The proof was overwhelming from the time all of it started in 2017. A sexual assault in broad daylight at a preferred Anchorage park, with a witness who dialed 911 and described the assault because it was taking place. A police officer hoisting the suspect from atop one of many victims, the suspect’s pants nonetheless round his knees. DNA proof corroborating the crime.

But in Alaska’s slow-motion court docket system, it took greater than seven years for the case towards Fred Tom Hurley III to lastly go to trial, in December. Attorneys got here and went with the passage of time — a sequence of six for the protection and 4 for the prosecution — as judges granted 50 delays. A lot of the slowdowns got here on the request of Hurley’s legal professionals, lengthy earlier than and lengthy after the COVID-19 pandemic paused jury trials throughout the state. At listening to after listening to, talks involved scheduling, not the info of the case.

For the 2 ladies Hurley was charged with assaulting, justice delayed meant justice denied of their lifetimes. Each died earlier than the case ever reached the jury.

Informed the main points of the case, former Florida state prosecutor Melba Pearson known as it “a travesty of justice.”

“That’s a travesty. Interval. Finish of story,” mentioned Pearson, who lately co-authored a report on trial delays throughout the nation.

What’s shocking isn’t how lengthy the Hurley case lingered unresolved, however how atypical it’s in Alaska’s court docket system.

A latest Anchorage Every day Information and ProPublica investigation discovered tons of of misdemeanor prison circumstances in Anchorage thrown out of court docket as a result of overwhelmed metropolis prosecutors couldn’t meet speedy trial deadlines.

However with regards to felonies in Anchorage and throughout the state, the alternative downside typically exists for victims and witnesses: a wait of 5, seven and even 10 years or extra to succeed in trial, plea settlement or dismissal, typically due to protection motions to delay. As a benchmark, the Nationwide Middle for State Courts says 98% of felonies must be resolved in below a yr.

The intense pretrial delays in Alaska are particularly hanging as a result of it has one of many nation’s strictest limits on how lengthy circumstances can drag out: 120 days from the time an individual is charged.

In actuality, this deadline is never met. Over a latest 12-month interval, solely seven prison circumstances went to trial inside 120 days in Alaska state courts.

The issue is getting worse. The median time to resolve probably the most critical felony circumstances, equivalent to homicide and sexual assault, has almost tripled over the previous decade, from simply over a yr in 2013 to 1,160 days in 2023. About 54% of individuals held in Alaska jails and prisons final yr had been there to await trial or, in a smaller variety of circumstances, to await sentencing. That’s up from simply 30% in 2016.

A courts spokesperson, Rebecca Koford, mentioned by e mail that the state “is nicely conscious of the problems with case backlogs and has been actively working to enhance time to disposition.” Koford cited an Anchorage presiding decide’s orders limiting when postponements could also be used, in addition to new coaching for judges on managing case flows.

“We’ve got made inroads in that route,” she mentioned, “nevertheless it takes time and continues to be exacerbated by the low variety of attorneys who’re capable of deal with advanced prison circumstances.”

Some protection attorneys request pretrial delays to deal with overwhelming caseloads. Based on the Alaska court docket system, Hurley’s present lawyer, Rex Butler, represents defendants in a minimum of 375 lively circumstances, for instance. (In an interview, the lawyer mentioned he generally hires different legal professionals to assist with that workload and famous that almost all circumstances don’t require a jury trial.)

Attorneys can also make use of delays as a tactic, rising the percentages their shoppers will stroll free because the prosecution’s case ages. Defendants sit in jail or dwell on monitored launch pending trial, however the wait can avert a heftier jail sentence.

The thought was captured in a 2017 e mail from a state-appointed protection lawyer to his shopper, later made public in a court docket continuing.

“Time is usually a buddy to a defendant,” assistant public advocate Jim Corrigan wrote. “Witnesses could get into hassle or their recollections could fade, which may work to your profit.”

