Muñoz can't 'remove' her letters supporting child abusers, even if she wants to, court official says

Following a media firestorm of criticism and a deluge of condemnation from constituents and colleagues who are disturbed by Rep. Cathy Muñoz’s decision to act as a reference for people convicted in child sex abuse cases, Muñoz said she’d like to take it all back.

“(The letters) unintentionally caused pain to victims of sexual abuse and for that, I sincerely apologize,” Muñoz wrote in a letter of apology posted on her website. She also took out a paid advertisement with her husband, Juan Muñoz, to print the letter in Thursday and Sunday’s Empire.

Muñoz wrote in her apology letter that she has requested the Juneau Court System remove her letters from the record.

That doesn’t appear to be a legal possibility.

Nancy Meade, general counsel for the Alaska Court System, said in a phone interview Tuesday that if someone no longer wants a judge to consider the letter or information that’s already been submitted, a second letter has to be submitted, saying something along the lines of “please disregard that first letter.” But they would both remain part of the official court record.

“We don’t pull documents from court. Those documents are the record of everything that truly, actually happened,” Meade said. “We don’t toss them in the trash. Anything in there is officially in there.”

The Empire had an interview scheduled with Muñoz for Wednesday. She cancelled early in the morning saying she was out sick and would reply to only a few questions via email.

[Rep. Cathy Munoz writes letters of support on behalf of defendants in two sex abuse cases]

In one of those emails Wednesday, Muñoz said that she has spoken to several people who feel hurt by her decision to support perpetrators of violence rather than the victims of sexual assault and abuse. Muñoz wrote a letter earlier this year on behalf of a family friend, Thomas Jack Jr., 40, who was convicted of sexually assaulting his foster child, and for a church friend Mary Chessica Hauge, 33, who was convicted of neglecting her children who were sexually abused by their father.

Muñoz wrote in an email that although citizen legislators do have a legal right to speak out, they have to adhere to a higher standard.

Originally, when the Empire first broke the story about the letters, Muñoz told the Empire she felt she didn’t do anything wrong by acting as a private citizen on behalf of people she considered her friends.

After the Empire article was published Aug. 21, she faced a barrage of criticism from her constituents — who lambasted her on her campaign Facebook page for supporting perpetrators instead of victims. One fellow legislator, Rep. Sam Kito III, said he was surprised to learn about her actions and initially felt they went against what he understood to be ethical Legislature-to-court policy. Statewide, editorials from the Alaska Dispatch News and the Empire circulated questioning Muñoz’s judgment.

News about the letters also prompted advocacy groups, such as the Aiding Women in Abuse and Rape Emergencies center (AWARE) in Juneau, and child abuse survivors themselves to speak out on the importance of believing and helping sex abuse survivors rather than their abusers.

In her apology letter, Muñoz also wrote that she believed the commentary has “been politicized without all of the facts and context under which the actions were taken.”

Addressing a concern from an ADN editorial about her sponsorship for House Bill 334, which could make custody battles more difficult for abused partners by eliminating the use of a person’s history of violence in certain circumstances, Muñoz wrote in her apology letter that the bill provides “more judicial discretion in complicated, highly-charged custody determinations.”

Muñoz also proposed Amendment No. 23 within Senate Bill 91 — the comprehensive crime reform bill that was recently passed into law. Muñoz requested that the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission put together a report analyzing cases of sexual assault when both victims are under the age of 19. She did not respond to the Empire’s request for an explanation as to why she requested the study in the first place, or if it was part of another constituent’s request for help in a legal situation.

Muñoz wrote in her apology letter that “after consulting with a prominent domestic violence advocacy group, I withdrew my request (for the study).”

• Contact reporter Paula Ann Solis at 523-2272 or paula.solis@juneauempire.com.

Editor’s note: Rep. Cathy Muñoz contacted the Juneau Empire on Thursday to clarify that she used the wrong wording when she wrote that she wanted her letters of support for convicted felons to be “removed from the record.” Muñoz said she wants her letters to be disregarded by the court.