The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that the state can confiscate a charter operator's Cessna 206 after he was caught trying to smuggle six dozen beer into a dry community 13 years ago. According to The New York Times, in 2012, an Alaska State Trooper spotted a charte customer's beer being loaded into Kenneth Jouppi's plane at the Fairbanks Airport. Jouppi was headed for Beaver, Alaska, a dry community of 80 people that takes that status seriously. Jouppi was eventually found guilty, jailed for three days and fined $3,000. The trial court didn't take the plane but the state disagreed and eventually the status of the 206 went to the Supreme Court.
If this was prosecuted a decade ago or so then forfeiture at this point seems like a second sentenencing for a crime that has already been served and should be dismissed without further recompense. It starts to look like a political witch hunt. Well, what are the details we need to see and allow us to judge for ourselves?
It is Alaska. Somebody in the governmentâs cousin has probably painted it with a house painting brush and been flying it ever since⌠Good luck to the troopers who now have to get it back for the state.
No, Tom, not everything is a political witch hunt. Thereâs nothing here that is even remotely political. And why do you think âwe need to see the details we need to see and allow us to judge for ourselves?â You have nothing to say about it.
âthe court determined seizure of the plane wasnât disproportionate to the crimeâŚthe owner of the airplane failed to establish that forfeiture would be unconstitutionally excessiveâ
That means that a court can take ANYTHING and that the same court gets the final say if they get to keep it. Thatâs as unconstitutional as it gets.
A plane I used to fly was stolen. Someone else who also used to fly it was on vacation in Miami and noticed it sitting there. It turned out to be in the Customs impound lot, it had been caught running drugs or guns or maybe both coming from Venezuela.
The FBO was told and called down there. They were pretty mad, the plane had been there for some time and no one seemed to be in any hurry to tell the FBO they had their plane back. I think it would have NEVER got back home had not someone noticed it.
A number of tribal reservations try to keep intoxicants out.
A fool pilot in BC accepted a charter by some residents of a tribal community in BC despite widespread discouragement by transportation people in the town on Vancouver Island he took off from, and the evident intoxicated state of the passengers.
Enroute, a passenger behind the pilot pushed the seat back, jamming pilot body against controls - fatal. (Pilot had not fastened his shoulder belt.)
(There are serious questions of tribal leadership of such reserves as to their education of youngsters, but that is a different debate.)
Nonsense. The only court that has the âfinal sayâ is the Supreme Court. If a party feels that a lower court has misinterpreted or errored in interpreting and applying the law, they can appeal to the next higher court. That is not as âunconstitutional as it getsâ it is as constitutional as it gets. From Article III, Section 1, of the U.S Constitution: âjudicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establishâ. Judicial Power is defined as the mandate granted to a court to decide and pronounce a judgment and carry it into effect between persons and parties who bring a case before it for decision by interpreting and applying the law under the U.S. Constitution.
No, the loading and landing your aircraft is perfectly legal.
As far as dry counties, people do this evert day around here by buying booze in one county and driving home to drink it. Just because county is dry does not mean you cannot consume in your own home.
As this is a forum we may all have something to say. It has the âappearanceâ of a witch hunt. I would think thereâs more to this story but without more background it doesnât quite pass the smell test.
This particular case has many facets to it, and anyone wishing to comment on it one way or another would be well served to look at the numerous articles and discussions written over the years about the case. I was flying commercially in Fairbanks AK when this happen, and yes, we should all be worried about the implications when someone else decides whether or not you KNOWINGLY acted in a certain way.
Alaska has significantly different âdryâ laws than the lower 48, so it was absolutely illegal in this case.
Specifically, Alaska allows communities to set their own laws in regards to sale, possession and importation of alcohol, and in Beaver, all three of those are illegal, so flying a plane into the community carrying beer wasnât a great idea.