Irregularities cited in drug probe of future Palin in-law

A search warrant was delayed until after the election, an investigator said.

McClatchy Newspapers

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska drug investigator and the union representing Alaska State Troopers are alleging political meddling in the Sherry Johnston drug case, including a delay in serving the search warrant until after the November election.

Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, who became nationally known in September when Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, announced their teenage daughter, Bristol, was pregnant and Levi Johnston was the father. Palin was running for vice president while Sherry Johnston was under investigation.

Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Joe Masters and troopers director Col. Audie Holloway vigorously dispute that there was anything irregular in how this case was handled.

“We worked very hard to make sure we conducted it just as fairly and as normally as any other investigation,” Holloway said.

That’s not what Kyle Young, a trooper drug investigator who was involved in the case, wrote in an e-mail last week to all members of the Public Safety Employees Association, the union that represents troopers and other law enforcement officers around the state.

Young wrote that after it became clear who Johnston is, “this case became anything but normal.”

“It was not allowed to progress in a normal fashion, the search warrant service WAS delayed because of the pending election and the Mat-Su Drug Unit and the case officer were not the ones calling the shots,” Young wrote. Mat-Su refers to Alaska’s Matanuska-Susitna Valley, an area north of Anchorage.

Sherry Johnston was arrested Dec. 18 on charges of selling the prescription painkiller OxyContin.

Young, speaking through union officials, declined to comment for this story. But John Cyr, executive director of the union, said it’s clear to him that the investigation was handled differently because of who Johnston is.

“This really does smack of political favoritism. And if that be the case, it’s another example of the Palin administration’s direct influence on the public safety unit,” Cyr said.

Alaska’s public safety employees union and Palin battled over the governor’s July removal of Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner, and the allegations she pressured public safety officials to fire a trooper who was her ex-brother in law. Palin appointed Masters to replace Monegan in September.

Cyr said the union is confident Young’s version of what happened is true. That’s because the union verified it in discussions “with the entire drug unit, with all of our members,” he said.

He said the people the union president spoke with included the case officer for the Johnston investigation, Donna Anthony. She works on the Mat-Su drug unit but is a member of the police force in Palmer, Alaska, which is not part of the union.

Anthony did not return a call seeking comment.

Public safety commissioner Masters said Young made assumptions in his e-mail and didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes to make sure the investigation was normal. Troopers Director Holloway said the higher-ups were indeed scrutinizing everything in the Johnston investigation — but only to ensure that it was conducted just like any other similar case would be.

“We did everything we possibly could to ensure that the investigation progressed in a normal fashion as other investigations similar to this would proceed,” Masters said.

The timing of the investigation was based on “when we could get Johnston to sell to us. We were entirely at her schedule,” Holloway said.

Holloway and Masters denied Young’s statement that troopers delayed serving the search warrant because of the Nov. 4 election. Masters said the warrant was obtained Dec. 2 and served Dec. 18 when it became clear a final drug buy the officers hoped for was falling through.

Johnston was at her Wasilla home when it was searched, and she was arrested the same day. She’s out on bail and is scheduled to appear in court this week.

Palin’s spokesman, Bill McAllister, said Saturday he had nothing to add to what Masters said.