Anchorage Rebuilds Its Prosecutor’s Office After Our Reporting Revealed Hundreds of Criminal Case Dismissals
Anchorage Rebuilds Its Prosecutor’s Office After Our Reporting Revealed Hundreds of Criminal Case Dismissals
The city dropped more than 250 domestic violence assault cases and more than 270 drunken driving cases between May 1 and Oct. 2 last year. Now it says it has hired a full staff of 12 “frontline” prosecutors who will take cases to trial.
Days after the investigation came out, the state of Alaska announced it would help prosecute city cases to avoid speedy-trial dismissals.
But those state prosecutors are no longer needed. According to the city, the municipal prosecutor’s office now has a full staff of 12 “frontline” prosecutors who take cases to trial, plus a supervisor and an attorney who files motions and appeals. The only vacancy, they said, is a supervisory role: deputy municipal prosecutor.
That amounts to a vacancy rate of about 7% in the prosecutor’s office. In contrast, more than 40% of city prosecutor positions were vacant as of mid-2024, according to a city spokesperson.
