BWE in Alaska

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 9:42 am

I'll be traveling to Alaska soon for my Steven Downs murder case.
I think I'll keep a blog on the case here. What wine goes well with Alaska salmon?

Meantime, our client is being held in a nightmare prison in Brooklyn, NY:

https://www.sunjournal.com/2019/06/25/a ... tv6Zwi89E8

Racer Chris · Post by **Racer Chris** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 10:37 am

JimHow wrote:...
What wine goes well with Alaska salmon?
...

2015 Ch. Cantemerle
My dad said he and his wife enjoyed the 375 bottle I gave him for Father's Day with their grilled salmon dinner. He also said she didn't expect to like the wine, but did like it.

Nicklasss · Post by **Nicklasss** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 10:50 am

2014 François Mikulski Meursault 1er Cru Poruzots with salmon.

Nic

jckba · Post by **jckba** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 11:54 am

I would tend to side with Nick on Chardonnay whether from Burgundy or something domestic for an ideal salmon pairing but I think the BD might prefer Chris’s bold choice.

dstgolf · Post by **dstgolf** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 12:35 pm

Jim,

I suggest you pull a Stefan and pack your own supply. There'll be slim pickings available in Alaska and prices making LCBO wines cheap. Burgundy reigns with salmon.

JCNorthway · Post by **JCNorthway** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 1:00 pm

I like to go with Oregon pinot noir for grilled or sauteed salmon. And a white Burgundy if roasted or poached.

stefan · Post by **stefan** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 1:23 pm

I am with Jon on this. St Innocent Pinot Noir is a great match. Your Momtazi if it is grilled; Shea if it is sautéed or done in the oven. Nic's suggestion of a rich young Meursault is also good if you want a white.

jal · Post by **jal** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 2:57 pm

I third Jon and Stefan
Oregon Pinot Noir or any red Burgundy

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 3:35 pm

Nicklasss wrote:2014 François Mikulski Meursault 1er Cru Poruzots with salmon.

Nic

Good suggestion, but I think this combo only works in Colorado (when I’m in state).

marcs · Post by **marcs** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 4:38 pm

Not to distract from the fascinating question of salmon matching (always fun because it seems complicated but there is a consensus slam-dunk answer well known to cognoscenti). But that newspaper article about the treatment of Jim's client is fucking terrifying. If I read it right, you can be charged but not convicted of a crime and spirited away to an undisclosed location without any contact with your lawyer or family, and this is somehow OK within our system.

Of course this is something that you think will never happen to you or a family member. But over 40% of males in this country get arrested in their lifetimes. It is very scary to live in the same society as this kind of criminal justice system.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 5:31 pm

Marcus, the federal criminal justice sytstem in particular is really scary.
I don't do a lot of federal work but I've seen some terrible abuses at that level.
The Alaska prosecutors want my client in Alaska as much as we want him there but neither they nor any Alaska or Maine judges have any more pull than we do.
At that level they just don't care what anyone thinks.
They’ll get him to Alaska when they are good and ready.

marcs · Post by **marcs** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 5:43 pm

It seems like there is some behavior by prosecutors with charged but not convicted individuals that flirts with deliberate torture -- getting them put in solitary, moved around, etc. Probably not the case here, but with prominent defendants they want to put pressure on.

AKR · Post by **AKR** » Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:24 pm

JimHow wrote:I'll be traveling to Alaska soon for my Steven Downs murder case.
I think I'll keep a blog on the case here. What wine goes well with Alaska salmon?

Meantime, our client is being held in a nightmare prison in Brooklyn, NY:

https://www.sunjournal.com/2019/06/25/a ... tv6Zwi89E8

Crooklyn is a very scary place. I would always shiver when passing through there on the way to the airport.

Claret · Post by **Claret** » Fri Jun 28, 2019 3:00 am

Ha! I was born in Canarsie, Brooklyn and we moved to NJ in 1969. The neighborhood is now Jamaican.

Funny, this month in Reno I met Expats from Bay Ridge in Brooklyn and last week in Sedona, Arizona I met a guy from Coney Island and 3 from NJ. Go West!