The defendant had been questioning why his lawyer requested to delay his sexual assault case.

“You shouldn’t be in any hurry to take these circumstances to trial,” Corrigan replied.

Corrigan didn’t reply to a latest request for remark.

Terrence Haas, a former decide who oversees public defenders in Alaska, mentioned that any lawyer who believes a delay is important or would profit a shopper’s case is “certain by the ethics of their career and responsibility of loyalty to their shopper to request a continuance.”

However one individual has the ability to say no to such requests: the decide. Data present Alaska judges routinely comply with such requests even after years of delays. These preventable failures have existed for greater than a decade. What’s extra, everybody noticed it coming.

Repeated Warnings

Victims advocates in Alaska have raised alarms about pretrial delays again and again, largely with out influence.

“It’s not uncommon for felony circumstances to take 2 to three years earlier than victims see their case go to trial or lead to a plea settlement,” the Alaska Workplace of Victims’ Rights wrote in 2014. Few judges had been giving critical consideration to victims who requested them to hurry up the method.

The company issued related warnings because the years glided by:

• 2015: Judges typically allowed 20 or extra standing conferences earlier than forcing the 2 sides to go to trial.

• 2016: The most typical sufferer criticism is “pre-trial delays allowed by the courts.”

• 2017: The maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied” couldn’t be extra true than for victims of crime in Alaska. “Victims can not heal or discover closure when the injuries brought on by the offender are consistently reopened by a protracted court docket case. Victims are sometimes held hostage to the system for a lot too lengthy and in violation of their rights as victims.”

The victims’ rights workplace laid blame for the delays principally with judges, significantly judges in Anchorage.

One week in 2018, the company watched 4 Anchorage Superior Courtroom judges maintain pretrial hearings for 181 prison circumstances. The judges let 161 be delayed as much as two months. Usually, the victims’ rights workplace mentioned, neither the protection lawyer nor the prosecutor gave cause for the delay. Not as soon as did a decide ask what the sufferer wished, the report mentioned.

The following yr, the Workplace of Victims’ Rights accused Anchorage judges of being enablers. “It’s as much as the decide to manage the docket, to stick to standing court docket orders, to comply with the legislation and to guard victims’ rights in addition to defendants’ rights,” the company wrote. “Typically, what’s seen is extra of a rubber stamping of such requests.”

A standard delay tactic throughout the pandemic referred to as the “off-record continuance” allowed attorneys to delay circumstances by e mail and skip court docket. Nevertheless it persevered after courts reopened. Data present judges in 2024 allowed off-record continuances in dozens of circumstances, starting from a 4-year-old felony assault to a 5-year-old sexual assault to a 6-year-old automotive theft.

(The Anchorage Every day Information and ProPublica delivered inquiries to all Anchorage Superior Courtroom judges by e mail and in arduous copy, receiving a response from solely two judges, who each mentioned they principally hear civil circumstances and infrequently preside over prison trials.)

Crime survivors pay a value for the inaction. They take time without work work or pay for day care to attend hearings, advocates be aware. Victims combat to calm the pit of their stomachs earlier than stepping right into a courtroom, solely to search out the occasion is canceled.

The Workplace of Victims’ Rights in Could filed paperwork on behalf of the alleged sufferer in a 2017 sexual abuse case, demanding the court docket honor the girl’s proper to “well timed disposition” below the Alaska Structure. The company requested Superior Courtroom Choose Jack McKenna to carry a trial in June in order that the girl and her household may transfer on with their lives. The decide delayed the case as soon as once more.

McKenna didn’t reply to an e mail or questions delivered to his courthouse mailbox. However Koford, the court docket spokesperson, mentioned the trial within the 2017 case needed to be delayed as a result of the protection lawyer was scheduled to seem in one other trial. Different delays had been as a result of the prosecutor was unavailable.

