A Juneau man allegedly struck a family member in the face with a bottle this past weekend, according to charging documents, and was indicted for two charges of first-degree assault and one charge of second-degree assault.
A Juneau grand jury indicted Alauni Iputi, 45, on the trio of charges Thursday. First-degree assault is a class A felony and second-degree assault is a class B felony. The family member was 21 years old, according to the police report.
Juneau Police Department Officer Hannah Malone wrote up a report in the charging documents. According to Malone’s report, the victim reported to Bartlett Regional Hospital staff on Sunday, March 25 that his uncle “Pule” had assaulted him earlier in the morning. “Pule” was later identified as Iputi, according to Malone’s report in the charging document.
Malone went to the hospital, according to her report, and learned from doctors that the victim had serious facial injuries and that the victim would likely lose the sight in his eyeball because the eyeball had ruptured. Doctors told Malone that the victim would get surgery out of state, according to Malone’s report.
The victim told Malone he had been at Iputi’s house playing beer pong and eating pizza in the early morning hours of Sunday, March 25, according to Malone’s report. The victim said Iputi had suddenly struck him in the face with a glass bottle multiple times, according to Malone’s report.
Malone then interviewed Iputi, according to her report. When the two of them spoke, according to the report, Iputi showed Malone a cut across his palm that had dried blood. According to the report, Iputi said he had “just snapped” when everyone had been around the table and getting noisy.
Iputi, according to the report, said he had picked up a Corona beer bottle and struck the victim hard across the face with it. Both Iputi and the victim told Malone that Iputi hit the victim hard enough that it knocked the victim out of his chair, according to the report. Malone wrote that Iputi said he had gone to the kitchen and gotten a knife after hitting the victim, but a witness held him back.
Iputi made bail (which was set at $5,000) Thursday and was in court both Thursday and Friday. Judge Philip Pallenberg set a trial date for July 16. Assistant District Attorney Amy Paige estimated a trial will last four or five days. Pallenberg said he believes Iputi qualifies for getting representation from the Public Defenders Office. Assistant Public Defender Eric Hedland stepped in to provide Iputi assistance Friday.
Other indictments
• Travis Ian Johnson, 35, was indicted for second-degree theft, which is a class C felony. According to charging documents, Johnson was seen on surveillance video stealing a laser level belonging to BCD Construction that was being used on a renovation in a business inside the Senate Building on Franklin Street. The The laser level is worth an estimated $2,300.
• Jessy James Wolfe, 23, was indicted for felony driving under the influence, a class C felony. Wolfe was also charged on two counts of reckless endangerment, both class A misdemeanors. According to a report from JPD Sgt. Brian Dallas in charging documents, Dallas saw a car traveling 90 miles per hour inbound on Egan Drive at 3:55 a.m. Sunday.
Dallas had to drive over 100 miles per hour to catch up to the car, he wrote in his report, and finally got close to the car near Norway Point. According to Dallas’ report, the car was going an estimated 65-70 miles per hour around the curve at Norway Point where the speed limit is 40 miles per hour. Eventually, according to the report, the car slowed down and pulled over into the Harris Harbor parking lot.
Dallas and Officer Nick Garza spoke with the driver, whom they identified as Wolfe, as well as the two passengers, according to the report. According to the report, Wolfe told the officers he had been at the Imperial Bar and Viking Bar, but didn’t have much to drink because he was the designated driver.
Wolfe failed sobriety tests, Dallas wrote, and was arrested. At the JPD station, Dallas wrote, Wolfe provided a breath sample that showed his blood-alcohol content was 0.212 percent (the legal limit is 0.08 percent). Wolfe was taken to Lemon Creek Correction Center where he was held without bail, according to the report, because this was his third DUI in 10 years (in 2015 and 2017).
• Robert James Paul Jr., 39, was indicted for second-degree assault, a class B felony. A report in charging documents from JPD Officer Thomas McGrann states that at 5:40 p.m. March 20, he responded to a call about a disturbance on Franklin Street near the Glory Hole Homeless Shelter.
There, he found a 35-year-old woman on the sidewalk with a bloody towel wrapped around her leg, McGrann’s report reads. The woman told McGrann that she and Paul (whom she identified as her boyfriend) had been arguing when Paul pulled out a knife, according to the report. The woman said Paul was making a slashing movement with the knife, the report reads, and when she kicked at Paul to get away from him he stabbed her in the leg.
A witness saw Paul walking away with a knife, the witness told JPD Officer Hannah Malone according to the report. The witness told Malone that she could hear Paul saying he wanted to cut the victim, according to the report.
Officers found Paul soon afterward at the intersection of Franklin and First Street, according to the report, and patted him down for weapons. They found none, McGrann wrote, but took Paul to JPD to be interviewed. During the interview, the report states, Paul told Sgt. Shawn Phelps that he did not pull a knife out and did not know how the woman was cut.
Phelps went to Bartlett Regional Hospital to examine the victim, according to the report, and found that she had a deep cut on her lower right leg approximately four inches long. BRH spokesperson Katie Bausler told the Empire the following day that the victim was discharged in stable condition.
• Gabriel Isaiah Falzarano, 37, and Stephen A Haseltime, 33, were indicted on one charge each of second-degree theft, a class C felony. According to charging documents, a woman on Anka Street called JPD at 12:01 a.m. March 15 reporting that two men were trying to get into her family’s vehicles. The woman told police, according to a report from JPD Sgt. Sterling Salisbury, that the two men were digging the snow around her snowplow and trying to steal it and that the men had then gotten into a Ford pickup truck and left.
Salisbury later found, according to his report, that the two men had attempted to steal the plow (estimated to be worth $7,500) between eight and 10 feet in the snow with a dolly.
[JPD arrests two for attempting alleged snowplow theft]
About 20 minutes later, according to Salisbury’s report, he saw a green Ford truck pulling a trailer without trailer lights turn onto Shaune Drive. Salisbury wrote that he watched the truck turn onto Commercial Drive without stopping at the stop sign and then quickly turn onto Ralphs Way where Salisbury pulled the truck over.
During the traffic stop, Salisbury wrote, he noticed the trailer was attached by chain instead of by ball and hitch. The trailer was registered to Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority, Salisbury wrote. Salisbury wrote that he identified the driver as Falzarano and the passenger as Haseltine. The men both told Salisbury they had permission from a man in Ketchikan to use the trailer, but Tlingit Haida Property Specialist Angela Lewis told Salisbury she didn’t know who that man was and that Falzarano and Haseltine did not have permission to use the trailer (estimated to be worth $1,500), Salisbury’s report read.
Lewis later showed Salisbury where the trailer had been parked, according to the report, and Salisbury found shoe prints that matched the shoes Falzarano and Haseltine had been wearing. According to a press release at the time, JPD arrested Falzarano and Haseltine for second-degree theft, second-degree attempted theft and first-degree criminal trespass. They were held at LCCC without bail, according to the release.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
