If you have become the victim of a violent crime, you likely have questions about how to navigate the criminal justice process, and whether you need to have legal representation. Like many aspects of the court system, it can be complex and confusing. Here we try to break it down for you with answers to some basic questions.
One of the first things to know is that if the person who harmed you or a loved one is being prosecuted, the act they committed is considered a crime against the law, and not a crime against you as an individual. It’s the government’s responsibility (whether it’s the state, city, municipality, or federal government) to provide a legal team to handle the criminal case against the defendant(s).
These lawyers are called prosecutors. Their job is to present the case in a criminal trial against an individual accused of breaking the law.
Prosecutors who work for the state are called district attorneys. Some cities or municipalities have their own prosecutors. Prosecuting attorneys represent the state or the community with the goal of protecting the community from further harm.
Below are common questions you may have and basic answers. If the information you are seeking is not here, please contact Victims for Justice and ask to speak with a victim advocate. You might also reach out the Alaska Office of Victims’ Rights (OVR), a state agency that provides free legal representation to crime victims to ensure that their rights are respected.
(Note: For ease of understanding and consistency in legal language, this article uses the term “victim.” This term may be used to describe a survivor who has been directly impacted by a violent crime or the surviving family members of a homicide victim.)
Q: Can I press charges against the person who harmed me or hire a lawyer to press charges?
A: No. Only the government can file criminal charges against a person in Alaska. In some states, limited private prosecution is possible for some low-level crimes.
Q: Does the prosecutor represent me, the victim of violent crime?
A: No. The prosecutor represents the government and/or the community where the crime occurred. The only parties to the case are the prosecution and the defense. The victim is not a party.
Q: Since the prosecutor doesn’t represent me, how do I make my voice heard?
A: Generally speaking, the prosecutor and you may have the same goals: jail time, restitution or maybe probation. But sometimes, goals differ. As a victim, you have rights that ensure your voice is heard. If you feel your rights have been violated, contact the Office of Victims’ Rights (OVR).
Alaska is currently the only state that has a government-run office of victims’ rights attorneys dedicated to protecting the rights of victims. If OVR takes your case, one of their lawyers can file an entry of appearance and make arguments on your behalf at no charge to you.
Keep in mind that OVR attorneys are limited to protecting your victim rights. Sometimes, victims want their victims’ rights attorney to do something they do not have the power to do. For example, you and the OVR attorney do not have the right to block a plea agreement, see evidence, submit evidence, file charges, drop charges, or do many other things that the prosecution or defense teams can.
Q: Are there other instances where it might help to have my own attorney?
A: If you suffered financial and/or emotional losses, you may consider hiring a private attorney to file a civil lawsuit. In a civil lawsuit, you might gain financial compensation from the defendant. In this type of lawsuit, you cannot charge the defendant with a crime or have them put in jail. If you are interested in speaking to a lawyer about suing the defendant, contact the Alaska Bar Association Lawyer Referral Line They can be reached at 1-800-770-9999. In some instances, especially high-profile cases, it may also be to your advantage to hire an attorney to handle media interactions.
Alaska women with mental health challenges, developmental disabilities, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic alcohol use disorder, and other brain disorders are much more likely than women without these conditions to experience intimate partner and sexual violence, according to new research.
The findings come from the Alaska Victimization Survey 2020, conducted by the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center with funding from the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.
The survey of 2,100 respondents found extremely high rates of violence against Alaska women overall. For example, nearly half of all Alaska women surveyed said they have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetimes (47.8 percent) and four in 10 have suffered sexual violence (40.3 percent). Nearly six in 10 Alaska women (57.6 percent) have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence or both during their lifetimes.
But having a mental health, substance misuse or developmental disability can make Alaska women much more vulnerable to these violent crimes. Researchers found that of the Alaska women surveyed who said they experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence or both, half would be considered beneficiaries of the Alaska Mental Health Trust
The Trust was established in 1956 to benefit Alaskans with mental illness, development disabilities, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic alcohol or drug addiction, dementia, and traumatic brain injuries.
