U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has denied a request by the state of Alaska to investigate a man for sexual misconduct with a minor.
Bill Allen, the former head of oil services company VECO, was one of the key witnesses in the federal case against U.S. Sen Ted Stevens before that case was dismissed due to prosecutorial misconduct.
In a letter to the state released Tuesday, Lynch said the refusal is “not based on any non-prosecution promise or agreement between the government and Mr. Allen.”
Rather, it comes because the federal government does not believe there is sufficient evidence against Allen.
The federal decision comes after Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, specifically sought to amend the federal Mann Act to force the federal government to respond to state requests for an investigation.
This is the third time the federal government has declined to work with state investigators in a case against Allen.
The Mann Act governs sexual crimes that cross state lines, and the state requested in 2010 and April 2012 to “cross-designate” Alaska Department of Law officials as federal prosecutors to pursue Allen under the Mann Act.
After the federal letter was published, Sullivan released a statement declaring, “I find it incredibly frustrating that it took the threat of violating a new federal law for the Department of Justice to finally and directly answer a question that Alaskans have been asking for years. There was ample evidence in this case to allow the state to investigate and prosecute Bill Allen. But the Attorney General of the United States is saying that doing so would undermine the administration of justice — claiming that because the DOJ previously decided not to cross-designate the state, the DOJ was required to deny the state again. Such circular reasoning obscures what this case was about in the first place.”
Sullivan went on to say that failing to prosecute the exploited and sexually abused undermines justice. “Victims of human trafficking need to know that their government is working for them,” he said in a prepared statement.
For the state, Attorney General Craig Richards said he found the decision disappointing.
“I disagree that this case is not worth pursuing. Cross-designation would have provided the state the opportunity to fully vet the allegations and ensure that Alaska could finally seek the justice it deserves,” he said in a prepared statement. “Simply because the Department of Justice does not feel that there is enough evidence to convict Mr. Allen doesn’t mean that the state could not put together a solid case after further review of the case files and collection of additional evidence.”
• Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com.