BTW Sedona is beautiful and a blast, definitely something going on there. No BYO with mediocre and overpriced lists with plenty of AZ wines. An old friend opened an old wine, 1863 Malmsey Madeira.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Aug 07, 2019 2:17 am

My client FINALLY arrived in Alaska yesterday. We had the initial appearance this afternoon. Telephonically. Because this is Alaska, a place geographically that is like a third the size of the continuental U.S.
My client was in jail in Anchorage.
The judge was in the Anchorage court.
The Alaska prosecutors were in their offices in Anchorage.
Our local attorney Frank Spaulding was in Fairbanks.
My associate Jesse Archer and I were in our office in Maine.
The mother of the victim was also on the line telephonically.
The case has been continued for another initial appearance/arraignment in Fairbanks next Wednesday, August 14th.
I will be there. My client is innocent.

https://www.webcenter11.com/content/new ... 08911.html

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Wed Aug 07, 2019 10:41 pm

Good luck to you and your client Jim.

Glenn, we’re visiting Sedona in September. Any recommendations for trails, sites, or restaurants? I know the whole state is no BYO so if we bring wine it’ll be for the hotel room.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 12:44 am

On the runway here in Denver, next stop Fairbanks.
So close and yet so far!

jal · Post by **jal** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:19 am

Safe travels Jim. Good luck

Tom In DC · Post by **Tom In DC** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:38 am

What? You were in Denver for even 45 minutes and didn't check in? Buying a fully refundable ticket to anywhere is still the way to touch base during a layover.

Good luck in AK, Jimmy LB How!

dstgolf · Post by **dstgolf** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 3:02 am

Jim,

Good luck and hopefully the Alaskan weather cooperates.

David,

If there is a God he probably practiced his talents in Sedona for a while. The red rock formations and tranquility gives a sense of peace and awe. We've been there a few times. The first we stayed at the Canyon Villa and the place a little ways out from town but in a fabulous locations with great rooms and breakfast...highly recommend. https://canyonvilla.com. Next time was the Enchantment resort and disappointed by comparison..

There are no bad drives and lots of great hiking areas. North along ?89a towards flagstaff along oak canyon creek is beautiful. Ask if Schnebly Hill Road is drivable. First time no issues and incredible but tried second time and there were washed out sections that forced us to turn around so ask and you need 4wheel drive. Up by the airport they have nice lookout vistas and south towards Canyon Villa there's Bell,Cathedral,Judges Rocks and others. Just drive and get lost. Wherever you go you won't be disappointed.

Food I wasn't overwhelmed with. I think Rene's in Talapaque was recommended and was good but nothing was wow memorable. Head south to Scottsdale if you want good food!!

The place is truly God's country and just enjoy.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Aug 14, 2019 6:44 am

Greetings from Fairbanks. Alaska.
Beautiful country up here!
Fairbanks has a real wild west feel to it, but it also has a hipster element, kind of like Bozeman.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Thu Aug 15, 2019 4:42 am

Greetings from Fairbanks. The latest update on the Steve Downs case:

https://www.sunjournal.com/2019/08/14/a ... rder-case/

Nicklasss · Post by **Nicklasss** » Fri Aug 16, 2019 1:05 am

Yikes. Get that man out of there Jim. A complex case, but I know you'll be professionnal to get all the evidences that he is not guilty.

Keep posting the news.

And try to appreciate your time in Alaska.

Nic

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Fri Aug 16, 2019 4:04 am

JimHow wrote:Greetings from Fairbanks. The latest update on the Steve Downs case:

https://www.sunjournal.com/2019/08/14/a ... rder-case/

“We’re convinced that, if we get a fair trial, he’ll be acquitted,” Howaniec said. “The integrity of this investigation is very poor.”

He said many alternative suspects are involved in the case, “one in particular who we believe actually committed the crime.”