The Alaska Victimization Survey also found that Alaska women who were Trust beneficiaries were twice as likely to have experienced four for more Adverse Childhood Experiences than women who were non-beneficiaries. Adverse childhood experiences include verbal and emotional abuse, mental illness in the home, substance abuse in the home, separation or divorce, sexual or physical abuse, being a witness to domestic violence, and having a family member incarcerated.
Nancy Furlow and her granddaughter Kaitlin Duplisea visit the memorial dedicated to Brandon Irlmeier who was murdered on December 2, 2017.
On a rainy fall afternoon in northeast Anchorage, a Sitka grandmother stood grieving before a homemade memorial: a wooden cross encircled by a wreath of sunflowers and autumn features.
The memorial adorns the base of a covered staircase that spills into a cul-de-sac on East 6th Avenue. Creekside Park Elementary, its playground and young students sit across the street. It’s on these stairs that her grandson’s life ended in a violent homicide.
Nancy Furlow gently touched the wreath with her hand on this cold autumn day.
“I don’t want Brandon to be forgotten,” said Furlow, whose Tlingit name is Sutxwaan.
In town for a medical appointment, Furlow comes to this spot as often as she can to remember the 20-year-old man she raised since infancy.
Old Man Raven
A photo of Brandon Irlmeier that accompanies his obituary.
His name was Brandon Christopher Irlmeier. In Tlingit, his name was Yeil Yugóo (Old Man Raven). Irlmeier was beaten, strangled, shot, and left to die in freezing rain at the bottom of the staircase. The murder took place four years ago, on December 2, 2017.
Police have made no arrests.
With the fourth anniversary of the homicide approaching, Furlow wants to know why her grandson’s case has gone grown cold. Police at the time said they were looking for three persons of interest in connection with Irlmeier’s murder. One man, Orion Lind, was taken in for questioning but was not arrested. So far, nothing seems to have come of the investigation.
“I call the homicide detective every few months. He said the case is still open but that he has nothing new to report,” Furlow said. “Brandon deserves justice.”
Endless nightmare
Irlmeier’s case is still an open investigation, according to Anchorage police. Because of that, the department won’t say where the case currently stands or if there’s been any progress in finding Irlmeier’s killers.
“We have nothing to add at this time,” police spokeswoman Renee Oistad told Victims for Justice in November.
Victims for Justice has assisted Furlow since her grandson’s murder and holds monthly grief groups she attends by Zoom.
Besides her sorrow, Furlow wrestles with anger at the injustice of her grandson’s murder and the fact that his killers are free. What she calls her “endless nightmare” is compounded every time Irlmeier’s memorial gets vandalized. It’s been torn down repeatedly, burned, and a bullet has been left among the yellow plastic leaves.
A close-up of Brandon Irlmeier’s memorial.
“I’m certain the people who killed Brandon are behind the vandalism,” she said.
Furlow would like security cameras installed on the walkway to help catch the vandals.
Nothing will bring her grandson back but knowing who is destroying his memorial might shed light on the murder case, she said.
Stealing hearts
Irlmeier was born in Santa Barbara, Calif., as Furlow studied for her doctorate in Native American religious traditions. He was a happy baby and grew into a young man who loved music, the outdoors, and had a strong sense of humor.
“Brandon stole the heart of anyone and everyone around him,” Furlow said.
As he got older, Irlmeier was diagnosed with ADHD, according to his grandmother. He had sensory integration challenges which made daily life challenging. As a high school student in Eagle River, Irlmeier succumbed to peer pressure to use drugs. He found they helped to ease his ADHD symptoms. Irlmeier had a few brushes with the law but was working to turn things around. He was about two weeks away from entering a drug treatment program at the time of his death.
Furlow believes her grandson was lured to the staircase on East 6th Avenue for drug reasons. She said she knows who the killers are and urges them to come forward and turn themselves in. Furlow also believes the man who was taken in for questioning knows who killed her grandson.