Koford mentioned the case illustrated Alaska’s scarcity of skilled attorneys to deal with main felonies, which regularly leaves judges with a selection between suspending a trial and forcing one with unprepared attorneys, unavailable witnesses or an incomplete examination of proof.

“A sufferer’s proper to a speedy trial is essential,” Koford mentioned, “however additionally it is essential to strive a case appropriately the primary time.”

One decide has publicly blamed backups on lawmakers and governors, whom he accused of skimping on cash for public defenders.

Fairbanks Superior Courtroom Choose Michael MacDonald was presiding over a case in 2019 involving the beating dying of an Alaska Native lady in a Yukon River village. It was lower than 2 years previous and about to go earlier than a jury. The defendant admitted to the killing.

Then the defendant’s state-appointed lawyer requested a delay, saying she had been juggling 200 circumstances directly, felt burned out and couldn’t ethically transfer ahead with a trial. (A 1998 audit for the Alaska Legislature mentioned public defenders can “ethically” deal with not more than 59 circumstances in a 60-hour workweek.)

MacDonald described the request as an indication of dysfunction.

“The state of Alaska’s prison justice system is working on the fringes,” MacDonald wrote, “barely capable of shield towards the deprivation of elementary rights, barely capable of reply in a professionally accountable method” to violent crime.

He went forward and ordered the trial postponed. The defendant finally pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide below an settlement with the prosecution. (The decide has since retired however declined to be interviewed for this story, saying he nonetheless often fills in for different judges and presides over circumstances.)

Seven Years, No Trial

On the December sexual assault trial for Hurley in Anchorage, few folks had been extra desperate to see the case concluded than Eva Foxglove. The 53-year-old mom was the one who known as 911 throughout the assault. Foxglove didn’t know the ladies, however she mentioned she had been sexually assaulted earlier than and knew they may not have the option or keen to testify when the time arrived.

“I’ve to return and do that for them,” she advised the jury.

The occasions Foxglove watched unfold in 2017 had their origins shortly after Hurley’s launch from jail on a earlier sexual assault cost.

Accused of sexually assaulting a girl in her dwelling, Hurley was acquitted at trial, walked out of jail and wrote on Fb July 13, 2017, “What’s up free ultimately.” Two days later, he confirmed up at an Anchorage soup kitchen, the place he met the 2 ladies he was later charged with attacking, in keeping with a police report.

The report mentioned the three of them walked to the Delaney Park Strip, a number of metropolis blocks of grass that skirt a gleaming oil firm tower and the governor’s workplace constructing. One alleged sufferer advised police Hurley mentioned she was stunning and tried to kiss her however that she turned her head and advised him she was engaged to be married, the report mentioned.

Foxglove recalled in a latest interview that she was charging her cellphone at an outlet within the park. It was about 4 p.m. within the thick of vacationer season, 68 levels below a transparent, brilliant sky.

The ladies appeared to move out after consuming from a half-gallon bottle, Foxglove mentioned. She may see Hurley shifting on prime of 1 after which the opposite, she mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘What the fuck is he doing?’” Foxglove mentioned. Shortly after she dialed 911, a police officer jogged as much as Hurley and yanked him from one of many two ladies, the officer, now a sergeant, advised jurors in December.

Police later collected DNA matching Hurley’s from the second lady’s physique and from the primary lady’s clothes.

The case was assigned to Anchorage Superior Courtroom Choose Kevin Saxby and given a trial date of Oct. 9, 2017. However that date got here and went. Saxby and different judges agreed to delay the trial 50 occasions, most frequently on the request of Hurley’s legal professionals. One instance: Hurley’s lawyer wished to see the prison information of the 2 alleged victims.

Saxby didn’t reply to emailed and hand-delivered questions. Koford, the court docket system spokesperson, mentioned judges typically don’t touch upon their actions for “equity and due course of causes” and “can not and don’t touch upon decision-making and reasoning in a case.”

