Great Horses’ Ties to the Great Land

Anchorage—

The Last Frontier’s connections to the Triple Crown continue. Last year Mine That Bird—a horse co-owned by former VECO executive Mark Allen—won the Kentucky Derby before taking second in the Preakness and third in the Belmont Stakes. Last Saturday First Dude—a horse named after Todd Palin, the husband of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin—placed second in the Preakness.

Bill Allen is part of both horses' stories. Mark Allen appears to have bought his share of Mine That Bird out of funds he got after his father sold VECO, and Sarah Palin’s new-face-running-against-the-good-old-boys campaign for Governor in 2006 was substantially aided by the FBI’s searches of legislative offices that concentrated on crimes Bill Allen was involved in.

Another Delay, and More Juicy Stuff on Life in Stir

Anchorage—

Beverly Masek’s lawyer has asked for another delay of her sentencing, currently scheduled for next week. Her attorney says that she needs time to go through psychiatric evaluation and substance abuse treatment.

Masek, formerly a Republican State Representative representing Willow and environs, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to take bribes from long-time VECO CEO Bill Allen and a relative of Allen's (apparently Bill Allen's son Mark Allen, co-owner of Kentucky Derby champion Mine That Bird). Masek's quid pro quo for the bribes was her willingness to pull back an oil tax bill she had introduced that was disliked by VECO’s clients in the oil industry.

The prosecution is not opposing the request for a delay, which might put the sentencing off until September. At this point—after the embarrassing revelations about evidence-sharing failures by prosecutors that wiped out Ted Stevens’ convictions and led to the interim release of former State Reps. Pete Kott and Vic Kohring—the government lawyers are probably just happy that the defense is not seeking to withdraw former State Rep. Masek’s plea based on allegations that the prosecution has committed discovery violations.

Speaking of Kohring, the Anchorage Daily News continues to cover his release like the morning dew covers the ground. The latest installment was headlined “Despite his lockup, Kohring still supports private prisons,” and the story in yesterday’s edition carried a subhead that is either cheering or scary: “REFORM: If the freed ex-legislator ever gets re-elected, he says he would work to improve conditions.” That article was by Richard Mauer, and he and his colleagues Lisa Demer and Sean Cockerham have done a solid job chronicling all this tale’s shocking twists and funny angles. (Well-known as a big eater, Kohring said he lost 47 pounds in prison and made a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet his first stop when he got on the ground in Alaska.)

Roundup of Recent News

Anchorage—

1. Mine That Bird did not win the Belmont Stakes, but instead finished third in last Saturday’s final leg of the Triple Crown. The tough little bay-colored gelding apparently bought with money from the sale of VECO went off as a 6-5 favorite and looked good as the leaders made the final turn, but got beaten in the long home stretch by its half-brother Summer Bird.

Jockey Calvin Borel, so masterful in piloting Mine That Bird to an incredible upset in the Kentucky Derby and triumphant again aboard the filly Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness, perhaps let Mine That Bird go for the lead a little too early in the famously grueling 1.5-mile Belmont. Summer Bird went past Mine That Bird at the end to win, and Dunkirk came back to take second. Just like in politics, it’s critical when you make your move.

“I thought I was home free,” Borel said, “and the other horses galloped by.”

Mark Allen, the son of long-time VECO CEO Bill Allen and the specific beneficiary of a plea agreement his father made to give him immunity from prosecution, must still be pleased despite the failure of Borel to bring home the win in the latest race. Mark Allen bought Mine That Bird with a co-owner last fall for a reported $400,000. The thoroughbred was unknown and seemed to have terrible prospects six weeks ago when its trainer drove it to the first leg of the Triple Crown. Then the horse finished first in the Kentucky Derby, second in the Preakness, and third in the Belmont Stakes.

Hat tip: Associated Press and ABC-TV.

2. The two prosecutors who served—in the words of Legal Times—as the “point men on the ground in Alaska” for the Public Integrity Section in the public corruption probe have been quietly transferred out of that unit. The news came two months after the case against U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens collapsed after the jury returned guilty verdicts. Nicholas Marsh and Edward Sullivan—who between them were involved in investigations that brought convictions pursuant to trial or guilty plea of 11 defendants in the "POLAR PEN" investigations--got the word on Thursday, according to the Washington Post. There has been no word on where the two lawyers landed.

Department of Justice sources told the Washington Post that the decision to transfer Marsh and Sullivan had led to some grumbling among some of the Department’s attorneys, particularly because other attorneys central to the tainted prosecution of Ted Stevens were left in place. The newspaper reported that the sources said that it looked like lower-level lawyers were being made scapegoats by “new political appointees at the department who are now applying more rigorous standards on evidence-sharing practices than were in place before.”