Sounds like a Law & Order episode. You need Lenny Briscoe and Mike Logan on the case.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Aug 16, 2019 5:20 am

My client is innocent.
I’m telling you, he didn’t kill this girl 26 years ago.
It’s a total rush to judgment.
I’m just a country lawyer from Maine, sitting here at a restaurant bar dining on Alaska salmon, in honky tonk Fairbanks, Alaska.
We are talking wild west, frontier justice here.
It has been six months since my client was arrested, I am about to go into an alien courtroom tomorrow morning and argue for bail, knowing full well that I will get nowhere before a frontier justice judge. The still grieving 26 years later elderly mother of the victim will be on the speaker phone line from a remote village with an interpreter, an overriding, impossible presence in this case.
It seems like an impossible case for the defense.
He is guilty, obviously, because a few molecules of sperm, after all, match him to the crime scene.
But, in the end, that’s why the Downs family hired me.
Because I win the impossible cases.
Usually I have no fear.
I gotta say, this one is scary.
I got two good boys, one local and one in Maine, helping me.
Frank Spaulding, local defense lawyer here in Fairbanks, you just know it when you see it, he “gets it,” he is one of us, a criminal defense lawyer who lives the principle that people are presumed innocent, and that innocent people are sometimes charged with crimes.
And my boy Jesse Archer back in Maine, my Mr Spock, the young man who has all the answers in my toughest cases, I will unleash him here eventually in Fairbanks. He is a psychopath.
He is a psycho. Oh yeah, he is.
Six months ago my client was at home watching TV.
And there was a knock on the door, from the Alaska and Maine state police.
And he was eventually arrested at gunpoint by the government, and after an insane six month cross continent journey he was brought to Fairbanks Alaska, where he was an honorr student for four years in the early 1990s.
And so here we are. In Fairbanks, Alaska.
Let’s get it on.

Racer Chris · Post by **Racer Chris** » Fri Aug 16, 2019 10:22 am

Good luck with the bail hearing today Jim!

Jay Winton · Post by **Jay Winton** » Fri Aug 16, 2019 2:07 pm

How's the local wine?

marcs · Post by **marcs** » Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:24 pm

With all we have seen about the repeated failures and errors of forensic labs it is very scary that a claim based only on a couple of molecules of 26 year old DNA, connected at one remove to someone through a relative using an ancestry service (apparently), could all by itself result in a murder conviction. You need to do a real analysis of evidence chain and the actual probabilities here (which won't be simple), and break through all the magical thinking about forensics encouraged by TV. Hope you have $ for expert witnesses.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sun Aug 18, 2019 3:35 am

Back home in "the lower 48." DNA is going to be a big issue, of course, but the bigger issues are going to center on pretrial litigation, fourh amendment issues, what comes in and what stays out, etc. We seem to have a fair judge specially assigned to the case but I guess time will tell. My client has been tried and convicted publicly up there -- "DNA doesn't lie" (at least that's what they say on CSI) -- and the racial component to the case -- a big white man from afar charged with brutally murdering a native Alaskan college student twenty-six years ago -- will be very difficult to overcome. Fairbanks has about a 25% native population, and the rest appears very conservative. Alaska also has a very pro-victim-impact law that essentially inserts the victim's family deeply into the trial process in a way that is very unfair to the defense. Every sentence we uttered in our arguments had to be stopped to allow an interpreter over the phone to interpret our words for the elderly mother of the victim, who was also listening in -- and participating -- from a remote Alaskan village. I can't imagine the logistics that are going to be required to litigate this very complicated case in the months ahead. I'm told it is nearly impossible to get venue transferred to someplace like Anchorage, so my client's fate will likely ultimately be decided by the local population which, by everything that I can see, is extremely hostile to my client. By the end I had interrupted my August wine fast with some pleasant glasses of a 2012 California Avalon cabernet with some amazing Alaska salmon in a popular little wine-friendly bistro in the heart of a very rugged wild west downtown, one of the highlights of the trip. Jury selection in this case, if it ever gets that far, should be quite a battle. Not surprisingly my client's bail was kept at $1 million but we at least had an opportunity to advance some of our arguments and, finally, move the case forward. And now begins the process of filing motions and the pretrial litigation, which will be very lengthy.

https://www.sunjournal.com/2019/08/16/a ... uburn-man/

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sun Aug 18, 2019 4:32 pm

The perspective from Alaska TV news:

https://www.webcenter11.com/content/new ... 67121.html

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Aug 20, 2019 2:15 pm

An interesting law journal article: Do we have constitutional protections from government intrusion into a DNA sequence that we share with a relative? An Orwellian question!

https://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/v ... nTzboFZAmw

(Sorry about posting this case on a wine board, I'm finding this a good opportunity to keep track of some thoughts, observations, and media accounts as this case progresses.)

