Off to Alaska...

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 1:07 am

...in a couple weeks for pretrial motions in the murder case of State of Alaska vs. Steven Downs.

A story here in Downeast Magazine:

https://downeast.com/issues-politics/dn ... %26hl%3Den

Racer Chris · Post by **Racer Chris** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 1:10 am

Bon chance!

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 1:32 am

Merci! It’s a horrible case but the legal issues are fascinating.

dstgolf · Post by **dstgolf** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 1:54 am

Good luck Jim. Cold, no sun but the northern lights should be great.

William P · Post by **William P** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:05 am

Stay warm. I'll be interested in the rulings on your pretrial motions.

jckba · Post by **jckba** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:05 am

Good luck with the case!

Nicklasss · Post by **Nicklasss** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:58 am

Stay safe, work hard and have fun my friend.

Nic

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:42 am

Fascinating case, Jim, how long do you anticipate being up there for?

Good luck, stay warm and say hi to the polar bears.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 11:16 am

It’s a fascinating case indeed! That genetic genealogy issue could make its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Gorsuch from the right and Sotomayor from the left have expressed skepticism about it. Of course, we hope we don’t have to get to the point of appealing.

We are litigating eleven pretrial motions during the first week of February but we’ll be arriving in Fairbanks six days earlier to comply with Covid regulations so we’ll be there nearly two weeks. Three of us will be traveling from Maine and we have a fourth lawyer there in Fairbanks. We’ll likely be back later in 2021 for the trial, which will last 5-6 weeks. It’s one of three murder cases I’m defending in 2021!

OrlandoRobert · Post by **OrlandoRobert** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:38 pm

Wow, cool case and a great read. Please keep us informed of the details and progress, to the extent you are allowed. This is “once-in-a-career” level stuff for a lawyer.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 5:15 pm

Yes it really is the case of a lifetime, OB, I'll report back after our motions in Alaska.
If we get a fair process I think we have a chance of prevailing.
It's tough trying a murder case that is 28 years old, there are reasons why we have statutes of limitations for most crimes: deceased witnesses, lost/destroyed evidence, fading memories, etc.
It's going to be tough to get a fair jury anywhere in Alaska but we seem to have a fair judge.
We shall see!

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:42 am

Good luck Jim, and safe travels.

jal · Post by **jal** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:11 am

Good luck with the trial, stay safe and some periodic reports

OrlandoRobert · Post by **OrlandoRobert** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 2:46 pm

So curious Jimbo, when you go out of town for a long trial like this, do you bring your wine with you? I had a 12 week trial down in Palm Beach once, and trucked down all of my good stuff. It was much needed.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:00 pm

Ha ha I know, we’re going to be gone from Jan 25th to Feb 6th, I’ve been seriously thinking about loading up my red 12 bottle travel suitcase. We are operating on the no-lunch schedule, 8:30am-2pm, which I like, it gives us time to prep for the next day in late afternoon, then we have dinner time/evening free for heavy wine intake. I’ve been in a wine fasting mode, however, I really need to be disciplined in these three murder cases.

Jay Winton · Post by **Jay Winton** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:12 pm

North to Alaska, North to Russia's own! Good luck.

OrlandoRobert · Post by **OrlandoRobert** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:22 pm

Honestly, relaxing with your trial papers in front of you, preparing for the next day, enjoying a couple of glasses of wine, is quite civilized and healthy. I do not think that will impair you in anyway. If anything, descalating the stress level will probably help.

On a comparable sidenote, when I had that big trial down in Palm Beach, the judge started at 10 and ended right at five, which for us lawyers is like a half-day. I cycled every single morning on the island before the trial day began. I ended that trial in fantastic shape.

marcs · Post by **marcs** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:33 pm

JimHow wrote:Ha ha I know, we’re going to be gone from Jan 25th to Feb 6th, I’ve been seriously thinking about loading up my red 12 bottle travel suitcase. We are operating on the no-lunch schedule, 8:30am-2pm, which I like, it gives us time to prep for the next day in late afternoon, then we have dinner time/evening free for heavy wine intake. I’ve been in a wine fasting mode, however, I really need to be disciplined in these three murder cases.