One of many alleged victims was described in sufficient element in police experiences for the Every day Information and ProPublica to trace down extra details about her life. She lived unhoused and was listed in police experiences as a sufferer in a minimum of two prior sexual assault circumstances.

The lady advised officers that she had handed out and awoke to search out Hurley on prime of her, police information say. A charging doc quoted her utilizing the phrase “rape” to explain what occurred. Not like the arrival police officer, the girl may testify not solely to sexual contact, but in addition her lack of consent.

She by no means received the prospect.

A passerby discovered her physique exterior a public library in Anchorage on April 19, 2019, a while between Hurley’s nineteenth pretrial delay and his twentieth. Police mentioned there was no proof of a criminal offense. At another level throughout the lengthy look forward to Hurley’s trial, the second lady died as nicely.

Prosecutors had the DNA and witnesses who may set up sexual contact. However with out the victims, prosecutors wanted to indicate that they had been incapacitated and due to this fact inherently incapable of agreeing to intercourse. The job fell largely to Foxglove. On the witness stand, she wore an outsized T-shirt and free ponytail. “I’ve by no means been to court docket earlier than,” she advised the jury. However she recounted the occasions from seven years in the past clearly, with higher precision and consistency than she’d provided in an earlier interview with a reporter.

When Butler, Hurley’s protection lawyer, challenged her assertion that the 2 ladies had been handed out — somewhat than merely asleep — she by no means flinched. She may inform when somebody wasn’t simply napping however dead-to-the-world unconscious, she advised the jury.

“I used to be a drunk. I do know what sleep is. Once you wish to sleep you lay down and fall asleep. However while you drink a lot, you move out,” she mentioned. “I do know the distinction, and I see.”

After seven years of delays, Hurley’s lawyer gave no opening assertion and didn’t name any witnesses. The trial took 5 days, together with two days of jury choice.

The jurors returned their resolution inside two hours on Dec. 10: responsible on 5 of six felony sexual assault prices. As of Monday, the state court docket web site indicated Hurley has not filed an attraction.

Within the Defendant’s Favor

Though the Hurley case resulted in a conviction, delays have labored to the defendants’ benefit in different Alaska prison circumstances.

A person held at Fairbanks Correctional Middle for 2 years with no trial had his drug prices thrown out after asserting his lawyer waived his speedy trial rights violation with out his consent.

And since October, a minimum of 10 pretrial inmates on the Goose Creek Correctional Middle have filed petitions in federal court docket difficult their state detention. They allege the state violated their speedy trial rights and in some circumstances appointed unreliable public defenders, saying they by no means signed varieties saying they wished to cease the 120-day countdown to a trial. Federal judges dismissed 4 of the petitions, whereas one other six are awaiting a call.

Haas, the official who supervises Alaska public defenders, mentioned he wasn’t conversant in the petitions however mentioned it’s not unusual for protection attorneys and their shoppers to disagree about how lengthy it is going to take to prepare for trial. “Throughout the pandemic, after all, that received just a little bit extra excessive when it comes to what delays had been happening,” he mentioned.

Pretrial delays can result in a reversal for prosecutors even when they’ve gained a conviction.

In a latest resolution that would have far-reaching influence in Alaska, a person convicted of sexually abusing youngsters succeeded in forcing the Superior Courtroom to revisit his case.

Police arrested Ralph Hernandez in 2011 after an 11-year-old lady advised her buddy concerning the alleged abuse. Prosecutors mentioned he abused, tortured or sexually assaulted youngsters from toddlers to youngsters.

Over the seven years that it took the case to get to trial, Hernandez repeatedly voiced his demand for a speedy trial, typically over the objections of his public defender. A jury convicted Hernandez of three counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and one rely of tried second-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

However Alaska’s appeals court docket dominated in February that Hernandez had confirmed his pretrial delays had been “presumptively prejudicial” and despatched the case again to decrease court docket for evaluation.

Within the 1978 federal ruling that set the precedent for the Hernandez case, the ninth U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals made clear that states can’t get away with violating speedy trial rights just by blaming a scarcity of public defenders or prosecutors.

