The ex-Juneau police officer charged with attempted murder wants the indictment against him dismissed, citing due process and equal protection rights violations, according to court records.
Defense attorney Julie Willoughby said the grand jury that indicted her client, Troy A. Wilson, was not properly instructed on the law applicable to the case, according to a motion Willoughby filed last month.
In the Nov. 20 motion, which is 37 pages long, Willoughby said the indictment had numerous flaws, the most basic of which was that grand jurors were not informed of the standard of proof required to issue the indictment.
“This lack of appropriate legal guidance by the state is so significant the entire indictment should be dismissed,” Willoughby argued.
A grand jury indicted Wilson, 45, on six counts of attempted murder in the first degree for shooting at police officers the night of April 7. Wilson was also indicted on assault and weapons misconduct charges. The indictment — alleging a total of 22 crimes in all — was handed up April 20.
Prosecutors say Wilson barricaded himself in his home on Black Wolf Way for several hours and fired off 75 to 100 rounds at officers and their vehicles using high-powered rifles and handguns, according to the original affidavit. He surrendered a little before 3 a.m. April 8, Easter morning.
JPD did not return fire, according to police. No one was injured in the incident, but bullets struck two nearby houses, a parked truck, and a police vehicle, according to prosecutors.
When the state presented the case to the grand jury, prosecutors failed to inform the jurors that a burden of proof exists when considering whether or not to issue the indictment, Willoughby argued.
The burden of proof to return an indictment is that, “The grand jury shall find an indictment when all the evidence taken together, if unexplained or uncontradicted, would warrant a conviction of the defendant,” according to Alaska criminal code, Willoughby cites.
“In this case the prosecutor did not instruct the grand jury on any standard at all,” Willoughby wrote.
She said that means Wilson was denied a fair grand jury hearing, which is a violation of due process rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution as well as the Article 1, Sections 1 and 7 of the Alaska Constitution, Willoughby said.
Willoughby also argues that the state “far overcharged” Wilson by bringing the six attempted murder charges. Additionally the state failed to instruct the grand jurors on the elements of that crime and failed to present evidence to support those elements, Willoughby argued.
The elements of attempted murder entail having specific intent to kill the particular person identified in each count of attempted murder, Willoughby said.
“Mr. Wilson did not know who was outside his house; he did not know how many officers were outside his house; and he did not know where those officers were even positioned,” Willoughby wrote, noting Wilson did not have a police radio in his home during the standoff.
Police initially responded to Wilson’s home that night after receiving a 911 call from Wilson’s wife, who said he was suicidal and had a gun. Wilson’s wife, who is identified in court documents as Julie L. Wilson and who also filed for divorce last month, fled to a neighbor’s house at the beginning of the five-hour-long standoff, police said.
A JPD detective crisis negotiator stayed on the phone with Wilson for about four and a half hours, wherein he threatened members of the police department and shot off rounds, according to prosecutors.
Willoughby argued Wilson’s state of mind was suicidal rather than homicidal, pointing to the 911 call and the fact that several police officers interviewed said they thought it was a “suicide by cop” situation.
Willoughby gave notice that her client would be relying on the defense of intoxication to negate the culpable mental state allegation that Wilson “intentionally” attempted to murder the six named officers in the indictment.
When Wilson was taken into custody, he had a .188 breath alcohol level, according to a portable breath test administered at the scene by an officer, Willoughby wrote.
Willoughby noted that some general threats Wilson made ended up being untrue. For example, Wilson claimed he had night-vision goggles to see the officers, but when police searched his house, they didn’t find any. They did find a rifle with a scope on it though, according to the motion.
Willoughby argued Wilson was shooting randomly from his house, not at a specific person. Police recovered 76 pistol casings and 13 rifle casings from his house the next day, according to the motion.
Willoughby also argued Wilson’s skills as a designated sniper for the JPD SWAT team should have been explained in more depth to the grand jurors. Wilson was a 17-year JPD veteran and had trained most of the officers who were on duty that night and responded to his house. He had been the squad leader for and the most highly trained member of the SWAT team, Willoughby wrote.
“What was not explained is that if he had intended to shoot someone, he had the skill to do what he intended,” Willoughby wrote. “The fact that no one was hurt speaks volumes to his state of mind. This is one of the missing pieces that should have been explained.”
Wilson resigned from the JPD in December as he was under investigation for off-duty behavior that allegedly violated JPD policy and procedure, according to the department. JPD spokespeople have not disclosed what the behavior was, but did say it was associated with a psychological condition for which he was receiving treatment. The result of the JPD investigation was also never disclosed.