One of many
Irlmeier was one of 36 people murdered in Anchorage in 2017, a record year for homicides in the city. Despite its reputation as a tourism destination and a wonderland of natural beauty, Alaska leads the nation in its violent crime rate. Violent crimes can include murder, assault, rape and robbery.
Law enforcement reported 838 violent crime incidents for every 100,000 people in Alaska in 2020. The majority of Alaska’s violent crime – some 58 percent – occurred in Anchorage. The state’s population center suffered 1,171 incidents per 100,000 people.
Alaska Natives are overrepresented among Alaska’s missing and murdered. A multiyear study released in 2020 by the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Information Center found that while Alaska Natives comprise about 16 percent of the state population, they made up more than 29 percent of homicide victims in Alaska between 1976 and 2016.
Violent crime of various categories affects the Alaska Native population disproportionately. The causes are complex, but many researchers point to the effects of colonization, multigenerational trauma, marginalization, systemic racism, and other factors.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office noted last spring that for Alaska Natives for generations have experienced disproportionately high rates of domestic violence, sexual assault and other violent crimes.
“Tragically, this is not a problem of the past – it’s a problem that continues today,” said Bryan Wilson, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska, speaking on May 5, MMIP Awareness Day in Alaska.
Since earlier this year, a multidisciplinary MMIP work group led by Wilson’s office has held listening sessions and consultations with some of Alaska’s federally recognized tribes. The goal is to develop strategies to solve and prevent MMIP cases. Two tribes – one in Dillingham, the other in Unalakleet — have crafted MMIP community response plans. Others are in the works. The plans detail how and when to submit a missing person report, what will happen during the response, who will lead the investigation and other details.
Kaitlin Duplisea, cousin of Brandon Irlmeier, displays a tattoo on her left collarbone that shows Brandon’s birthday and date of death.
A totem pole to honor lives
Furlow has become a vocal advocate for solving the MMIP crisis, not just in Alaska but across the nation. She notes that in Alaska there are more missing or murdered Indigenous men, including her grandson, than women, a fact that often goes unrecognized and deserves greater attention, in her view.
Earlier this year, Furlow received Victims for Justice’s advocate award for her relentless pursuit of justice for her grandson and other Alaska Natives who have been murdered or vanished.
To honor her grandson’s memory and those of other missing and murdered tribal citizens, Furlow hopes to have a totem pole raised in Anchorage. She would like to have it placed at the base of the staircase where Irlmeier died but fears it would be vandalized, just like the memorial. Other locations in Anchorage are under consideration.
“I want it to be a place where Alaska Native families and others can come and grieve their losses. I want it to be a reminder that these losses to our community are unacceptable and must be stopped,” Furlow said.
A new statewide survey reveals a staggeringly high percentage of Alaska women face victimization in their homes, relationships and communities, figures that are likely underreported and on the rise.
According to the 2020 Alaska Victimization Survey, conducted by the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Justice Center and the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, nearly 60% of Alaska women surveyed reported having experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or both during their lifetime.
That’s a 14.7% increase from a similar study conducted in 2015.
Some 2,100 women over 18 participated in the survey. It found that 48 out of 100 Alaska women reported intimate partner violence; 41 out of 100 Alaska women experienced sexual violence; and 58 out of 100 experienced either of these types of violence over the course of their lifetime.
“This survey helps give voice to the hundreds of victims of violence across our diverse state,” said L. Diane Casto, executive director of the Alaska Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.
The data shines a light on the scope of the problem, increases public awareness and should help policymakers better align and direct resources to the areas that need them the most, she said.
The numbers were collected via household survey of randomly selected adult women in Alaska. Participants are asked a series of behaviorally specific questions to determine their experiences with lifetime and past year intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and stalking, according to the researchers.
The high abuse statistics likely reflect only a fraction of what Alaska women actually experience.
