Kenai Peninsula troopers criminally charged in arrest of wrong man make first court appearance

KENAI — Two Alaska State Troopers appeared for the first time in court Tuesday on criminal charges accusing them of using excessive force during a May arrest on the Kenai Peninsula that involved the wrong man.

The case represents a rare example of on-duty Alaska law enforcement officers facing criminal prosecution. Trooper Jason Woodruff and troopers Sgt. Joseph Miller seriously injured 38-year-old Ben Tikka, the man they arrested on May 24 after mistaking him for a cousin who was wanted on a misdemeanor warrant.

Woodruff and Miller were charged last month with misdemeanor fourth-degree assault. The troopers are accused of siccing a police dog on Tikka and shocking him with a Taser, as well as kicking and punching him, according to charges filed against them.

Both men appeared in Kenai District Court on Tuesday in plain clothes and said little during the proceeding. Their attorneys entered not guilty pleas. Woodruff and Miller are longtime troopers who were both most recently stationed in Soldotna.

The encounter left Tikka with “life-changing injuries” that include 12 stitches, a broken collarbone and a concussion that have left him with $41,000 in medical bills to date, his attorney, Darryl Thompson, said during Tuesday’s hearing. The attorney said Tikka still has difficulties walking — there is rock or glass still embedded deep in one heel — and has pain in his arm and on the skin pulled taut by scar tissue.

As Thompson spoke over the phone on behalf of Tikka during Tuesday’s hearing, Miller appeared to roll his eyes.

Clint Campion, the attorney representing Woodruff, this week filed a motion for the charges against him to be dismissed, arguing there is no legal precedent in Alaska governing excessive force involving a police dog. Campion, a former Anchorage district attorney now in private practice, said Woodruff was acting within the scope of his duties as a K-9 officer and was acting reasonably to protect other officers during the arrest.

‘Lawful but awful’

Charging documents filed in the case describe a violent arrest as the troopers confronted Ben Tikka in a parked SUV at a Kenai park while attempting to arrest his cousin, Garrett Tikka, on an outstanding $150 warrant. They learned only after the arrest that they had the wrong man, the charges said.

Troopers located the vehicle associated with Garrett Tikka and requested backup because of concerns he would flee when law enforcement tried to arrest him on the warrant, the charges said.

During a conversation between Miller and Woodruff captured by Miller’s body-worn camera, Woodruff described possibly deploying his police dog, saying “it’d be one of those things that’s ‘lawful but awful,’” according to an information statement filed by the attorney general’s office with charges.

Woodruff said he planned to have his dog on lead and would make several announcements, “then f--- it — I’ll just send that mother f---er,” the statement said.

As troopers ordered him to get out of the SUV, Tikka questioned what he was being arrested for before Miller smashed a window and deployed pepper spray inside the vehicle, according to the charges.

After Tikka exited, appearing to be in pain from the spray, Miller kicked him, punched him, shocked him twice with a Taser and stepped on his head, the statement said. Woodruff then allowed his police dog to bite Tikka for more than a minute as he tried to comply with commands and begged for the dog to stop, it said.

Tikka suffered a fractured scapula, muscle lacerations including a torn triceps and an open bite wound on his arm, the charges said.

At no point during the interaction did troopers ask Tikka to identify himself and only referred to him by his last name, the charges said.

Tikka was transported to Central Peninsula Hospital by ambulance. Another trooper accompanied him during the ride and confirmed troopers had arrested Ben Tikka, not Garrett Tikka. In a later interview, Ben Tikka said he’s sometimes mistaken for his cousin.

Tikka was charged with resisting or interfering with arrest, disorderly conduct and three counts of fourth-degree assault. Thompson said Tikka was jailed before the charges were ultimately dismissed.

Troopers launched a criminal investigation into the troopers’ use of force after a commander who reviews dog deployments flagged it with concern, Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell said last month.

‘Grossly undercharged’

During Tuesday’s hearing, Tikka’s attorney described the troopers’ conduct as “outrageous,” especially because their actions were taken “under the color of the law, the color of the badge.” Cockrell has said he was “totally sickened” by the troopers’ conduct and described it as unacceptable.

The union representing the troopers called Cockrell’s remarks a “premature guilt announcement.” Campion in an interview Tuesday said Cockrell “vilified Trooper Woodruff and Sgt. Miller in the media before they ever had a chance to defend themselves.”

Thompson in an interview Tuesday said he believes Woodruff and Miller should have faced felony charges for the assault but are receiving special treatment because they are law enforcement officers.

“I think these are grossly undercharged,” he said. “You get to bludgeon and beat and sic a dog on someone and kick him in the groin and kick him in the head and give him a concussion, 12 stitches and break the clavicle and have it be a misdemeanor.”

Thompson said he believes the body-camera footage was “absolutely critical” for prosecutors to pursue charges in the case and to spare Tikka more jail time than he already served on what turned out to be a wrongful arrest.

“But for the audio, video, my client would be facing assault in the fourth degree,” Thompson said. “They charged him, that to me is adding insult to injury ... And but for that bodycam, he’d be the guy (in jail) because this inherent credibility goes to the officers — ‘Wow, they’re officers, they don’t lie.’”

Alaska State Troopers began wearing body cameras last year. Woodruff was not wearing one during the response because it had run out of batteries while he was uploading footage, Cockrell has previously said. A third trooper also did not activate their body camera, but Miller’s camera and one worn by a Kenai police officer captured the response.

Images from the footage are included in the charging documents, including photos that show the dog biting at Tikka’s hand as he tried to get out of the vehicle and show blood covering his face as the dog attacks him.

Reckless or reasonable?

The motion to dismiss filed by Campion on behalf of Woodruff this week contends there is no legal precedent establishing that police dogs can be considered an unreasonable use of force. Campion said Woodruff would have needed to be acting recklessly in order to be charged.

“In this case, it relates to his state of mind: Was he reckless? In other words, would a reasonable person, a reasonable officer, under his circumstances, have thought that deploying the K-9 was unreasonable at that time? And our view is that it was not unreasonable,” Campion said after the hearing.

The motion includes a summary of the encounter that differs from what prosecutors describe in the charging documents, including that “Trooper Woodruff advised Sergeant Miller that he was not inclined to deploy K-9 Olex if Garrett Tikka fled again on foot, but he would have K-9 Olex if ready in the event he was needed.”

In the motion, Campion said that Woodruff reasonably deployed the dog in order to protect another person and as a way to execute an arrest.

Miller’s attorney has not filed a similar motion and it is not clear if he plans to do so.

Woodruff and Miller both declined to comment after Tuesday’s hearing. Miller rushed out of the courthouse, accompanied by his attorney.

Woodruff lingered outside the courtroom, sharing hugs with a circle of supporters, including a uniformed officer.

“This is very emotional for him,” Campion said. “And he’s got people here that are supporting him from the law enforcement community and the community. … His father was a deputy sheriff in Oregon and was a K-9 handler as well. It’s all he’s ever wanted to do is be a police officer and a trooper, so this is really hard for him to process.”

Woodruff was placed on paid administrative leave when troopers launched an investigation in June and his status was changed to unpaid leave around the time the charges were filed, Campion said.

Cockrell said during an initial news conference that both troopers were placed on leave at the start of the investigation, but he did not know whether it was paid or unpaid leave. Miller’s attorney did not comment after Tuesday’s hearing.

ADN photojournalist Marc Lester contributed to this story.