Questioning the Honesty of the Alaska Judiciary

The Final Chapter in the Margaret Murphy Perjury Trial

The Margaret Murphy trial has come to an end with the case being dismissed on a technicality.  Judge Thomas Matthews found an excuse to dismiss this case and is probably relieved to see it all go away.  While the Murphy case may be over, big questions remain unanswered.  Judge Matthews may think this dismissal has put an end to the issue of judicial integrity, but in the mind of the public, this is just the beginning, and this issue is not isolated to Alaska.  We are part of a much bigger picture. 

It seems like the American judiciary is being weaponized against the public.  Is it any wonder that the residents in Alaska are skeptical when they see our state courts acting in a way that appears to suborn justice?  The public no longer trusts those in power, especially those in the judiciary.  Let’s examine the Margaret Murphy trial and some of the questions raised by its dismissal.

As readers may already know, in May of last year a grand jury in Kenai indicted retired judge Margaret Murphy for perjury, which is a felony in Alaska, but this indictment wasn’t spontaneous.  It was the culmination of years of effort on the part of the Alaska Grand Jurors Association, a group who raised questions about judicial misconduct in jurisdictions around the state.  That organization has alleged that not only have there been instances of judicial malfeasance in Alaska, but the oversight organization tasked with investigating judicial misconduct has failed to do so.  They allege that the Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct, along with Alaska’s only judge investigator, Marla Greenstein, have been ineffective at policing judges in Alaska, and may have helped cover up some instances of judicial misconduct. 

In the summer of 2022, after months of grass roots protests in front of the Kenai courthouse by members of the Alaska Grand Jurors Association, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor convened a Kenai grand jury to investigate these allegations.  The Kenai grand jury sought testimony from several individuals.  As part of the grand jury’s investigations, retired Judge Margaret Murphy gave testimony to the grand jury in November of 2022.  The grand jury found that Murphy committed perjury when she was asked about details related to an old case that she presided over in 2004 as a judge in McGrath. 

This blog has closely followed all the official proceedings in this case over the past year and it all came down to a hearing on February 21, 2024.  In that hearing presiding Judge Thomas Matthews dismissed the case against Murphy, and he gave two reasons for the dismissal.

First, Matthews said that the prosecutor’s indictment failed to specify Murphy’s alleged false statement, which is required in criminal cases under Alaskan law.  Secondly, Judge Matthews found that the grand jury lacked a quorum of 12 members because one of the jurors on the grand jury was absent for the vote to indict Murphy.

With respect to the first charge, this seems like something that Clint Campion, the special prosecutor appointed to prosecute the case should have known.  Campion was Anchorage’s District Attorney from 2015-2017.  Anchorage is the largest prosecutor’s office in the state.  You don’t get appointed to this position if you are incompetent.  To get the Anchorage DA’s job you have to be one of the smartest lawyers in the state.  It seems inconceivable that a prosecutor as experienced as Mr. Campion would make a mistake like failing to cite the specific charges in the indictment as required by law.  Campion is very familiar with the law and knows how to file a proper indictment.  This inexplicable rookie mistake raises some eyebrows.   It makes one wonder if this was an intentional move by Mr. Campion intended to give the judge a reason to dismiss the case?  Perhaps thoughts of career preservation influenced his writing of the indictment.

The second reason Judge Matthews gave for dismissing the case was the absence of one of the grand jurors on the day the grand jury voted to indict Margaret Murphy.  In Alaska grand juries, 12 jurors must be present to conduct official business.  According to documents filed by special prosecutor Campion, grand jury meetings on April 7, 2023, had a full quorum when all 12 members of the grand jury voted to indict Margaret Murphy.  On April 27, 2023, one of the jurors was absent and despite the absence, the grand jury approved the bill of indictment with only 11 jurors present.  Because there was one absent juror, Judge Matthews found the approval of the bill of indictment to be invalid, and dismissed the case, but his decision doesn’t close the issue, it raises more questions about it.

It looks like only 12 jurors were empaneled for this particular grand jury, which is curious, and exposes a significant flaw in how the grand jury was formed.  With only 12 grand jurors empaneled, it takes just one absent grand juror to nullify any indictment.  This gives a defendant a way to escape a grand jury indictment; a literal “Get Out of Jail Free Card”.  Alaska Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 6 governs the conduct of grand juries.  It says that 12 to 18 jurors can be empaneled for grand juries, with additional alternate jurors to be appointed at the discretion of the judge.  Why were only 12 grand jurors, the absolute minimum number, selected for this grand jury, with no alternate jurors empaneled?  Any juror absent from this grand jury was a judge’s dismissal waiting to happen.  Was this intentional?  One wonders if this is the precedent that Judge Matthews wanted to establish, because it appears to be an attack on the effectiveness of the grand jury system. 