3. Two of those defendants that Marsh and Sullivan helped put behind bars have gotten much closer to getting out, at least for a while. District Judge John Sedwick ordered the U.S. Marshals to bring ex-State Reps. Pete Kott (R.-Eagle River) and Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla) to Anchorage, moving along a process that started with the Department of Justice’s announcement of newly found discovery violations in the trials of the two former state legislators. (That announcement came last Thursday, the same day Marsh and Sullivan learned they were being transferred.)

The question now is whether Kott and Kohring will get their convictions overturned or whether they will face new trials. Judge Sedwick will hold hearings on that question.

Confessions of Error from the Land of the Would-Be Lucky

Fantasy Springs Casino, Cabazon, California—

So here I am in this casino just showing you I’m not the guy some of you might wish I was.

If I were a famous trial lawyer used to making my opponents cower in fear, I’d probably be swaggering from table to table throwing down bets so big and so reckless that onlookers would reel in shock and awe.

But that’s not the guy you got here, dear reader. Instead, I’m upstairs on a balcony overlooking the main floor blogging for you. I’m on a nice leather couch where I can see the flashing lights and hear the happy music and watch the people go by, but I’m not in the fray of the game. It’s probably because I’m not really built for the lust for the play and the main chance that you find in people who are really dedicated to trying to win at every aspect of life. And I’ve never enjoyed gambling at pure games of chance like slots and craps—if I was going to wager, I’d probably go for poker or horseracing, where you can at least think that you can apply some learning and/or research.

(So why I am in a casino, you ask? Well, my mother and I were in the neighborhood, and she thinks gambling’s fun, so….)

Anyway, it seems appropriate in a place where people go for the gusto but often end up with pangs of regret that I point out that I’ve made a couple of booboos recently.

In reverse chronological order:

1. On May 1, I told you that Mark Allen and the other owner of Mine That Bird “will collect a $2 million purse for their horse’s triumph” in the Kentucky Derby.

Wrong. The purse of the Kentucky Derby—that is, the total amount paid out to the owners of horses who finish “in the money”—was a little north of $2 million. The winner’s share of that purse was about $1.4 million. I was misled by a newspaper account that suggested that Mark Allen and his co-owner would receive the entire purse.

2. On April 1, I wrote that baseball slugger Barry Bonds “passed Babe Ruth’s legendary all-time record” for hitting home runs.

Wrong again, and this time I have no excuse at all. It was Hank Aaron who broke Babe Ruth’s record, as commenter “Aapa” pointed out on the Alaska Dispatch website when my post was republished there. Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s record.

I have been a baseball fan for almost five decades, and this was not a mistake I should have made. The explanations for this slip range from the romantic to the vaguely scary. Maybe it was because Ruth’s record was canonical while I was a boy, and early memories stuck with me even though I have seen footage repeatedly over the years of Aaron rounding the bases after his record-shattering shot. Or maybe it’s the relative lack of controversy associated with Aaron’s life that makes him less memorable. By all accounts Hank Aaron is a more admirable person than either Ruth or Bonds, but maybe that same rectitude makes him stand out less in the memory. In any case, apologies.

Speaking of more admirable people, tomorrow I plan to be blogging from a school instead of a casino. I’m here in California because my son is graduating from boarding school about an hour's drive away. Here’s a shoutout to all the graduates this season, and congratulations as well to all those who helped them through. You're all winners in my book.

Mine That Bird Finishes Second in the Preakness

Anchorage—

The game little gelding apparently bought with money from the sale of VECO could only place in the Preakness, losing the second leg of thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown.

Mine That Bird pulled off another charge out of last place, but its stretch run yesterday came up just short as Rachel Alexandra won by about the length of a racehorse.

Racing fans rejoiced in the first victory of a filly in the Preakness since 1924 and the possibility of another matchup in the Belmont next month between Rachel Alexandra and Mine That Bird, the miracle winner of the Kentucky Derby who showed with its second-place finish that it wasn't just a one-race wonder.

Those following the Alaska public corruption scandals also savored the maneuvering that preceded the Preakness. Mark Allen, former VECO CEO Bill Allen’s son and co-owner of Mine That Bird, tried to keep Rachel Alexandra out of the Preakness. Mark Allen said that he wanted to exclude Rachel Alexandra—who didn’t run in the Derby—so that he could get the services of Calvin Borel, the jockey who piloted 50-1 longshot Mine That Bird to the Derby triumph before announcing his intention to switch to Rachel Alexandra for the Preakness. Later Mark Allen admitted, however, that his real intention was to “keep that good filly out” of the Preakness.

Mark Allen said that he decided to drop what the Alaska Ear column in the Anchorage Daily News called his “pack-the-track plan” after he talked it over with his father Bill Allen and the horse’s co-owner and took a Harley ride.

