Latest news with #Jouppi
New York Times
26-04-2025
- New York Times
Beer Aboard a Flight to a Dry Alaska Town Costs a Pilot His $95,000 Plane
A six-pack of beer at the corner store will generally set you back $10 or $15, maybe a tad more. But even a small batch of the most artisanal locally brewed I.P.A. isn't $95,000. But that's how much a cargo of beer has cost Kenneth J. Jouppi, 82, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, who piloted charter flights in Alaska until around 2014. On April 18, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that he could be forced to forfeit his $95,000 plane as a penalty for trying to fly alcohol into a dry Alaskan community that does not allow for the importation, sale or possession of alcohol, according to court records. In April 2012, a state trooper stopped Mr. Jouppi before his plane took off from Fairbanks, Alaska, after the trooper said that he saw Mr. Jouppi 'opening and closing boxes' that contained beer, according to court records. The trooper said 'it would have been impossible' for Mr. Jouppi not to see at least one six-pack out of 72 beers that were on the plane. Mr. Jouppi denied knowing that the beer was on board. (Mr. Jouppi could not recall, and the court papers did not specify, the brand of beer.) Mr. Jouppi was taking a client 110 miles north to Beaver, Alaska, a community of about 80 people. The community, which was founded in 1907 amid discoveries of gold, has a small air strip and is most easily accessible by plane. After a jury found that Mr. Jouppi tried to illegally bring alcohol to Beaver, he was sentenced to three days in jail and he and his company were fined a total of $3,000. But the trial court declined to confiscate his plane, a Cessna 206 that fits six passengers and that was valued at $95,000. The state appealed and an appeals court agreed that the plane should be confiscated, according to court records. Eventually, the case reached the Alaska Supreme Court. The court agreed with the state that confiscating the plane did not violate the excessive fines clause of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. 'We hold, as a matter of law, that the owner of the airplane failed to establish that forfeiture would be unconstitutionally excessive,' the Alaska Supreme Court concluded. The plane is no longer in Mr. Jouppi's possession and its fate was not immediately clear. Robert John, Mr. Jouppi's lawyer, said that he and his client will seek to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. 'When they took my plane, I was forced into retirement,' Mr. Jouppi said on Friday. 'You spend a lot of sleepless nights. It hasn't been a pleasant experience at all.' In an email on Friday, Donald Soderstrom, the assistant attorney general for the office of criminal appeals, called the State Supreme Court's decision 'reasonable even when limited to one six-pack.' 'Alcohol abuse has been a problem in Alaska for many years, including in rural communities that are off the road system and are accessible primarily by air,' he said. Mr. Jouppi, who is Finnish, said he remains steadfast in his attempt to get his case heard by the country's highest court. 'I don't know if you're familiar with the Finnish people,' he said, 'but we're awful damn stubborn.'
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Yahoo
Alaska's seizure of a bootlegger's plane was legal, Supreme Court says
Alaska Supreme Court Justice Jude Pate, right, asks a question during oral arguments in a case concerning correspondence education allotments, on June 27, 2024, in the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/Alaska Beacon) When the state of Alaska seized a bootlegger's plane, it did not violate the U.S. Constitution's excessive fines clause, the Alaska Supreme Court has ruled. The ruling, published Friday, involves a 13-year-old dispute that followed the conviction of Kenneth Jouppi for attempting to transport beer from Fairbanks to Beaver, an Interior Alaska town that has outlawed the importation, sale and possession of alcohol. Jouppi operated an air service and was transporting a passenger who had loaded 72 cans of beer as cargo. Troopers said Jouppi was aware of at least one six-pack and thus knowingly transported alcohol, something Jouppi contested at trial. The state attempted to seize Jouppi's airplane as a result of the conviction, but the trial court denied that seizure, citing state law. The state appealed, and the Alaska Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the seizure, remanding the case back to the trial court. The trial court again declined to rule in favor of the seizure, this time citing the U.S. Constitution, and the state appealed to the Supreme Court. 'We hold, as a matter of law, that the owner of the airplane failed to establish that forfeiture would be unconstitutionally excessive,' wrote Justice Jude Pate on behalf of the court, which ruled unanimously. 'Forfeiture of the airplane constituted a fine within the meaning of the Excessive Fines Clause, and … the forfeiture is not grossly disproportional to the gravity of the harm caused by the offense,' he wrote. The decision was based upon a U.S. Supreme Court case known as United States v. Bajakajian, which set up a two-part test to determine whether a fine is excessive: The fine must be intended as punishment, and it cannot be disproportional to the crime. Citing legislative debates, the Alaska Supreme Court's new ruling says that lawmakers intended aircraft-related smuggling to be subject to greater penalties than other ways of bootlegging. In addition, the ruling says that the harm caused by alcohol to rural Alaska means that severe punishment is not disproportionate. 'Alcohol abuse in rural Alaska leads to increased crime; disorders, such as alcoholism; conditions, such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; and death, imposing substantial costs on public health and the administration of justice. Within this context, it is clear that the illegal importation of even a six-pack of beer causes grave societal harm,' the ruling states. 'This factor strongly suggests that the forfeiture is not grossly disproportional.' The Alaska Supreme Court's ruling sends the case back to the Court of Appeals for further work. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
