief of Anchorage for five years.

In January 2007, the Governor's husband, Todd Palin, invited Monegan into the Governor's office and asked him to look into the Wooten affair. Monegan did so and told Todd Palin that there was nothing he could do as the case was closed. Monegan told the Anchorage Daily News that Todd Palin had showed him some of the findings of a private detective the family had hired to investigate Wooten, and accused Wooten of a variety of transgressions, including drunken driving and child abuse.

According to Monegan, Governor Palin raised the matter with him personally twice, in January and February and then kept raising the matter indirectly through e-mails, though she did not again bring it up directly. In an email sent to Monegan on February 7, 2007 about a proposed bill to require 99-year sentences for police officers found guilty of murder, Palin gave Wooten as an example of an officer who violated the public trust. The email listed several examples of Wooten's misbehavior. Another Palin email, dated July 17, 2007, concerned a proposed bill to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. Palin wrote to Monegan that her first thoughts "went to my ex-brother-in-law, the trooper, who threatened to kill my dad yet was not even reprimanded by his bosses and still to this day carries a gun, of course". A spokesperson for the McCain-Palin campaign says that Palin's contacts with Monegan were only made in order to alert him to potential threats to her family.

Monegan also has said he got telephone calls from three Palin appointees: her then-chief of staff, Mike Tibbles; Commissioner Annette Kreitzer of the Department of Administration; and Attorney General Talis Colberg. Colberg said he called after Todd Palin asked him about "the process" for handling death threats made by state troopers against the first family; Colberg was told that the matter had been handled, and Colberg reported back to Todd Palin that nothing more could be done.

In April 2007, Todd Palin told the Anchorage Daily News that he had met once with Wooten's supervisor, Colonel Audie Holloway, to give her pictures of Wooten driving a snowmobile when he was out on a worker's compensation claim. Alaska Deputy Attorney General Michael Barnhill said on August 30 that Diane Kiesel, Alaska state personnel director, also called Holloway about the snowmobile incident, because she believed the troopers should know there might be a violation of law. "People in the administration made contact with the Department of Public Safety to deal with the worker's compensation file," Barnhill said. Barnhill said the attorney general's office did not think the governor's staff should be banned from making calls about Wooten to his superiors.

In mid-August 2008, the Alaska Attorney General's inquiry reported that Palin's staff had made about two dozen contacts with public safety officials about Wooten, with more than half initiated by her then-chief of staff, Mike Tibbles.

One of the identified contracts was in February 2008, when Frank Bailey, the governor's director of boards and commissions, made a phone call to trooper Lt. Rodney Dial, the state troopers' liaison to the Legislature, in February 2008. The Public Safety Department recorded the call, as it does routinely, and the Palin administration released an audiotape of it on August 13. In it, Bailey made several accusations against Wooten, including that he lied on his application to become a trooper. He was recorded saying "Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, 'why on earth hasn't, why is this guy still representing the department?'" and "I'm telling you honestly, you know, she really likes Walt [Monegan] a lot, but on this issue, she feels like it's, she doesn't know why there is absolutely no action for a year on this issue. It's very, very troubling to her and the family. I could definitely relay that". Bailey said in an interview on August 13 that that no one had asked him to make the call and he didn't know why he indicated in the call that he was speaking on behalf of the Palins.

Dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan

On July 11, 2008, Palin dismissed Monegan, offering him a position as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he turned down.

In a letter to DPS employees announcing his termination, Monegan wrote that he was an at-will employee and knew his dismissal was "a possibility ever present", and that he had been advised that the governor wanted to take DPS in a "different direction." In an interview the next day Monegan said that the dismissal had come "out of the blue" and that "[i]f the governor was upset with me for one thing or another, it had never been communicated to me".

On July 17, Palin said publicly that "We have [to] start recruiting. We have to start doing more than just talking about it. And taking action also." Monegan responded on July 18 that the two most recent trooper graduating classes had the most recruits in years. On July 18, Monegan suggested that his dismissal might have been related to his reluctance to fire Wooten. He said phone calls and questions from the Palin administration and the governor's husband, Todd Palin, about Wooten started shortly after Monegan was hired and continued until May or June 2008. Monegan said that Palin's acting chief of staff, Mike Nizich, told him on July 11 that he was being removed from his position because Palin wanted to take the Department of Public Safety in a different direction.