“It was selfish, definitely selfish,” Mark Allen told the Daily Racing News. “I was getting greedy. It was the wrong thing to do.”

It looks like racing enthusiasts will get to see Mark Allen at least one more time on the Triple Crown circuit, as Mine That Bird seems likely to run in the Belmont even if Rachel Alexandra doesn’t. Allen will be at the famous race with Mine That Bird’s trainer Chip Woolley, the former rodeo bareback rider who last year got him to buy a half-share of the bay horse with the turned-out feet.

Sportswriters have delighted in reporting Mark Allen’s account of how he got to know Woolley. The two of them met 25 years ago when both were working at a racetrack in Raton, New Mexico.

“We didn’t like each other at first,” Mark Allen told Sports Illustrated. “We were fixin’ to probably lock horns.”

That changed one night at a bar called Annie Get Your Guns when Allen got into a brawl in which he was outnumbered.

"Chip came in and helped me out," Allen told Sports Illustrated. "There were about five of them, two of us, and we done all right. We've been friends ever since."

Allen did allow to the New York Times that the fight wasn’t a cakewalk after Woolley waded in on his side. “It took us a while, and we paid the next day.”

Clean-Up I

Anchorage—

Commenter (and careful reader) Mark Regan asked a question several days ago that deserves a more general response. His question is: “Does the federal plea deal preclude the State from filing bribery charges against young Mr. Allen?”

The short answer is that Bill Allen’s plea agreement with the federal government does not legally bar the State of Alaska from filing bribery charges against his son Mark Allen, but for legal and practical reasons this is highly unlikely to occur.

Questions about Bill Allen’s plea agreement arise frequently enough that the provision regarding family members and VECO is worth setting out:

Although he was not made any specific promises in exchange for his cooperation, BILL ALLEN was advised by the government that if, at the completion of ALLEN's cooperation, the government determines that ALLEN has fully cooperated with the government's investigation and that ALLEN's full cooperation has provided substantial assistance to the ongoing investigation, the government (1) will not charge ALLEN's son, Mark Allen, or other family members of ALLEN with any criminal offenses arising out of the government's investigation or that have been disclosed to the government, and (2) will view ALLEN's cooperation as also being cooperation on the part of VECO.

Bill Allen’s plea agreement also specifically provides that it binds only the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. That plea agreement states that it “does not bind any United States Attorney's Office or any other office or agency of the United States, or any state or local prosecutor.”

While that provision just quoted makes it look like Mark Allen is vulnerable to prosecution by the State of Alaska, there are at least two reasons that this will not occur.

The first reason is legal. The specific act of Mark Allen’s under discussion is the one suggested by the combination of his father’s testimony at the Ted Stevens trial and the documents filed in court in conjunction with the plea agreement of ex-State Rep. Beverly Masek (R-Willow). The “Factual Basis for Plea” states that at an Anchorage restaurant “a relative” of Bill Allen gave Masek—then a state legislator—“several thousand dollars in cash,” and Bill Allen testified at the Stevens trial that his son gave a female legislator money under circumstances suggesting bribery.

The legal problem with the State of Alaska prosecuting Mark Allen for bribing Masek is that the “Factual Basis for Plea” states that this cash transfer occurred on April 18, 2003. Given that the relevant statute of limitations under Alaska state law would appear to be five years, there seems to be no way for the State of Alaska to prosecute Mark Allen for that act.

More generally, however, the State of Alaska would not want to get in the way of the federal probe into public corruption on the Last Frontier, and it is clear that the Department of Justice would see state prosecutions of offenses uncovered in that federal investigation as interference.

The bottom line is that while Bill Allen is headed to federal prison, his son Mark Allen is highly likely to continue to bask unmolested in the glory of his horse’s upset victory in the Kentucky Derby.

I'll Bet My Money on the Bob-Tail Nag, Somebody Bet on the Bay

Anchorage—


I’m still thinking about Mine That Bird’s amazing victory at the Kentucky Derby this weekend.

This small and previously undistinguished horse apparently bought with money from the sale of VECO went from last to first on a sloppy track at America’s premier race. A 50-1 longshot, Mine That Bird won by the largest margin seen at the Derby in 63 years. Now the little thoroughbred out of the West is apparently going to go on to the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown. Are there parallels to the whole story of Alaska public corruption?

Two corrections: In my excitement yesterday I slightly misspelled the horse’s name—it’s “Mine That Bird,” not “Mine that Bird.” And the mud on the Derby track helped cover up the horse’s true color, which is not brown but reddish-brown—“bay” in the equine world.

(The title of this post comes from Stephen Foster’s song “Camptown Races”; the spelling is modernized.)