Numerous studies, including national victimization surveys, have found the majority of individuals who experience rape/sexual assault and nearly half of those who experience intimate partner violence do not report their victimization to police.
Researchers say the best way to gather data on crime victimization is to ask a large number of individuals whether or not they have been victimized, and make estimates based on those data.
Q: Why did you join the board of Victims for Justice?
A: Tory (VFJ executive director Victoria Shanklin) reached out a couple of years ago to the captain of detectives to have a partnership with the detectives so that we could offer and refer victims to Victims for Justice when the case hit the detectives’ desks. At the time that philosophy wasn’t embraced. About a year and a half later I was the patrol captain and she reached out to me and kind of pitched the same concept. So that started my relationship with VFJ. We set up a referral system.
Many, many times I have seen a gap in services to victims. Officers arrive, they do their job, they interview victims, they make an arrest, they provide victims with information. Generally, the least important thing for a victim in the aftermath of a crime is getting a booklet, or getting pages of a booklet read to them about resources. That is not a time when they are listening to that sort of stuff because of the event that caused the police to be called in the first place. And then officers leave and nothing happens with the victims, generally for quite some time. There are certain times when that’s a little different. Certainly, for most VFJ clients they don’t get an immediate response like some of our domestic violence or sexual assault victims do. So, they are kind of left, whether it’s days, weeks or hours, or later, wondering, “what every happened with that case? What am I supposed to do?” Or, “Now I’m out property, or I have these injuries, what do I do?” There’s all these questions. So they go to only number they can think of and that’s the business card of the police officer. And sometimes those cases are now detective cases, or officers are on days off, you know, that case is passed on. They have made an arrest and turned in that paperwork and now the victim is kind of spinning in circles trying to figure out who they can talk to who can actually give them the answer.
So there’s this huge gap. Eventually, once the case starts to go down the prosecution road, then there is more contact with victims, there is more follow-up with prosecutors, VFJ gets involved if the victims reach out. But there can be a big time lag. I’m really interested in seeing how we can decrease that time lag and get as close to a warm hand-off as you can so that at the end of the day, that number on the card that the victim calls is going to be an advocate. Even if the advocate doesn’t know the specifics of the case, at least they understand the process; they understand delays in the system. There are so many questions that can be answered from that perspective. That’s so helpful to the victim. It’s going to start to bring clarity to a very unclear situation.
Q: Why do victims’ rights matter to you from your perspective as a law enforcement officer?
A: When you’re out there handling calls for service and you come into contact with multiple victims every day, you are there to perform a function, and it’s a law enforcement-related function. But when you start to slow down and think about having broader impact, and how you dealt with calls for service and how you interacted with victims, and it’s a fast-paced thing when you’re on patrol. You’re in, you’re out, you go to the next call.
About the time I was promoted to lieutenant, I really started reviewing commendations (i.e. positive comments) that came in to the police department regarding officers interactions with the public, and I would see commendations that would come in from victims. And they would talk about why they were impacted by the officer that they had contact with. I would also see this in dispatch and with our records clerks as well. And it seems almost insignificant when you read it. You read this, what the victim said, and you think, well the officer, the dispatcher, the records clerk didn’t really do much. And you reach out to the employee and you let them know they got this commendation and, even to them, it might seem insignificant. It might have been an insignificant call and it’s not viewed in their mind or the minds of their peers like anything outside of just what they’re supposed to do as an employee of APD. But you really start to understand what type of impact we really have on victims.
You’re in a profession where 98 percent of the people who come into this job, no matter if they are a sworn officer, or a non-sworn member of the police department, they come in to help the public, to give back to the public, to be part of something bigger. They think of that in really big terms and they lose sight of the fact it’s often the small things that mean a lot.
It’s answering the questions of people after they have become a victim of a crime. And feeling like the officer would have given them all day if they had it. That they were listening, that they were taking time for them, that they were empathetic about what they were going through. I think the system as a whole, we need more of that when it comes to victims. The criminal justice is a big machine and sometimes our victims get caught up in it.
