After sex scandal leads to judge’s resignation, Alaska prosecutors ask to vacate a conviction

Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to vacate a man’s assault conviction, citing an inappropriate relationship between a judge and a prosecutor.

The request, filed Tuesday, is the latest fallout from a sexual misconduct scandal that led to the resignation of Judge Joshua Kindred, one of Alaska’s U.S. District Court judges, earlier this year.

Officials at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage have identified at least 44 cases in which Kindred may have had personal conflicts.

Defense lawyers in some of those cases have asked that their clients’ sentence be overturned, and at least one of those requests has already been granted, but Tuesday’s request marked the first time that prosecutors themselves asked for a conviction to be overturned.

The case involves Johnny-Lee Preston Burk, a man nicknamed “Felon” in part because of his long history of drug dealing and interactions with police.

In 2019, federal prosecutors accused Burk of assaulting two federal officials. He was prosecuted in part by Karen Vandergaw and convicted.

[Growing legal fallout over Kindred resignation now includes challenge to high-profile opioid case conviction]

Secretly, court documents show, Vandergaw was in a relationship with Kindred, who was overseeing Burk’s case. The relationship was disclosed in a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals investigation of Kindred’s activities, but Vandergaw wasn’t specifically named until Tuesday.

“To the government’s knowledge, neither Vandergaw nor Judge Kindred disclosed the fact of their personal relationship to Burk or any attorney representing him despite that the relationship had become personal before Burk pleaded guilty,” according to Tuesday’s filing.

The filing also states that a hearsay source told government officials that Kindred and Vandergaw discussed Burk’s case, and that Kindred told the source that the two “worked it out.”

“To the government’s knowledge, no such conversation was disclosed to Burk or to any attorney representing him,” Tuesday’s filing says.

It concludes: “Accordingly, in the interest of justice and to safeguard the right of a criminal defendant to proceedings before a tribunal whose impartiality cannot reasonably be questioned, the government moves this Court to vacate the judgment of conviction and sentence in this case.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond Wednesday to a question asking whether other cases will see similar actions.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.