On July 18, in response to Monegan's comments, Palin released a statement:

I do not interfere with the day-to-day operations of any department. Former Commissioner Monegan was not released due to any actions or inaction related to personnel issues in his department. We had hoped the former commissioner would have stayed in state service to help fight alcohol-related crime. We offered him the position of executive director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control board and, unfortunately, he turned it down.

The statement also denied that the governor had improperly accessed Wooten's employment records, saying that "[t]o allege that I, or any member of my family, requested, received or released confidential personnel information on an Alaska State Trooper, or directed disciplinary action be taken against any employee of the Department of Public Safety, is, quite simply, outrageous. Any information regarding personnel records came from the trooper himself." She also praised Monegan's replacement, saying "Commissioner Kopp shares my vision for filling vacant positions and reducing crime across the state."

In late July, former U.S. Attorney Wevley Shea, who had acted previously as an informal advisor to Palin, wrote her a letter in which he urged her to apologize for her handling of the dismissal of Monegan, and warned that the matter could snowball into a bigger scandal. The letter said that she should fire any aides who had raised concerns with Monegan.

On August 13, Palin said specifically that her action was unrelated to Wooten. She said that Monegan was dismissed for not adequately filling state trooper vacancies and fighting alcohol abuse problems, and because he "did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues."

In August 2008, Palin acknowledged that "pressure could have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware of it."

On August 28, in an interview with Anchorage Daily News, Monegan said, "For the record, no one ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff. What they said directly was more along the lines of 'This isn't a person that we would want to be representing our state troopers.'"

Investigations and reviews

State Legislature

On July 28, 2008, a bipartisan committee of the Alaska Legislature voted 12-0 to hire an independent investigator to investigate Palin and her staff for possible abuse of power surrounding the dismissal. A retired state prosecutor, Steve Branchflower, was named on August 1 as the investigator. Branchflower was awarded a three-month contract, which began on August 1.

On August 4, former U.S. Attorney Wevley Shea, who had acted previously as an informal advisor to Palin, wrote her a letter in which he told her that she probably couldn't legally shun a legislative investigation into the firing of Monegan.

On August 16, Democratic State Senator Hollis French, chosen by the legislative committee to oversee the investigation, said that the Palin administration has been cooperating and that subpoenas would not be necessary. In late August, French said that Palin was likely to be deposed soon in the case.

In mid-August, Palin hired a private practice lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, to defend her and her staff in the investigation; he began working on August 21. Van Flein is being paid by the State of Alaska; Attorney General Colberg is unable to represent Palin because of his involvement in the case. On August 29, Van Flein asked for all witness statements, documents and other materials collected in the course of the legislative investigation. French said, in response, that he had instructed Branchflower not to provide the letters or witness statements.

On September 1, French said the legislature would pay to fly Branchflower to wherever Palin was on the campaign trail if needed, and that Branchflower had not yet been able to set up an interview with Palin. In a letter on September 1, Van Flein indicated that Palin probably would not agree to an interview unless the legislature turned the matter over to the Personnel Board. If witnesses were not available, French said, he would ask the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, to issue subpoenas. He said that Palin needed to be interviewed sometime in September.

On September 2, the lawyer for Frank Bailey, the aide Palin suspended after a recording of his call to a trooper official came to light, canceled a deposition scheduled for September 3. The lawyer said that Van Flein, who represents Palin, informed him that there was a jurisdictional dispute that was unsettled. Bailey's lawyer also said that Bailey was ready to be deposed, and that Bailey will say that he wasn't asked by the Governor to make any calls regarding Monegan, but that the jurisdictional matter should be settled first. In response to this, State Representative Jay Ramras, the Republican chair of the Alaska House Judiciary Committee, said "Alaskans should be offended, that Frank Bailey is on paid leave and will not do an interview that he already committed to with Mr. Branchflower". On September 5, French announced that a joint Alaska House and Senate Judiciary Committee hearing would take place on September 12 in order to issue subpoenas to Bailey and six other government employees, not including Palin. Ramras said that it "would be disrespectful" for the committee to subpoena Palin while she was running for Vice President.

French said in early September that, rather than ending on October 31, the Friday before the election, the report would be complete by October 10. He also stated that the report would "likely to be damaging to the (Palin) administration", and could be an October surprise. In response to French's statements, Republican state Senator John Coghill launched an unsuccessful attempt to have French removed from overseeing the investigation, and suggested the entire investigation ought to be cancelled, saying "If this has been botched up the way it has, there's a question as to whether it should continue."