Willoughby said in her motion that JPD knew of Wilson’s “suicidal propensities long before this incident.” Willoughby also questioned why JPD investigated the incident, instead of a neutral party, such as the Alaska State Troopers.
She requested the court review the personnel and internal office files of the police officers who were victims in the case and also investigated the case. She said that review would determine whether those records contain information regarding “biases, prejudices or ulterior motives” of the investigating officers.
She requested a hearing be held to make an offer of proof of why that review is necessary.
She requested the hearing be closed to the public and press, saying, “The nature of the offer of proof that Mr. Wilson would make at the ex parte hearing is of a sensitive nature concerning the Juneau Police Department and warrants a closed proceeding.”
Willoughby also filed a notice that she intends to call an expert at Wilson’s trial who can testify that Wilson was incapable of shooting at the officers intentionally because of intoxication and severe chronic depression.
Willoughby wrote that the depression was a condition that was known, but “improperly treated and exacerbated, if not caused, by incidents and events related to Mr. Wilson’s employment with the Juneau Police Department.”
At the time of his arrest, Wilson worked as a juvenile probation officer for the state of Alaska’s Division of Juvenile Justice.
Wilson remains in custody at Lemon Creek Correctional Center on $1 million bond, and his trial is tentatively slated for January 2013.
• Contact reporter Emily Russo Miller at 523-2263 or at emily.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (30)
Add commentTotal contradiction
First she said that he was an expert swat cop and that if he wanted to shoot his fellow officers he could have easily therefore he was not trying to, secondly she states that she is going to call an expert witness to testify that he was so intoxicated he could not have fired intentionally. What a bunch of crap. He was wrong and she knows it.
Public safety?
God help us all if this mentally ill, trained gunman is turned loose on the streets.
Due Process
He's due due process so if they made a mistake during grand jury no problem bring him in next Friday and we can do it again it's important to get it right.
As far as attempted murder I'm pretty sure he was shooting at the cops-maybe not trying to hit them but that doesn't matter. If you shoot a gun at someone wrecklessly while committing other felonies it's attempted murder.
As far as his mental state who cares. He had access to two state funded health insurance plans and could have sought help. He had all the resources to set his own destiny and he choose jail for the rest of his life. John Marvin had issues and he was fit for trial and I doubt that Wilson's state was worse. I'm sure the judge will say if you're depressed maybe its not a good idea to get drunk and maybe you should have gotten the guns out of the house if you were having problems.
I know the lawyer I'm going
I know the lawyer I'm going to hire if I ever get into serious trouble.
Fume - right?! I was thinking
Fume - right?! I was thinking the same thing.....
Julie Does This All The Time
For years now she has got many a criminal off by blaming the courts for failure to do this or that. Slick or smart? Thief's,Sex Offenders,Rapists,she don't care. I'd say she's darn good,but I wonder if she can SLEEP at night for saving the dredges of our community from jail. The drunken defense,works almost every time... Cheers Julie!
ALL I KNOW IS>
He fired a lot of bullets a the police! That is a fact. Enough said..
Maniac cop vs. Little girl
I wonder who will get more time in prison; a maniac cop who shot up the place or a little girl that shot up.
http://juneauempire.com/local/2012-12-04/22-year-old-pleads-guilty-two-f...
willoughby
Seriously, I understand that she is just doing her job. Allegedly. But how can her job always be to allow the guilty to go free?
Burger ADMITTED his offenses (on tape, I believe), all 100 of them, and now the charges are reduced to indecent exposure? What the?!
There are many many witnesses to the havoc wreaked by Wilson.
I will be very upset if Wilson is allowed to go free or get by with a similar slap, but I will definitely not be surprised.
Many of us live in Juneau not because of the high cost of living, the high cost of travel, or the monotonous weather, but because this is a safe community. Or it used to be.
Thanks to Willoughby for single-handedly seeing to the dismantling of that one last thing.
Oh No, It's Not A Plea...What Now?
Seems to me that a lot of people here are quick to forget that Mr. Wilson is due good representation and equal protection under the law. This means that he has the right to an attorney who works diligently in his best interest and it appears that Ms Willoughby is engaged in that pursuit.
A lot of the problem here stems from a Justice system that is geared to managing cases through plea bargain rather than trial. A situation that has resulted in District Attorneys who are not expert at taking cases to trial and winning. In fact, it appears that in this case (arguably an important, high profile case) their work was so sloppy that there is a very good chance that the indictment will be overturned.
Have you noticed that Ms Willoughby seems to win a fair amount of cases this way? You should because she does.