“A state authorities’s allocation of assets performs a significant function in creating congested dockets, and it’s unfair to require defendants to bear the complete burden that outcomes from the federal government’s fiscal choices,” the court docket wrote. “There should be some extent at which delay as a result of a congested docket turns into so unacceptable that by itself it violates the suitable to a speedy trial.”

Though defendants could object to countless delays, they will profit from them as time eats away on the prosecution’s case.

“We as prosecutors are obligated to current proof in court docket and persuade a jury past an inexpensive doubt about what occurred,” mentioned John Skidmore, Alaska deputy lawyer basic. “However when recollections fade and persons are much less sure about what occurred sooner or later prior to now, that makes it harder for us to satisfy these burdens.”

Particularly in circumstances of sexual violence, it’s prosecutors who’re in a race towards time. Usually the proof rests on a survivor’s phrase towards an attacker’s. Dropping the alleged sufferer’s testimony — a likelier consequence every day with no trial — can crush a prosecutor’s odds of a conviction.

It occurred, a prosecutor mentioned, within the case of Andre Corcoran.

“What She Deserved”

The fees say Corcoran met his alleged sufferer, an unhoused lady taking cooking courses at a soup kitchen, shortly after shifting to Alaska. The lady advised police Corcoran appeared protected as a result of he volunteered to clear kitchen tables. When Corcoran advised her he had no place to remain, the girl provided to indicate him an deserted tent.

Inside, in keeping with the charging doc, Corcoran and the girl started kissing, however she mentioned she felt uncomfortable and requested him to cease. The charging doc says Corcoran admitted to holding her down and trying to have intercourse as she screamed for assist. A police report on Corcoran’s arrest describes his subsequent interview with a detective.

“I believe ladies should be raped,” Corcoran advised the detective, in keeping with a transcript. The defendant mentioned his solely remorse was not finishing the act, the report mentioned.

A grand jury indicted Corcoran on Aug. 30, 2018, on felony sexual assault prices. He waited in jail as protection attorneys had the case delayed a minimum of 11 occasions. Nonetheless, when it lastly reached trial in late April, Corcoran’s alleged sufferer was keen to testify regardless of struggling anxiousness, a prosecutor later mentioned.

“She wished to make it possible for he was held accountable for what he did and that he wouldn’t be capable of do that once more,” prosecutor Betsy Bull advised the court docket.

Then the decide declared a mistrial. Corcoran’s lawyer mentioned he wasn’t advised the alleged sufferer had a boyfriend on the time the assault was reported — which the lawyer mentioned gave the girl a possible motive to lie and canopy up consensual intercourse with one other man.

The prosecution was prepared to present it a second do that fall, however as the brand new trial date approached, Corcoran’s alleged sufferer died of extreme burns after her tent caught fireplace.

Bull mentioned she was pressured to supply a deal that allow Corcoran plead responsible to a single rely of felony assault. He could be sentenced to time served — his years in jail awaiting trial — and wouldn’t should register as a intercourse offender. The prosecutor advised the decide it was the perfect she may do.

“It’s not, from the state’s perspective, as a result of he didn’t do it,” Bull mentioned.

The courtroom was empty. No jury. No spectators. The decide requested the defendant if he wished to say something, and Corcoran stood.

“I do really feel dangerous about who I was,” he mentioned. “And I’ve made adjustments to who I wish to be. I wish to be a greater individual.”

Corcoran’s lawyer, Jaffer Khimani, mentioned Corcoran’s expression of regret “was honest to me.” Khimani mentioned he was unaware of one thing else that, in keeping with a report filed by a police detective, his shopper imparted moments after.

The report mentioned Corcoran spoke to the court docket officer who escorted him to an elevator on his technique to being let loose.

It quoted Corcoran saying one thing very totally different from what he’d advised the decide about his actions: “She received what she deserved.”