Beverly Masek Goes to Prison

Anchorage--

Former State Rep. Beverly Masek (R.-Willow) has started serving her six-month prison term.

The Anchorage Daily News reported this morning that the ex-legislator went this week into a minimum-security federal prison camp for women in the California desert.

Masek joins ex-State Rep. Tom Anderson (R.-Anchorage) as the only persons in prison as a result of the long-running federal investigation into Alaska public corruption.

The roundup of the other 10 defendants charged in that investigation is as follows:

Former State Reps. Pete Kott (R.-Eagle River) and Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla) began serving multi-year prison terms, but both were released earlier this year and remain free while a judge sorts out allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in their trials.

A pre-trial appeal sidetracked the case of former State Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch (R.-Juneau), and the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument next month in that appeal. Depending on the Supreme Court's decision and the Department of Justice's evaluation of that decision, Weyhrauch could be tried in Anchorage next September.

Bill Allen and Rick Smith, former executives of the now-defunct oil-services company VECO, have not yet been assigned spaces in prison and so have not yet begun serving time, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Jim Clark, former Chief of Staff to Gov. Frank Murkowski, has pleaded guilty and his sentencing has been delayed to next fall.

Former municipal lobbyist Bill Bobrick and former private prisons magnate and powerbroker Bill Weimar have served the prison portions of their sentences.

Former State Sen. John Cowdery (R.-Anchorage) escaped a prison sentence due to the sentencing judge's concerns for his poor health.

The guilty verdicts rendered by a jury against former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska) were set aside due to prosecutorial misconduct.