If you believe as I do that this situation is creating a lot of injustice then perhaps you should be publicly examining the district attorneys fitness for office rather than damning the attorney who keeps catching their missteps.
good points, inhuman
But I think some of the fault lies also with our laws that give criminals so many rights. Yes, I know that Mr Wilson isn't technically a criminal, yet if ever. But it still seems absurd that someone can shoot up an entire neighborhood, have most of the people evacuated, and then not be charged because the evidence wasn't collected the "right" way, or the papers weren't filled out the "right" way, the brief wasn't written the "right" way. Some one messed up on a very unimportant clerical matter and an unbalanced shooter's allowed to walk? Doesn't compute.
@rukiddingme
"Willoughby said the indictment had numerous flaws, the most basic of which was that grand jurors were not informed of the standard of proof required to issue the indictment."
I’m sure that you will agree that not explaining to the Grand Jury the standard of proof to be used is not an unimportant minor clerical matter. It is one of the basic duties that the District Attorney is supposed to fulfill when bringing proposed charges to the Grand Jury.
Absent this instruction, what standard to the grand jury use?
Rumor?
Innuendo?
Incontrovertible proof?
Reasonable doubt?
And if i might,
Remind you that restricting or removing the rights of an accused or other person not yet convicted cannot be done without potentially restricting or removing a right or freedom from us all. I think, the founders might have had it pretty close when they wrote it. Don't you?
@rukiddingme
'But how can her job always be to allow the guilty to go free?'
Quite frankly, if a defense attorney vigorously carrying out her job results in no conviction then there are reasonable doubts about whether or not someone is guilty.
And that's the key. Doubt. To quote a couple of our Founding Father's, John Adams said "It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished.', which was in line with Benjamin Franklin's version of Black's Formulation: "it is better [one hundred] guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer"
Really?
All I'm hearing are people who are mad at Troy Wilson, and his attorney. And is Mr.Wilson not entitled to have a chance in the matter? I'm not saying that he should get off scotch free, he won't, but just consider this: He is a human being, one of us, and someone who we trusted. He made a huge mistake, no argument there, but he needs help. Do you think that when we treat him as an animal, someone without rights, someone that we can gawk at and point out mistakes, that he is going to get better? No! And guess what? That hand you're using to point with has one finger pointing at him with three back at yourself. Say something nice, don't put him down, I'm sure that if you were in this situation you'd want to feel like that there is someone out there that believes that there is good in you. One last thing to think about, Have you ever made a mistake, had everyone look at you and laugh, making you feel bad, but there is that one person that helps you through that moment? Be that person, be a human. To be human is to make mistakes, and to help each other out. This human, Troy Wilson made a mistake, now its time to help him. May God heal him, guide us, and help us all to be better people.
The defense attorney's ,,,,
job is not to get anyine "off". Thier job is to insure a fair and equitable defense and that the D.A. actually proves thier case.
As mentioned before and seen here again this D.A. is borderline incompetent. Why is he even still in the position, thats a question thats begging to be answered.
This defense attorney seems to be quite competant, and thorough. Its a shame her job is made so easy by her compitition. But as they say your guilty until PROVEN innocent. What do you expect when you have incompetance on the other side of the courtroom.
They're use to David Sied who is a plea deal master, coupled with a plea deal D.A. who are both to lazy to work at trial ,,,,
I know this man,
and he is a good man. A very humble man. We all should be.
@ Grendel
Oh?.....I guess good, and very humble, is open to interpretation.
For crying out loud Grendel, he's claiming the whiskey defense.
That aside, personally, I'd like to know what it is that Julie Willoughby doesn't think the media/public deserves to know, when she says....“The nature of the offer of proof that Mr. Wilson would make at the ex parte hearing is of a sensitive nature concerning the Juneau Police Department and warrants a closed proceeding.”
Seems to me if JPD did, ,or is doing something that causes veteran officers to go off the deep end, we surely do deserve to know! After all, we do have a former JPD Captain on the Assembly....
points taken, all
Obviously the current, modern system is broken, whether it is the fault of the prosecutors or the defenders, the judges, or the laws themselves. The intention of our Founding Fathers is clear, but it is rarely met by today's legal system.
It's true that I do not personally know Mr Wilson. I do know or can reasonably infer however that he 1) intentionally consumed way too much alcohol, 2) was depressed or otherwise upset, and 3) knowingly fired an excessive amount of rounds into his own home and his neighborhood, which at the time were both occupied by innocent people. Whether he was unbalanced or drunk or just plain dumb, he should be punished for his actions. If there is some counseling or other therapy included, great. If not, that's okay too. Our Founding Fathers didn't specifically mention group hugs for the guilty. Mr Wilson could truly be a fantastic guy (some of you know him well), but he still should be required to make restitution for his crimes.