Q: What’s an example of how officers can assist victims in the aftermath of a crime?
A: Closing the loop is a term we were using at one time. You might have someone who ended up being in a disturbance between neighbors so there was nothing criminally that we could do. Or a victim of a minor vandalism and the officers would contact the victim and contact the suspect and sometimes make an arrest but they wouldn’t re-contact the victim. But you would also see an officer driving away and then later picking up the phone and contacting the victim to give an update. “Hey, here’s what I did after I left your house and here’s who I contacted. And we actually made an arrest and this was the type of arrest that was made.” And that takes two minutes and it means the world to victims because it provides them information; it provides them closure in many situations. It’s all about communication.
Q: And do you see that as something VFJ helps with?
A: Oh absolutely. Sometimes it’s almost like there is a difference language between the officer and the advocate. And the victim kind of needs to hear that different language. They hear the message differently. Sometimes the message is the same but it is such a great help to have advocates be able to communicate in a way that’s more beneficial to the victims.
Q: Are you involved with any organizations or bodies that make criminal justice policy recommendations?
A: I’m a commissioner on the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission and I’m in my fourth year right now. I came on the commission after Senate Bill 91 was passed. The commission provides recommendations to the Alaska Legislature and we have several subcommittees. I chair the domestic violence subcommittee and I also sit on the victims’ rights subcommittee.
Initially there was no domestic violence working group. I pitched that we start one. I pitched that for several reasons. The first reason is it’s no shock to anyone that our domestic violence rates have been extremely high for decades and that number stays pretty consistent. There are things we have tried around the state to provide better services for victims or provide better prosecution, or things that would potentially help lower those numbers. The other thing with domestic violence is that it’s a very complicated crime.
We’re still kind of responding as a country and here in Alaska in such a simplistic way. The base model that we use is kind of a battered intervention model. Domestic violence is a crime of control and what we know now, 30 years after this philosophy can into being, is that our victims have often also been offenders and offenders have been victims. Everybody has seen it, has witnessed it, has been a part of it. It’s not as simple as one person trying to control another person. Those cases certainly exist without question but it’s a lot more complicated. That was the design of the workgroup: how can we look at holistically look at our victims and offenders. Our victims and offenders in Alaska often get back together at very high proportions before their cases are even resolved.
I also joined the victims’ rights work group. I was part of listening groups where the commission went to various communities around the state and listened to victims and their stories. They were either victims themselves or they were a family member of a victim. They shared how they interacted with the criminal justice system, the police, the courts, the prosecutors, the defense attorneys and victim advocates. Over and over again, the victim advocates were always the highlight of their interaction. So after that I joined the victims’ rights work group because it’s obviously such an important part of what the commission does.
Q: Why do you think Alaska has such high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault?
A: I’ve started to become more outspoken about this. Our Alaska Native population is grossly over-represented, and has been historically, both as victims and as offenders in many crimes, but particularly domestic violence. A lot of the work I’ve been doing for the past three or four years in domestic violence, if you look at the system we have set up, the element that we have missed the boat on is the cultural aspect in our response to Alaska Native victims and offenders. I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but certainly what I have learned in my being an officer for 20 years in Alaska, and growing up here, is that they have a very rich culture, and a very proud culture, when they are in a situation where the response is so different from the culture they were raised in, you’re probably not going to get a great output on the other end. I would say that contributes significantly to our over-representation of Alaska Natives in the criminal justice system.
Setting that aside, Alaska has its up and down with alcohol. We have a lot of alcohol use and misuse and that contributes greatly to the rates of domestic violence. Anecdotally, there is probably a lot more alcohol involved in domestic violence than any other drug. Alcohol is by far more consistently seen as a contributing factor.
