National Roundup

Alaska
City reinstates police chief after felony assault charge is dropped
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) — The police chief of a small Alaska community is back to work after a felony assault charge against him was dropped and the city cleared him in an internal investigation.

Ketchikan Police Chief Jeffrey Walls returned to work Aug. 22.

"He has a proven track record of keeping his community safe and of acting in the best interest of his officers and citizens; I am confident that he will continue to do so at KPD," Ketchikan City Manager Delilah Walsh said in a statement provided to the Ketchikan Daily News announcing Walls' reinstatement.

A grand jury in December returned an indictment against Walls, charging him with felony assault along with five misdemeanors, three counts of assault and two counts of reckless endangerment, stemming from an incident at a local resort.

According to court documents, Alaska State Troopers responded to the Salmon Falls Resort restaurant on Sept. 10 to investigate a report of an assault involving a man, Walls and Walls' wife, Sharon.

Troopers believed they were responding to an assault on the Wallses but saw the chief outside, apparently uninjured, and the man bleeding from his head, the documents said.

Witnesses told investigators the man was intoxicated and causing disturbances throughout the evening. The man intentionally bumped into the chair of the chief, who was off-duty at the time, and apologized. The two men shook hands, according to the indictment.

An hour later, the man stumbled into Sharon Walls' bar chair. Her husband got up from his seat, ran after the man and pushed him head-first into a stone wall and put him in a chokehold, the indictment said.

The city put Walls on paid administrative leave pending its own internal investigation.

Last month, the felony charge was dismissed by Ketchikan Superior Court Judge Katherine Lybrand, who found the state prosecutor gave erroneous instructions to the grand jury regarding Walls' legal authority as a peace officer under Alaska statute to use force to make an arrest or terminate an escape while off duty.

The prosecutor's error was "significant enough to warrant dismissal of the indictment," the judge said.

The misdemeanor charges remain, and a jury trial is scheduled to start Oct. 23.

Following the dismissal, the city also concluded its own probe.

"Our internal investigation has concluded and coupled with the dismissal of the related indictment, I have asked Chief Walls to return to duty," Walsh wrote.

"As I have said from the start, Chief Walls did absolutely nothing wrong," Walls' attorney, Jay Hochberg, said in an email to the Ketchikan newspaper. "(Walls) used reasonable and proportionate force to detain an intoxicated man who had just committed an assault in his presence. He is a dedicated public servant whose actions were entirely authorized by law."

Walls worked in law enforcement for 25 years and was commander of several districts of the New Orleans Police Department before being hired in December 2021 by Ketchikan, a community of just under 14,000 people located on an island in southeast Alaska. It is a major port for city-sized cruise ships coming to Alaska.


Iowa
Owner of collapsed building that killed 3 files lawsuit blaming engineering firm
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — The owner of an Iowa apartment building that collapsed in May, killing three people, has filed a lawsuit that blames an engineering company for not warning the building was structurally unsound and that residents should be evacuated.

Real estate owner Andrew Wold filed the lawsuit last week against Select Structural Engineering, more than three months after the May 28 partial collapse of the building in Davenport, the Quad-City Times reported Sunday. Three men died when one side of the six-story building partially collapsed and crews had to amputate a woman's leg to rescue her from the rubble.

The lawsuit argued Select Structural Engineering didn't identify the risk of collapse, the danger of such a collapse and repairs that would have avoided a collapse.

"At no time did Select Structural opine that the defects in the west wall would require an evacuation of the building," the lawsuit said. "To the contrary, Select Structural expressly stated that the Davenport Hotel was not in danger of collapse and that no evacuation was necessary."

Select Structural, based in Bettendorf, Iowa, has declined to comment on the building collapse.

On Monday, the newspaper also reported that more than 2,000 emails released under a public records request included one from a city code enforcement officer to himself. The officer wanted to document a coworker's comment — two days after the collapse — that the colleague had warned of the danger.

Officer Tom Van De Wiele wrote in the email May 30 that another code enforcement officer, Anthony Haut, showed him pictures of an exterior wall that he said showed the danger. In the email, Van De Wiele wrote, "He was frustrated and whispered to me that 'the whole side is going to come down.'"

Van De Wiele wrote that he told Haut he should tell supervisors Rich Oswald or Beth Bringolf. But the other code enforcement officer responded "I have and Rich told me to back off and don't worry about it."

Van De Wiele wrote that he wanted to "document this for down the road just in case."

None of those named in the email responded to requests for comment by the Quad-City Times, and Assistant City Attorney Brian Heyer told the newspaper that city employees aren't authorized to respond to such media inquiries.

Since the building collapsed, residents have filed several lawsuits arguing that the building owner, engineering company and city officials were negligent. Documents released by the city made clear that all were aware that the 116-year-old building had structural problems but the engineering company said there wasn't an "imminent threat" to the building or residents.

The remains of the building were cleared in the weeks after the collapse and the downtown site is now bare ground.