A half bottle is one thing and might actually be helpful as Robert says, but to be totally honest about it if I were your client looking at life in prison I don't know how I'd feel about "heavy" wine intake!

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:36 pm

Ha ha, don't worry, I don't drink alcohol during trials.
I'm not even drinking in January in preparation for the trial.
It's a system that has served me well over the years, I've done more jury trials than anyone in Maine.
No drinking during trials, heavy drinking afterwards.

Although, Alaska... wild salmon... Mmmmmm.

marcs · Post by **marcs** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:51 pm

The salmon and the barbecue (generally) in Alaska is amazing.

It will be out of season for salmon though unfortunately. Have to wait till early summer

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:56 pm

Oh really, did not know that.
When I was there in late August 2019 for the initial appearances I had some amazing salmon every night.

OrlandoRobert · Post by **OrlandoRobert** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:22 pm

Love Beaujolais with salmon!

Jay Winton · Post by **Jay Winton** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:13 pm

Watch out for those bears

AKR · Post by **AKR** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:19 pm

Say hi to Sarah Palin!

jal · Post by **jal** » Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:31 pm

Pinot Noir with wild salmon.

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Tue Jan 12, 2021 2:43 pm

Great read Jim. Very interesting case, seems insane that he's being held there as well! Hopefully it all works out for him and your team. I look forward to hearing more as it progresses. Best of luck.

Also had no idea you were a former mayor, was that a full time Job in Lewiston or did you do practice law during that timeframe as well?

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 3:12 pm

Yes, I was the "boy mayor" at age 30 back in 1990, Joel, it was a part-time paying job but I spent full time on it and still practiced law.
It was a great experience, I really parleyed it into something bigger, met with presidents and senators, testified before congress, etc.
I ran for Congress in 1994, the year of the Gingrich revolution, and have been out of politics since.
Things have certainly changed a lot when I was in there, when, as a young democrat, I could work together with Republicans like Olympia Snow, bill Cohen, even George H.W. Bush.
No more politics for me, I prefer benevolent dictatorships.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 9:45 pm

With my fellow Maine attorneys Stephen Dassatti and Jesse Archer, at Logan Airport, ready for the first leg of our trip, to Seattle tonight, then on to Fairbanks tomorrow.

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 9:52 pm

Good luck and safe travels. Looking forward to updates when you are able to post them.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 10:14 pm

Just got the negative Covid test result while boarding the plane, we’re good to go!

Michael-P · Post by **Michael-P** » Tue Jan 26, 2021 2:11 am

BD: We expect you to point us to where we can read the public reports as and when they occur? MP

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Jan 26, 2021 6:14 am

From Maine to Alaska: Pretrial Motions in the Sophie Sergie Murder Cold Case.

Day One

It has been nearly two years since Steven Downs was arrested for the 1993 cold case murder of University of Alaska Fairbanks student Sophie Sergie. The Auburn, Maine, native has spent most of that time at the Fairbanks Correctional Center, a facility that makes the Androscoggin County Jail look like the Ritz Carlton.

The defense team has filed numerous pretrial motions, including eleven that attack the forensic evidence and botched investigation by Alaska State Troopers homicide detectives over the past twenty-eight years. Because of Covid, the hearings on these motions have been continued twice and have been pending for over a year.

After several telephonic conferences with assigned Alaska Superior Court Judge Thomas Temple and the Alaska prosecutor, we decided it was time to proceed on the motions... in the middle of a raging pandemic.

The Maine lawyers on the defense team — Jesse Archer, Stephen Dassatti, and I — all got tested yesterday to comply with Alaska regulations. Jesse got his negative results this morning, mine came in as we were boarding the late afternoon flight from Logan to Seattle. It was not without a little trepidation as I opened the link in my text message from CVS: a positive test meant that I couldn’t enter the state of Alaska and would have to participate by video. Would it make more sense to get off the plane and drive back to Maine? Luckily, the results were negative. We’ll soon be joining the fourth lawyer on the defense team: Fairbanks attorney Frank Spaulding.