William P · Post by **William P** » Tue Aug 20, 2019 5:15 pm

Interesting question and while I don't pretend to have expertise in this area, I do know that bodily tissues removed from a hospital patient do not belong to the patient. I do know that evidence found in a trash can that is not improperly removed from the property can be used as evidence. And it seems that DNA description from found in a legal source can be used a probable cause to search the trash can. In addition you have a very conservative supreme court. My guess is the DNA description will be allowed by a appeals court or higher as PC to allow the obtaining of "additional" DNA samples. Just a guess.

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Wed Aug 21, 2019 12:17 am

Wow, that was a lot to plow through, and I’m sure I understood less than half of it.

My gut says a relative's DNA should be off limits without a specific warrant, but I’m pretty sure that counts for less than zero in a legal argument. I share Bill's opinion that the conservative bent of the courts would likely result in a different decision.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Aug 21, 2019 1:21 am

I'm not so sure about that. This court in general, and these new Trump appointees in particular, have shown a libertarian streak.
That recent Carpenter decision taps the brakes on the third party consent doctrine.
There is a lot more involved in our case than this issue but I expect this will be one of the many grounds in our motions to dismiss and suppress.
It is hard to imagine any courts impeding investigations of serial killer and other cold homicide cases.
It seems so "right" and "brilliant" when they reconstruct family trees back to the 1800s and then work their way back elaborately to the Golden State Killer, a 12 time murderer and rapist of dozens more.
In our case, we have a guy sitting at home in Auburn, Maine, 25 years after graduating from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, screaming his innocence, being whisked away on a Kafkaesque six-month cross-country trip through four hellish prisons, back up to Fairbanks, Alaska, based upon a supposed connection through a genealogy website to a few microscopic spermatozoa at a crime scene from 26 years earlier. Very scary.
The DNA I "own" overlaps in part with relatives I don't even know, yet their conduct can destroy my life.
That's different than me taking out my trash, or submitting to a medical procedure.
They got my client's aunt's DNA without a warrant, just by calling Ancestry.com.
Welcome to a Brave New World.

AKR · Post by **AKR** » Wed Aug 21, 2019 2:53 am

I thought the media is reporting that investigators got a separate warrant for Downs' DNA, obtained independently

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Aug 21, 2019 3:08 am

Yes, they did, after the aunt's Ancestry.com connection.
The medical examiner who collected the evidence is dead.

William P · Post by **William P** » Wed Aug 21, 2019 2:03 pm

So Alaska skipped one step from the Sacramento case. SPD obtained the DNA information from an ancestry data collection, they obtained his DNA from the garbage and then obtained a search warrant to collect his DNA directly. Appears Alaska got the data information and went directly for a warrant to collect his. So couple of questions, did Auntie agree to publish or pool her DNA info? Was there a privacy waiver, and does your client have standing to contest an invasion of privacy to his Aunt if her privacy was violated? I suspect the latter issue is one that will definitely be argued. I don't see conservative courts applying the fruit of the poisonous trees defense.

Rather than with you luck, may I say, may justice be done.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Aug 21, 2019 8:19 pm

Ha my definition of "justice" as a defense lawyer is "not guilty."
I see way too much injustice on the other end of the spectrum.
The aunt's rights were not violated, but she of course was surrendering information about my client's DNA without his knowledge or consent.
They had him under surveillance but weren't able to get DNA from him so they eventually got a warrant, which we think is flawed.
I'm not losing sleep over it because I don't think it is this whole geneology issue that is going to decide this case anyway, but it will certainly be an interesting issue to litigate: Does a warrantless seizure of a relative's DNA code ("warrantless" being the operative word), which contains overlap with a third person's DNA code, invoke Fourth Amendment considerations for that third person facing loss of liberty?

Racer Chris · Post by **Racer Chris** » Wed Aug 21, 2019 8:42 pm

Is your client's ex girlfriend available/valuable as a witness?

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Aug 21, 2019 9:14 pm

Boy, that’s a really good question Chris.
There is a Denali sized mountain of information in this case that I can’t talk about publicly, the only stuff that I can discuss here is what’s in the public record. Besides my two other retained lawyers I have a team of about ten other lawyers helping me in this case on a pro bono basis, plus we’re gonna get law students and Bates College undergrads involved. It is a massive undertaking.