BETHEL -- Less than two weeks after the Bethel district attorney was told she was being forced out, the prosecutor tapped to fill in until a replacement is named has announced his resignation.
Chris Carpeneti -- a longtime Bethel assistant district attorney -- called a state deputy attorney general earlier this week to say he was leaving, effective April 3, said Richard Svobodny, the deputy over criminal matters, on Friday. Carpeneti has served as a Bethel prosecutor for 7 1/2 years. He landed there after law school and passing the Alaska Bar exam. He will briefly serve as acting district attorney in Bethel, Svobodny said.
Carpeneti, the son of former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Walter Carpeneti, shed little light Friday about his decision.
"The timing was just right to make a change," he said. Svobodny said that Carpeneti told him that he was planning "to take substantial time off."
That will leave Bethel with five assistant district attorneys, but the state will fill both open jobs and bring in someone temporarily if needed, Svobodny said. All of the remaining assistants are in their first lawyer job with two years or less of experience, said June Stein, the Bethel district attorney whose last day is Monday.
Prosecutors in Bethel have a big job with a high number of cases involving accusations of sex crimes and domestic violence. Overall their caseload sizes fall around the middle of those across the state, though their geographic challenges are the biggest, Svobodny said. They handle cases out of 54 villages and appear in the courtrooms of two Superior Court judges, a District Court judge and five magistrates, with four of them based in villages, he said.
Stein said that Carpeneti told her he was planning to resign, but she referred questions about what prompted the decision to him.
Carpeneti's resignation pressures the attorney general's office to move as quickly as possible to find a replacement, Svobodny said.
Some prosecutors already have expressed interest. Svobodny and John Skidmore, director of the criminal division, will interview candidates and make a recommendation to Attorney General Craig Richards, who will make the call on whom to appoint, Svobodny said. District attorney appointments must be approved by the governor, he said.
Gov. Bill Walker came under criticism for the firing of Stein last month at his direction. Svobodny flew to Bethel to let Stein know. The last time an Alaska district attorney was forced out -- Anchorage's Bob Linton -- it was by email and caused hard feelings, Svobodny said.
"I didn't think that was right," he said. But he said he couldn't discuss the reasons that Stein was let go. Walker has said she wasn't a good fit for Bethel and that he had heard concerns from a number of people.
Some critics, including former Attorney General John Havelock, said the governor should not have intervened. But Svobodny, who has worked as a prosecutor almost 40 years, said governors have been involved in shake-ups within district attorney offices before now.
The Bethel district attorney's post, like those in Kotzebue, Barrow and other remote hubs, is a hard one to fill, he acknowledged.
"It's not so hard to find people to go to Anchorage or Fairbanks or Palmer or Kenai, but if you're talking about Kotzebue or Barrow or Bethel -- even Sitka -- it's difficult to get people to go there," he said.
Turnover among prosecutors in rural communities is high, Svobodny said, so he wasn't surprised that Carpeneti is leaving.
The Bethel posts bring a 50 percent cost-of-living boost compared to Anchorage. Stein was making close to $187,000 a year and Carpeneti, about $136,000, according to the state Division of Personnel and Labor Relations.