We just checked into the airport Hilton here in Seattle. Steve just got his results: Negative. It's on to Fairbanks tomorrow!

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Jan 26, 2021 6:16 am

Michael: The Alaska and Maine will be covering the proceedings next week, I'll point you to the links.
We are heading up there 5 days early to comply with Alaska Covid requirements.

tim · Post by **tim** » Tue Jan 26, 2021 7:51 am

Were it not for Covid I would have totally met you here in Seattle!

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Jan 26, 2021 2:19 pm

We got in late last night, Timmy, off to Fairbanks this morning.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Jan 27, 2021 12:43 am

Day Two

We started the second leg of the trip over breakfast at the airport Hilton in Seattle, downloading (or is it uploading?) our negative Covid test results into the Alaska state travel portal. It is a task that seemingly requires an advanced computer science degree but fortunately Jesse was able to walk us other two old timers through it after about and hour, and it’s off to balmy Fairbanks.

Our first task upon arrival in Fairbanks is to hit the local Office Max store. We are setting up headquarters at the SpringHill Suites across from the courthouse in bleak downtown Fairbanks, and we need a cheap printer. There are 8,000 pages of discovery in this case, plus dozens of audio and video files. There will be numerous exhibits presented, some which were printed up before we left, but most which will be printed in Fairbanks.

We were required to arrive five days early to comply with the court system’s Covid requirements, which is actually kind of a good thing because it gives us five full days to put in 10-12 hours per day of final preparation on the case. Before I left I completely cleared my schedule and told all of my clients that I would be unavailable for two weeks.

We arrived in Fairbanks on a beautiful sunny afternoon flight, minus-20 but no wind, a dry cold, not unpleasant during the brief entry and exit from the taxi. Jimmy, the pleasant young man who screened us through the airport with our negative test results, was very familiar with the Sophie Sergie case and thinks we have our work cut out for us. In fact, he doesn’t see how we are going to get this guy off. He wished us well, though: “You guys must be good lawyers. Welcome to Fairbanks!”

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Wed Jan 27, 2021 2:31 pm

Good luck Jim. Looking forward to hearing the updates on this!

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Wed Jan 27, 2021 4:13 pm

Alaska is, with the possible exception of Hawaii, the most culturally interesting state in the Union. When I was there in the summer of 95 — which incidentally was during an epic King salmon run when the locals were just giving the fish away they had so much — I read that some amazing percentage of the year-round residents (half?) received their only direct income from the state’s annual oil royalty payment. The rest of the time they got by living off the grid in a cabin, paying no taxes, eating a freezer full of moose meat through the winter, selling a little weed on the side, etc. A libertarian paradise in many ways.

AKR · Post by **AKR** » Thu Jan 28, 2021 12:08 am

Blanquito wrote:Alaska is, with the possible exception of Hawaii, the most culturally interesting state in the Union. When I was there in the summer of 95 — which incidentally was during an epic King salmon run when the locals were just giving the fish away they had so much — I read that some amazing percentage of the year-round residents (half?) received their only direct income from the state’s annual oil royalty payment. The rest of the time they got by living off the grid in a cabin, paying no taxes, eating a freezer full of moose meat through the winter, selling a little weed on the side, etc. A libertarian paradise in many ways.

The div has been shrinking on a real (inflation adjusted basis)

Last year it was sub $1000

I have some market contacts who invest on the Permanent Fund's behalf, who pays out the div.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:14 am

From Maine to Alaska: Pretrial Motions in the Sophie Sergie Murder Cold Case.

Day One: Monday, January 25, 2021

It has been nearly two years since Steven Downs was arrested for the 1993 cold case murder of University of Alaska Fairbanks student Sophie Sergie. The Auburn, Maine, native has spent most of that time at the Fairbanks Correctional Center, a facility that makes the Androscoggin County Jail look like the Ritz Carlton.