Alaska Attorney General

As a result of the announcement of a legislative investigation, Talis Colberg, the Alaskan Attorney General, and his Department of Law, began conducting an inquiry in late July at the request of the Governor. The findings of the review were made public on August 13.

The inquiry identified two dozen contacts by members of Palin's staff with public safety officials, concerning Wooten. Of these, only one was determined to be improper by the Attorney General's office. Palin said that she had only known about some of the two dozen contacts, and that she never asked anyone on her staff to get in touch with such officials about Wooten. Additionally, the Governor said that, "Many of these inquiries were completely appropriate. However, the serial nature of the contacts could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at my direction."

In July, Palin had denied that there had been any pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten, either from herself or from anyone in her administration.Based on the Attorney General's inquiry, she said on August 13 that "I do now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could have been perceived to exist although I have only now become aware of it."

Palin said the "most disturbing" contact found in the inquiry by the Attorney General and his office was the February 2008 phone call by Bailey to Dial. In a newspaper interview the day after the tape was released, Palin said she never asked Bailey to make the call, which she called "just wrong". She also denied that the tape showed the administration applying pressure to fire Wooten, saying "[i]f that's pressure, then (after) years in law enforcement, how do they do their job if that's perceived as pressure?".

On August 19, the Governor's office announced that Bailey had been placed on paid leave, pending the outcome of the legislative investigation. Sharon Leighow, a spokesperson for the governor, said that Bailey was kept on the state payroll so Palin "can direct him to assist Mr. Branchflower, thereby fulfilling her pledge to Alaskans to cooperate fully with the investigation."

State Personnel Board

On September 1, Palin essentially filed an ethics complaint against herself, asking the state Personnel Board to review the case. Her lawyer asked the state Legislature to drop its investigation, saying that by state law, the board had jurisdiction over ethics issues. Palin also asked that the Board review the matter as an ethics complaint. The three people on the current board were first appointed by Frank Murkowski, Palin's gubernatorial predecessor; Palin reappointed one member in 2008.

In response to the request from Palin's attorney, French responded that "We're going to proceed. If they want to proceed, that's perfectly within their right but it doesn't diminish our right to do so."

On September 3, Nicki Neal, director of the state Division of Personnel and Labor Relations, said that the board would meet soon in executive session -- closed to the public -- to begin its work. Palin had asked for the ethics case to be open. Neal said she would check into how that relates to the board meetings.

Police union ethics complaint

On September 3, the police union filed an ethics complaint on Wooten's behalf against Palin, alleging that the call by Frank Bailey, particularly the allegation that Wooten had lied on his job application, demonstrated knowledge that could only have come from Wooten's private personnel file. The McCain/Palin campaign responded by saying that the privacy had been waived as part of the Wooten divorce proceedings, putting the information in the public domain, and that Bailey had received the information from Todd Palin, not from Wooten's personnel records. During the call (which was recorded) Lt. Dial asks Bailey how he had come across this "extremely confidential" information, and Bailey replies "I'm a little bit reluctant to say. Over in admin is where, you know, we hold workers' comp right in there."

Successor to Monegan

Palin replaced Monegan with Chuck Kopp, who had been the police chief and, for a time, the acting city manager of Kenai. In Kenai, Kopp had been previously suspended and investigated for sexual harassment of an employee. Palin said she believed, when she named him on July 11, that the investigation had cleared him, and that she learned that Kopp had received a letter of reprimand only when Kopp held a press conference on July 22 to discuss that letter. Kopp resigned on July 25. He received a $10,000 severance payment. Monegan had received no severance payment.

Although certain reports indicate that Kopp was appointed on July 11, the actual announcement from Palin's office is dated July 14. The person who was sexually harassed by Kopp sent an email to Palin on July 14, 2008, very early in the morning before Palin made her announcement. The victim said "my sexual harassment complaint against Chief Kopp was acknowledged [and] validated … by the City of Kenai." In a letter to the victim on October 10, 2005, the City of Kenai had said this: "As a result of our investigation, Chuck Kopp was removed immediately from his supervisory role relating to your position. … The City of Kenai will not tolerate harassment of its employees from anyone, regardless of his or her position." Palin later stated that when she appointed Kopp, she was unaware that he had been reprimanded.

See also

• Governorship of Sarah Palin

External links

• Kopp severance agreement
• "Ethics Disclosure Form" filed with State Personnel Board by Palin's attorney, September 1, 2008
• "Character Reference for Mike Wooten" written by Mayor Palin on 1/1/00