It looks like the key government witness in the federal corruption case in Alaska will not face charges of child sexual abuse.
Deputy Attorney General Richard Svobodny says the case is closed unless someone provides new information or there are federal charges against 74-year-old Bill Allen.
Svobodny said prosecutors weren’t able to corroborate allegations made by about five witnesses.
Anchorage police conducted two investigations into whether Allen had sex with an underage girl in the 1990s. One case was stopped, and federal investigators declined to file charges in the second. Senator Lisa Murkowski and others have criticized the feds for not moving forward because their case could’ve been easier to prove than the state’s. Allen was accused of transporting teenage girls across state lines for sex, which is a federal crime.
A few months ago Murkowski asked the US Attorney General why his team wasn’t pursuing Allen. She is concerned the feds might be giving him a pass because he helped them out in the case against the late Senator Ted Stevens.
“To think he might’ve gotten away with it because of his stature in the community at that time, the relationships that he had, and the fact that he might’ve been working an arrangement, a deal if you will, to avoid all this. And in the meantime you’ve got a young woman whose life has been irreparably harmed. And perhaps more young women out there. We don’t know that for certain. It seems to be there’s been a real failure of process here,” Murkowski said.
Allen ran the Veco Corporation, and pleaded guilty to tax violations and bribing state lawmakers.
While his testimony led to Ted Stevens’ conviction in 2008, a federal judge threw everything out because prosecutors concealed evidence from Stevens’ team. A report released Monday showed they withheld information that would have seriously damaged the credibility of Bill Allen.
Senator Lisa Murkowski expressed disgust Tuesday that Allen won’t be charged.
“It just rattles my cage to think he’s done with his sentence and you know it’s … it’s over for him, and yet you have a man who lost his… it was more than an election… it was Ted Stevens’ career and reputation, brought down by Bill Allen, who is now walking out of jail,” Murkowski said.
Allen was sentenced to three years for his bribery and tax evasion pleas, and was scheduled to be released Tuesday.
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