The defense team has filed numerous pretrial motions, including eleven that attack the forensic evidence and botched investigation by Alaska State Troopers homicide detectives over the past twenty-eight years. Because of Covid, the hearings on these motions have been continued twice and have been pending for over a year.

After several telephonic conferences with assigned Alaska Superior Court Judge Thomas Temple and the Alaska prosecutor, we decided it was time to proceed on the motions... in the middle of a raging pandemic.

The Maine lawyers on the defense team — Jesse Archer, Stephen Dassatti, and I — all got tested yesterday to comply with Alaska regulations. Jesse got his negative results this morning, mine came in as we were boarding the late afternoon flight from Logan to Seattle. It was not without a little trepidation as I opened the link in my text message from CVS: a positive test meant that I couldn’t enter the state of Alaska and would have to participate by video. Would it make more sense to get off the plane and drive back to Maine? Luckily, the results were negative. We’ll soon be joining the fourth lawyer on the defense team: Fairbanks attorney Frank Spaulding.

We just checked into the airport Hilton here in Seattle. Steve just got his results: Negative. It's on to Fairbanks tomorrow!

Day Two: Tuesday, January 26, 2021

We started the second leg of the trip over breakfast at the airport Hilton in Seattle, downloading (or is it uploading?) our negative Covid test results into the Alaska state travel portal. It is a task that seemingly requires an advanced computer science degree but fortunately Jesse was able to walk us other two old timers through it after about and hour, and it’s off to balmy Fairbanks.

Our first task upon arrival in Fairbanks is to hit the local Office Max store. We are setting up headquarters at the SpringHill Suites across from the courthouse in bleak downtown Fairbanks, and we need a cheap printer. There are 8,000 pages of discovery in this case, plus dozens of audio and video files. There will be numerous exhibits presented, some which were printed up before we left, but most which will be printed in Fairbanks.

We were required to arrive five days early to comply with the court system’s Covid requirements, which is actually kind of a good thing because it gives us five full days to put in 10-12 hours per day of final preparation on the case. Before I left I completely cleared my schedule and told all of my clients that I would be unavailable for two weeks.

We arrived in Fairbanks on a beautiful sunny afternoon flight, minus-20 but no wind, a dry cold, not unpleasant during the brief entry and exit from the taxi. Jimmy, the pleasant young man who screened us through the airport with our negative test results, was very familiar with the Sophie Sergie case and thinks we have our work cut out for us. In fact, he doesn’t see how we are going to get this guy off. He wished us well, though: “You guys must be good lawyers. Welcome to Fairbanks!”

Day Three: Wednesday, January 27, 2021

I started our first full day in Fairbanks with a little 6 a.m. walk in the vicinity of the hotel, minus-19 in the early morning darkness. I actually found it quite pleasant, again, it is a very dry cold, and there has been absolutely no wind. After about ten minutes my face above the mask began to freeze, and I turned back. My L.L. Bean Baxter coat, though, advertised as good for up to minus-40, delivered as promised.

I was last in Fairbanks in August 2019, for the initial appearance of Steven Downs on the murder and sexual assault charges. It is a wild place, a cross between Wild West honky tonk and rugged grunge craft beer culture, a final frontier, end of the earth feel. Everybody has a story.

Today is the first of five full days of preparation for next week’s hearings. As much as we thrive on going to trial, we are under no illusions. This is going to be a tough case to win any place in Alaska, but especially in Fairbanks. This crime has hovered over the community for nearly three decades.

We have eleven motions pending, nine of which are scheduled for hearing next week. First up on the list for Monday is a hearing on our motion to suppress statements and evidence of a gun and knife that were seized from Steven’s home in Auburn, Maine. The prosecution believes that these weapons were used in the crime twenty-seven years ago, but they are wrong. We don’t expect to win every battle next week, but our goal is to try to weaken the state’s case as much as possible.

Darkness is descending, the sky is clear. We should be able to see the aurora borealis tonight.