Anchorage Assembly member protests Bronson administration’s handling of a menacing voicemail he reported to police

Late last month, a man left a menacing voicemail filled with insults and slurs for the Anchorage Assembly’s vice chair, Chris Constant. He found it threatening and reported it to Anchorage police.

Days later, an article including emails between the city’s police chief and municipal manager appeared on a local right-wing website with the headline, “Assemblyman Constant says a man left death threats, but Anchorage police chief says it didn’t happen.”

Constant said he didn’t learn of the police investigation’s outcome until he read the article. It quoted an email from Police Chief Michael Kerle to Municipal Manager Amy Demboski saying the police “found no credible threat” after investigating the voicemail.

The article also included a comment from Demboski:

“I listened to the voicemails Mr. Constant alleged were death threats and all I heard was someone who disagreed with him politically, I didn’t hear a death threat in those recordings.”

Constant, who is gay, has provided two voicemails from the man to reporters. One says: “We’ve had enough of your BS there, boy. Or is it wannabe little girl?... You could say that’s homophobic, but the thing of it is, I’m not afraid of homosexuals. I’m not afraid of any people. You disgust me. Pervert.”

The caller mentioned Constant’s U.S. House campaign, saying, “Nobody is going to vote for you, moron.” Before hanging up, the man said, “I want to see you get smoked so bad, and you’re going to, too. That’s just what’s going to happen to you, Chrissy baby.”

Constant is protesting the administration’s handling of the investigation’s results and Demboski’s comment in the article, and publicly questioned whether the administration provided the emails and comment to the website to discredit and intimidate him. Both the initial article and a follow-up on the website, Must Read Alaska, highlight Constant’s campaign: “The Anchorage police chief has already investigated the complaint and found it to be not credible. But it’s Pride Month, and Constant is a candidate running on a very LGBTQ platform for Congress,” one article said.

Constant said, “never should a police reporting process be used as a political hammer by opposition.”

Demboski, in an emailed response to questions from the Daily News, said she is “relieved that no credible death threat occurred,” and that the voicemails were “certainly unpleasant.”

“Unfortunately, these type of things come with the job of being a public servant. I’ve been in Mr. Constant’s shoes and have had plenty of nasty and hurtful things said about me over the years and in the press, so I know that it can be difficult. I do not condone what was said about and to Mr. Constant,” Demboski said.

Demboski said she was unaware Constant did not know the results of the investigation before she fulfilled the records request, and that she would take steps so a similar situation didn’t happen again — a statement Constant later said he appreciated.

‘Didn’t rise to an arrestable level, but were close’

Constant provided a copy of the police report to reporters after the article was published. It shows the man who left the message told police that he never intended any physical threat of harm to Constant, but while speaking with the investigating officer, doubled down on the insults and homophobic comments he had left in the voicemail.

In the report, the officer said, “I contacted the municipal prosecutors office and talked to them about the messages. They advised the statements didn’t rise to an arrestable level, but were close.”

Asked about his statement about Constant getting “smoked,” the man who left the message “informed me he was talking about the election. He said Constant was running for Don Young’s seat and he would get ‘smoked’ in the election,” the officer said.

Constant said the voicemail seemed to him like a carefully spoken threat.

“At the end of the day, as an openly gay man, having been subjected to these kinds of threats and this hate speech nearly my entire life, I know what threats are. I know what threatening language is,” Constant said. “I sent that to APD because I was concerned for my safety and the safety of my home.”

Constant held a news conference on Tuesday and decried the Bronson administration’s actions surrounding his police report. He announced he intends to introduce legislation that would make public records easier to obtain, because his own records requests to the Bronson administration have gone unfilled for weeks or months, while others are expedited.

“Records of threats being used to discredit someone should not be prioritized over far more substantive information that serves the public interest,” he said.

Constant said he wanted to know if city officials tipped off Must Read Alaska about the emails between Demboski and Kerle before the website made its June 3 public records request for the documents.

Demboski, in her email to the Daily News, said, “any speculation by Mr. Constant about my interactions with a member of the media, are simply that.”

‘It didn’t occur to me that Chris didn’t know that’

Demboski said during the June 1 Assembly meeting, Constant told her that he had received multiple death threats over the previous two weeks. She said she emailed the police chief out of concern for Constant’s safety.