The system is just really challenged. You have two people who, let’s say, are married, and now there is a domestic violence incident. Now they are separated. There’s a no contact order. That’s very beneficial and useful and should be in place in many situations. But there are other situations where it’s very challenging. There’s money, there’s housing, there’s childcare and custody, and transportation involved. There’s all these things outside of just the crime that come into play that make it very difficult to overcome, recover and become a real survivor. I think all these things play into the increased numbers.
Q: Is anything in play to try to turn this around as far as recommendations to the Legislature?
A: Our subcommittee has just finished a final draft of the work we’ve done over the last couple of years. We will be sending that off to the commission as a whole and that will move forward as a recommendation to the state. A lot of that work looks at things that have been done in the state of Alaska and across the country that have been effective or not. We have a lot of data from the Alaska court system, 20 years of data from the Anchorage Police Department on domestic violence crimes. So there’s a lot of information, and it’s probably the most comprehensive piece on domestic violence that has ever been written within the state of Alaska. I am hopeful that will be a public document by the end of the year. One of the large recommendations is that comes out of this is a coordinated community response model.
It’s difficult to say to the state Legislature that we want you to pass a bill that says this is a requirement because one of the great things about a coordinated community response is that it depends on the community you’re in because something that works in Anchorage may not work in Bethel. So it’s difficult to draft a law for that. But we sparked a lot of things and I think you’ll see a lot of different approaches.
Here at APD, we applied for a grant last month where we have a lot of partners, UAA, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Southcentral Foundation, and the focus is to do more of a coordinated community response for our Alaska Native population both for the victim and the offender. If we get that grant, that’s going to be huge. And that all came from the work of the domestic violence work group of the Criminal Justice Commission.
Q: What made you decide to go into law enforcement as a career?
A: I was in the 7th grade when I decided to be a cop. At that time, it was all about getting a job that was exciting. You get to see a lot of things, you get to meet a lot of different people, you get to be involved in a lot of different things. There’s just a lot of excitement in law enforcement.
I started my career with the Los Angeles Police Department in 1998. And then eventually came back home to Alaska. And I’ve done just a ton of things: patrol, supervision, etcetera.
Q: Why do you like it?
A: It’s the people you get to interact with, that’s what keeps me motivated. That’s what makes this job fun. It’s all about the people. Even when we’re arresting people, or when it’s the victim of a crime. Everybody has a story to tell. Whether they love us or hate us, or whether we are insignificant to them. We get to be part of a very unusual piece of people’s lives. We generally get to see them on their worst day and we get to have an impact on that. And I love it. It’s a very challenging career. And it’s always going to be that way. 2020 taught us there are always going to be more challenges.
Q: How has COVID affected your work?
A: Anchorage has been a bit of an anomaly. We have seen a drop in crime pretty much across the board in 2020. Most jurisdictions, particularly outside of Alaska, have seen an increase. In Alaska, we march to the beat of a different drum. I’m sure crime is going to trend up like the rest of the country. We’re often behind the rest of the country. But generally speaking, during the thick of COVID, we couldn’t decrease our response to the public when you’re in this business. So it was a little bit more challenging. You had to be a little more cautious. You didn’t want your workforce to be out sick. But we had no shortage of staffing. We still out answering calls for service and doing our job.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: I have 20 years in so I’m eligible to retire. I’m always looking for an opportunity to bring a little bit of a new direction to law enforcement. We have a lot of employees at APD and in departments across the country that are a new kind of cop. They’re not the officers that were hired simply to make arrests and then turn around and go to the next call for service. That is certainly the culture that I was brought up in. The officers we are hiring now, culturally, are not like that. They want to be part of a bigger solution. They are more thinkers now than they were 20 or 30 years ago and so in the policing world we have to try to create the environment where those kind of employees are going to thrive. Because I really think those employees are going to bring changes to law enforcement that many, many communities want to see. And they’re not going to do it because they’re forced to do it from some third party, be it legislation or a federal consent decree, they’re going to do it because those are the kind of individuals they are. And that’s the best way to bring change or modifications to policing, from the inside out.
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