Listening to talk radio yesterday, I learned that new Republican VP candidate Gov. Sarah “Baracuda” Palin and her family have alleged several times that her former Alaskan State Trooper brother-in-law threatened to kill her sister and perhaps other family members several times, and have expressed great frustration that these threats have not been properly investigated.
She’s now being accused of ordering the firing of former State Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan because he refused to fire the State Trooper, Michael Wooten, who is still employed on the force.
There’s also at least a rumor that Officer Wooten used a taser on their son for fun when he was about 11 years old.
More details are available from yesterday’s Washington Post:
Exclusive: Palin ‘Experienced a Lot Frustration’ With Family Feud
Excerpts of e-mails written by GOP vice-presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to a former state police commissioner show Palin “experienced a lot of frustration” over the continued employment of her former brother-in-law, an Alaskan state trooper embroiled in an ongoing family feud.
The former police commissioner, Walt Monegan, was fired by Palin in July and accused the governor of dumping him because he refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten. Monegan showed copies of e-mails written to him by Palin to The Post’s James V. Grimaldi and Karl Vick. Parts of two quotes were not included in The Post’s original story:
Saying a February 2007 e-mail she wrote to Monegan was “just my opinion,” Palin wrote, “I know you know I’ve experienced a lot of frustration with this issue. I know Todd’s even expressed to you a lot of concern about our family’s safety after this trooper threatened to kill a family member — so you need to know that if I am a supporter of whatever we can do to build trust back into DPS, then there are many other Alaskans in the same boat we are and may look on this new cop bill as a good thing.”
A second e-mail from Palin’s personal Yahoo account, sent in July 2007, shows that the governor was still struggling with Wooten’s employment.
“We can’t have double standards. Remember when the death threat was reported, and follow-on threats from Mike that he was going to ‘bring Sarah and her family down’ — instead of any reprimand WE were told by trooper union personnel that we’d be sued if we talked about those threats. Amazing. … And he’s still a trooper, and he still carries a gun, and he still tells anyone who will listen that he will ‘ever work for that b*itch’ (me) because he has such anger and disdain towards my family.”
(Palin similarly quoted Wooten in the earlier e-mail.)
(Be sure and read that other story linked above to “showed copies of emails.” It provides much more detail.)
According to the talk radio show caller, it was Palin’s father who initiallly reported the alleged threats to law enforcement. Good for him!
Obviously Gov. Palin and her family should and would want to report death threats – especially by a State Trooper – to authorities. And can’t we all imagine how frustrating it must be when an investigation of threats against a member of the Governor’s own family lasts more than one year? Especially by a State Trooper?
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