It is also noteworthy that in June of 2023 Judge Matthews, released a court order raising the number of jurors to be empaneled on grand juries from 14 to 18.  His court order attributed the lower number of jurors to actions taken to protect the public during the Covid pandemic, but it still leaves open the question of why only 12 jurors instead of 14 were empaneled on this special Kenai grand jury.  In light of the recent dismissal of the Murphy case using a missing juror as a reason, Judge Matthews’ June 2023 order looks a lot like ass coverage.  If any legislators should read this post, I would encourage them to convene a hearing in the House or Senate judiciary committee to take a look into this matter, and question Judge Matthews for his reasoning in these court orders. 

Another question is why the absence of this grand juror was tolerated.  It seems very convenient that the critical juror was absent, and this absence benefited Margaret Murphy.  I have been a part of petit juries and have had family members participate in grand juries, and in both of those situations, judges have made the expectations very clear.  Absences were not tolerated, and there were consequences for failing to show up as directed by the court clerks. 

It makes me wonder how the missing grand juror just disappeared without consequence.  The court clerk knows his address, has his cell phone number, and can easily find information on state databases like automobile registrations, etc.  If a court clerk or judge wants to track down a missing grand juror, it is something that can easily be done, and yet it wasn’t done in this case.  It makes one wonder if the Alaska State Troopers are so ineffectual that they can’t find a guy even with all the information at a court clerks’ disposal, or perhaps the court was happy for this person to just disappear.  It is almost like the court didn’t want to find this juror for some reason.  This is just another in a long string of questionable facts about the Margaret Murphy case.

The last thing to consider is the grand juries report.  In addition to indictments, Alaska grand juries are allowed to write a report of their findings and submit it to the superior court judge, to be part of the public record.  The Kenai grand jury submitted a report of their findings to Judge Thomas Matthews.  This report is not limited to only the facts about the Margaret Murphy indictment.  It may contain the names of other individuals not indicted by the grand jury, but persons who the grand jury found to have committed malfeasance.  This could include people within the judiciary, or perhaps on the Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct.  It could even include its chief investigator, Marla Greenstein.  It is possible that the grand jury report could cite other incriminating findings it identified and wanted to make available to the public through the grand jury report.  Yet the public has been denied access to this report, which is very suspicious. 

Alaska Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 6.1 allows the presiding judge some flexibility after receiving the grand jury report.  The judge can review the report before it is made public.  The judge can also confirm that this report was approved by a majority of the grand jurors and does not infringe upon the rights of any named individual.  The judge is granted latitude to return the grand jurors report to the grand jury for revisions should the judge identify flaws that need to be corrected, but nowhere in the Rule 6.1 does it say that a judge can permanently prevent a grand jury report from being released to the public. 

It is not allowed by the Alaska Rules for Criminal Procedure, and yet, that appears to be just what is happening in the Margaret Murphy case.  The grand jury issued a report, and it was delivered to Judge Thomas Matthews.  Judge Matthews has not asked for any revisions and has also indicated that he will not make this grand jury report available to the public.  The Margaret Murphy case has been dismissed and special prosecutor Campion had indicated he will not refile this case.  Is there something in the grand jury report that Judge Matthews would like to keep quiet and away from the public’s attention?  With all the controversy in this case, you would think a judge wanting to reestablish public confidence in the judiciary would release this report.  Judge Matthews refuses to do so.  This should also be the subject of a House or Senate judiciary committee public hearing with Judge Matthews called to testify. 

As the Margaret Murphy trial has come to an end, the public is left with great doubts about the honesty of the Alaska judiciary.  The dismissal of the Murphy case looks like a coverup, and multiple questions remain. 

• What happened in Murphy’s court back in 2004? 

• Why did Margaret Murphy lie to a Grand Jury about it in 2022?   

• Was Judge Murphy’s 2022 perjury done to cover up for other influential individuals that may have encouraged the 2004 judicial misconduct?

• Given that the Murphy case was ended on a technicality, why didn’t special prosecutor Campion attempt to present the case to another grand jury with a full quorum of jurors?  Was he the cleanup man?

• Judge Thomas Matthews refuses to release the grand jury report.  What other damning information is in that report, and are there individuals mentioned that he may be trying to shield from scrutiny? 

• Does the Grand Jury report identify other members of the Alaska judiciary, or the Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct whose actions are in question and might be of interest to future grand juries?

• Does the grand jury report identify members of the legislature or the executive branch who encouraged Murphy to commit judicial misconduct in 2004?

Until these questions are answered, the judicial system in Alaska will remain under a cloud of suspicion that will taint every future decision they make. 

Judge Matthews may believe that by dismissing this case on a technicality, he has put it behind him. If so, he is mistaken.  The Murphy case is just the beginning of the struggle to restore an honest constitutional judiciary in Alaska.  The public will keep on fighting, they will win this battle.

Citations:

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2023/05/03/former-state-judge-charged-with-perjury/

https://alaskagrandjurorsassociation.org/

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2023/05/05/perjury-charge-for-retired-homer-judge-signals-a-victory-for-grand-jury-activists-in-alaska/

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2024/03/01/district-court-judge-margaret-murphys-perjury-indictment-dismissed/

https://sweflaw.com/attorneys/clint-campion/

Alaska Grand Jurors Handbook can be found at the following link

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