Two Alaska State Troopers are being charged with misdemeanor assault for using unreasonable force while arresting a person in Kenai who they thought was someone else, according to criminal charges filed Wednesday.
Joseph Miller Jr. and Jason Woodruff, both state troopers based in Soldotna, are facing one count each of fourth-degree assault. Both have served as troopers for more than a decade.
During a news conference on Thursday, Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell said he was “totally sickened” by the incident. He said it’s rare for troopers to face criminal charges for use of excessive force in the field.
“I’ve been with this department 33 years and I’ve never seen any action like this before by an Alaska State Trooper,” Cockrell said. “Let me be clear, the action of these two individuals is not acceptable to me, not in the line of our training and our policy and I know it’s not acceptable to the Alaskans that we serve.”
A 20-page charging document against the troopers, signed by Assistant Attorney General Daniel Shorey, lays out what prosecutors say happened.
According to the charges, Soldotna’s 911 dispatch center received a call on May 24 from someone asking about public camping. Dispatchers believed the call was placed by Garrett Tikka, who had an outstanding arrest warrant, and reported it to local law enforcement. The warrant was for not showing up to serve 10 days in jail for driving with a revoked license.
Charging documents say dispatchers gave law enforcement a description of a vehicle “associated with” Tikka. The Kenai Police Department later located the vehicle near Daubenspeck Park in Kenai. The charges say Miller, who was on duty at the time, waited to contact the man in the vehicle until additional law enforcement arrived and called Woodruff, who had a police dog with him.
Charges say Miller told Woodruff he’d like to have the dog nearby in case Tikka tried to flee.
According to charging documents, video footage from a Kenai police officer’s body-worn camera shows troopers ordering a person inside the vehicle to come out. Then, they break one of the vehicle’s windows and pepper spray inside. The person inside exits the vehicle and gets on the ground.
Law enforcement didn’t ask the person for their name, the charges say, and didn’t learn until much later that the person was not the man they were looking for, but instead his cousin, Ben Tikka.
The incident was recorded on Miller’s camera and the Kenai officer’s camera. Cockrell said Thursday that Woodruff’s camera was not activated during the incident because it had run out of battery power.
The charging documents say the camera footage shows Miller kicking Ben Tikka in the shin, hitting the back of his head with a fist and pushing him to the ground. Miller then steps on his head, tases Tikka from less than a foot away and puts the end of the Taser directly against his body, according to the charges. While tasing Tikka for a second time, the charges say, Miller incidentally hits one of the other troopers on the scene.
The charges say the dog starts to bite Tikka while he’s on the ground and being tased while trying to get away from the dog. Woodruff gives the dog a bite command and Tikka is bitten multiple times while Miller tases him.
The documents say body camera footage also shows Miller raising his foot and bringing it down quickly near Tikka’s head, Tikka “bleeding profusely” from the face and head while rolling on the ground and Tikka telling troopers he can’t breathe.
A still image from the Kenai officer’s body camera footage shows Tikka on his back and bleeding from the face. To the left, Miller stands over Tikka, tasing him. To the right, Woodruff holds the K9 unit’s leash while the dog bites Tikka.
Charging documents say troopers requested emergency medical services after Tikka said he needed to go to the hospital. Another trooper who arrived on scene after the altercation rode with Tikka to the hospital and learned en route that the victim was Ben Tikka and not Garrett Tikka.
At the hospital, Tikka was interviewed by troopers about his dog bites. Investigators later learned that Tikka underwent surgery after the incident and that he suffered a bite on his arm, a fractured scapula and lacerations on his arm and head.
Troopers later opened a criminal case against Tikka, in which he was charged with three counts of fourth-degree assault, disorderly conduct and resisting or interfering with arrest. That case was later dismissed by the Kenai District Attorney’s office.
While looking into the troopers’ use of force, the Alaska Bureau of Investigation found discrepancies between what Woodruff and Miller wrote in their reports of the incident and what was shown on body camera footage.
The report concludes that Miller and Woodruff’s use of force in the incident was “objectively unreasonable” and that “aspects of their reports are inaccurate and contain omissions.”
Miller is a 14-year veteran of the department and most recently served as a night shift supervisor. Woodruff has been with the department for 16 years and most recently worked as a K-9 officer. Cockrell said both officers are on administrative leave, but said he could not say whether that leave is paid. The police dog is not currently in service.
Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore said in his 25 years of working at the Department of Law, he’s seen charges associated with excessive use of force brought one time, against a police officer in Bethel.
Cockrell said the department is reviewing some of Miller and Woodruff’s previous cases as a result of their conduct in the May 24 incident.
He said it was an “unfortunate day” for the agency and that he hopes Alaskans will continue to put their trust in troopers.
“It’s hard for me to equate how this has affected me and other troopers that wear this uniform,” he said.
Woodruff and Miller are scheduled to be arraigned at the Kenai Courthouse on Sept. 10.