She noted that the voicemail had been discussed in news reports, including in the Daily News, before Must Read Alaska editor Suzanne Downing requested the emails.

Downing sent a records request to Demboski on the morning of Friday, June 3, asking for “any and all records that you have relating to a death threat against Assemblyman Chris Constant, whether real or imagined.” Demboski sent Downing the emails and told her the investigation had been completed later that day.

That Saturday, the article appeared in Must Read Alaska.

In an email, a spokeswoman for APD said it is not their practice to follow up with a person who reports an incident unless they determine there is a threat.

Demboski said she was not aware that Constant did not know the investigation’s results before she fulfilled the records request.

“I simply replied to a public records request within the timeframe required in municipal code. I am sensitive to Mr. Constant’s situation, and if any situation like this arises again, I will ensure to ask about the status of APD’s communication with the person who filed the complaint to make sure they are informed before a records request is filled,” Demboski said. “My practice is not to insert myself into any potential APD investigation; I was told the case was closed, so it didn’t occur to me that Chris didn’t know that.”

Hearing that response from Demboski, Constant said he was “surprised and impressed by that statement, and if it’s true in future practice, then some good has come of the situation.”

Asked about APD’s practice of not following up unless it determines there is a threat, Constant said he is considering that issue as he crafts his public records legislation.

Constant said he doesn’t think people should learn the status of their cases on political websites.

Pride Month

Constant recently proposed a separate, controversial ordinance that would, if passed by the Assembly, add to city code a process for removing a mayor from office for a “breach of the public trust” — a proposal Mayor Dave Bronson has called “a blatant attack on the office of the mayor.” It has led to a series of packed, contentious Assembly meetings, and Bronson has put out calls for residents to attend meetings and make phone calls to Constant in a show of opposition.

On Tuesday, as the Assembly put forward a resolution recognizing and celebrating June as Pride Month, Constant read aloud some of comments he has received since proposing the ordinance, including parts of the voicemail.

“On May 11, the mayor called for members of the public to leave messages, call me and email me. They did. Some of these were workaday homophobia. Some of these were marginal, awful homophobia, and then some of them were threats,” Constant said.

Eagle River/Chugiak Assembly member Jamie Allard, an ally of Bronson, objected and interrupted after the chair ruled Constant could continue, saying, “you want to defame the mayor.”

When the Pride resolution ultimately passed, a disturbing scene followed. LGBTQ community members were cut off by a man at the microphone who refused to leave and made “inappropriate” actions, according to Chief Kerle. The man — Dustin Darden, who has been removed from the chambers multiple times before for disruptive behavior — was eventually arrested.

As Darden was led out of the room, some members of the audience chanted “shame” at police.

‘I’m not going to be intimidated’

The man who left the voicemail, Fred Chaffee, indicated in his messages that he is angry about Constant’s proposal and that he sees it as an attempt by Constant to remove the mayor. In an interview with the Daily News, Chaffee said he did not leave the message in response to the mayor’s call.

After hearing the first voicemail, Constant called Chaffee back.

Speaking to the Daily News, Chaffee said Constant “actually said he was going to use what, my statement to advance his political career when he called me. Now he’s doing it and it’s time people knew the truth.” Chaffee gave a similar explanation to police.

Constant said he called Chaffee back to stand up to the homophobia and insults: “I’m not going to be intimidated. That was the point of my call. I could be afraid or I could push back. I pushed back,” Constant said.

After that phone call, Chaffee left Constant the second message.

“Go ahead. You use this for your political campaign. Because when they come and ask me for a response, I’m going to lay you out in lavender, dude. Or dudette — whichever you care,” Chaffee said in the voicemail.

Chaffee maintains he never made a threat.

“He’s a friggin’ liar. I’m the one that said it — I’m the one that friggin’ knows what was said and there was no, no way that I ever went after him, or talked to him about this — I’m so pissed. That was a phone call between him and me. Now you figure this out. He’s the one that made it public. And if I made physical threats to him, or threatened his life, why in hell would I leave him my phone number and my name? Put that in your little story, too. Do you understand me? Otherwise don’t report it.”