Who is in charge of the Anchorage Police Department? More specifically, who is in charge of Lt. Dave Parker and Detective McKinnon? Is it the chief of police or is it the National Enquirer or John Tiemessen? The answer to the this question may hold the key to why a former Anchorage resident has been unable to obtain the release of personal property from the Anchorage Police, despite a judge’s explicit order and against the will of the local prosecutor. Part of the answer may lie in the fact that the woman seeking the return of her property is Shailey Tripp, who early this year was thrust into the limelight in a series of feature articles published in the National Enquirer alleging she had been the mistress of Todd Palin, husband of Sarah Palin. The story began back on March 4, 2010, when Tripp, who ran a massage therapy business in Anchorage, was charged with maintaining a place of prostitution - a misdemeanor - following a raid on her business. During the raid police seized cell phones, business records, and cash, and other items they claimed were evidence of prostitution. When police make an arrest they routinely seize property believed to be of evidentiary value or somehow relevant to the charges filed. With few exceptions, the property is returned to its owner quickly, particularly in misdemeanor cases. Not in this case. Bizarrely, the Anchorage Police Department continues to withhold property from a former Anchorage woman three months after an Alaska District Court judge ordered its return and after the case was dismissed by the prosecutor. When Ms. Tripp’s case came before a judge in June of 2010, the municipality decided to defer prosecution for a year, a routine procedure that often results in charges being dismissed. That might have been the end of this obscure case had not the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer published a story last January claiming it had unearthed documents showing that physical evidence confiscated at the time of Ms. Tripp’s arrest tied her to an alleged affair with Todd Palin, husband of former Governor Sarah Palin. On January 25th, 2011, soon after the Enquirer story hit the streets, Lt. Dave Parker of the APD issued a press release stating, “The Anchorage Police Department investigation and arrest of Shailey Tripp has recently been mischaracterized in internet blogs and in a National Enquirer article.” The press release raised more than a few eyebrows. First of all, police departments don’t typically respond to stories in supermarket tabloids. Even more odd was the fact that the release was never published on the APD’s public affairs website. Then there was the unusual content of the release itself. The press release cited “several errors” regarding the investigation and arrest as it was reported in the Enquirer article. Malia Litman a former lawyer and current blogger investigated and found that Lt David Parker of the APD issued a false and misleading press release based off a phone call from the Palins family lawyer John Tiemessen. And so the bizarre actions of the Anchorage Police Department go largely unchallenged by the Anchorage press or the wider media establishment. Lt. Dave Parker has never been reprimanded or even challenged by anyone to explain how an officer of a major police department, essentially acting on behalf of a politician, issue a false press release with the clear purpose of misleading the public. www.theatlantic.com
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