If our system here in Juneau somehow prohibits that from happening, the system is flawed. Justice will not be served for this crime is "of much consequence to the public".
"We find, in the rules laid down by the greatest English Judges, who have been the brightest of mankind; We are to look upon it as more beneficial, that many guilty persons should escape unpunished, than one innocent person should suffer. The reason is, because it’s of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished; for guilt and crimes are so frequent in the world, that all of them cannot be punished; and many times they happen in such a manner, that it is not of much consequence to the public, whether they are punished or not. But when innocence itself, is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, it is immaterial to me, whether I behave well or ill; for virtue itself, is no security. And if such a sentiment as this, should take place in the mind of the subject, there would be an end to all security what so ever." -- In Adams' Argument for the Defense in the case of Rex v. Wemms: Suffolk Superior Court, Boston, 3-4 December, 1770; source "The Adams Papers".
Mr Wilson's case is yet to be decided, but if you disagree that our system produces some exceedingly egregious errors because it is inherently flawed, please explain to me how Burger's outcome is justice.
to ima49er
please dont open this can. Troy Wilson is a friend and I wouldnt have a 12 yr old daughter if he wasnt on the scene. You will not win this one with me.
@rukiddingme
I will admit I have met the man but that’s about as far as our association goes. He is not a friend, neighbor, coworker or in any way connected to me other than by that casual contact.
However, just like the rest of us he should get due process. I find difficulty in your previous statements that you "know or can reasonably infer" His guilt. Even if you were a witness to the alleged crime you cannot know or reasonably infer his guilt, it is simply not your place. If you were not a witness then everything that you know about this incident is rumor and nothing more.
As far as justice being served in the Burger case, you are right I think, but for the wrong reason. That was a perfect example of what happens when Plea Bargains are the play of the day.
Grendel
It's not about winning, it's about differing points of view. Our life experiences cause us to see the same events in a different light. Yours is colored by your own very personal experience with (as I understand you) Officer Wilson. I'm glad that your daughter is 12, versus would have been.
My main point was, that if there is something going on behind the scenes at JPD, that causes this kind of event to happen, the public should know about it. It should not be hidden from us because of its sensitive (to JPD) nature, as Ms Willoughby suggests it should.
In the end Grendel, the "whiskey" made me do it, still rings hollow to me.
@Grendel
You are quite correct. If there is anything going on at JPD related to this case that is worthy of the courts consideration then it ought to be heard in open court.
Meanwhile, perhaps the EMPIRE will take time out from printing sensationalized drivel and do a little investigative reporting
ima49er
I completely understand your points. But I'm saying that I would run thru Hell itself for him because he would do the same for me or mine. Brothers are weird that way. He's mine.
Grendel
And I, yours.
Good fishing!
to ima49er
I see you. Very good.
typical small-town politics
As always, different rules for different folks.
The "good guy" ex-cop gets a pass for drinking and shooting up his neighborhood because he did "good" before he became a drunk.
The dude that lives in Switzer Village is just a bum and should be locked up forever at Lemon Creek when he drinks and shoots up his neighborhood.
SO...I am just asking the question - did the founding fathers write two sets of laws - one for the guy that can afford a high-priced lawyer and one for the other fella who has to settle for the state appointed defense attorney? But, boy oh boy, we sure think they did!
If Troy gets away with using the "whiskey defense" ("I'm not responsible because I was drunk!", then we need to stop prosecuting drunk drivers and release everyone from jail and probation and court supervised "whatever" because they aren't responsible for their actions, either!
I live in the neighborhood where he (OR SOMEBODY!!!) was firing off shots. It's laughable that he was too drunk to hit anybody so it's basically silly to hold him accountable. He was able to load and fire his weapons out of bedroom windows. He wasn't shooting up the inside of his house! He sounds like a real sweet guy.
Ok,
your 12 yr old is 12 bcause of your brother. Good for you. Not to sound insulting but would you say my 12 year old got what he deserved if he happened to be in front of one of those rounds fired haphazardly in the neighborhood with no concern of what or who they hit.
Get real, not everyone being tried for a crime was a criminal thier entire life.
I, for one, amd getting tired of current or ex cops getting a pass for wearing blue.
His defense atty is doing a superb job and due to incompetance on the other side of the court justice may suffer as it does so regularly in Juneau.
slegnawons
I will not debate this one. You, of course, are right about haphazard gunfire; but with all due respect, I am not tired of current or ex cops and their stress issues. They put a lot on the line every single day that I take for granted.