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State legislators voted Friday to subpoena witnesses including Gov. Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, as part of the
Troopergate inquiry, and an investigator disclosed intriguing new details during a tense 2 1/2-hour hearing.
Steve Branchflower, a retired state prosecutor who legislators hired to probe Palin's firing of former Public Safety
Commissioner Walt Monegan, said someone in the governor's office might have pushed one of the 13 people on the subpoena
list to deny Workers' Compensation benefits to state trooper Mike Wooten.
The trooper was involved in a contentious divorce from Sarah Palin's sister, and Monegan has said in media interviews he
believes he lost his job because he wouldn't bend to pressure from the Palin family and at least one of the governor's
aides to fire the trooper.
Among the complaints the Palins have lodged against Wooten is that he filed a Workers' Comp claim even though he wasn't
really injured.
Branchflower testified Friday at a joint hearing of the Alaska House and Senate judiciary committees in Anchorage. The
hearing room was jammed with reporters and television cameras attracted to the Troopergate affair because of Palin's
newfound fame as John McCain's vice presidential running mate.
Committee members vigorously debated whether to take the rare step of issuing subpoenas, with one lawmaker, North Pole
Republican Sen. Gene Therriault, predicting that doing so might lead to a "smackdown" court battle between the executive
and legislative branches of the state government.
Therriault and Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, argued for delaying the issuance of subpoenas, if not the investigation
itself, until after the Nov. 4 election.
Others, however, argued for getting on with Branchflower's investigation.
"I say let's just get the facts on the table, the sooner the better," said Sen. Charlie Huggins, a Wasilla Republican
who came to the hearing dressed in camouflage, saying he took time out from a moose hunt to attend.
Huggins joined Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hollis French and Sen. Bill Wielechowski, both Anchorage Democrats, in
supporting Branchflower's request for subpoenas. Therriault and McGuire voted against.
The House Judiciary Committee, whose role in the joint hearing was advisory only, concurred with the Senate committee.
Legislators launched the probe in late July, well before Palin was announced as a vice presidential candidate. The
lawmakers voted to spend up to $100,000 on Branchflower's investigation.
In his testimony Friday, Branchflower explained why he needed to subpoena witnesses, most of whom are state employees
who either declined to submit to his questioning or who initially agreed but later canceled appointments.
One "especially important" witness on the subpoena list, Branchflower said, is Murlene Wilkes, owner of an Anchorage
company called Harbor Adjustment Service. The company holds a state contract to process and pay Workers' Comp claims.
Branchflower said in August he heard that "someone from the governor's office or someone from the state" advised Wilkes
to deny Wooten's claim. So Branchflower said he called Wilkes to check it out.
Branchflower said Wilkes told him she had never talked to anyone in the governor's office about the Wooten file, nor had
she seen photos of Wooten riding a snowmachine while on Workers' Comp.
But later, he said, an employee under Wilkes who handled Wooten's claim -- Branchflower didn't disclose her name --
called his investigative tip line to say Wilkes told her "something to the effect that either the governor or the
governor's office wanted this claim denied."
Branchflower said the employee, during a recorded interview, told him she felt pressured.
"I don't, you know, care if it's the president who wants the claim denied. I'm not going to deny it unless I have the
medical evidence to do that," Branchflower said, quoting from the employee's statement.
Now, Branchflower said he wants to take a sworn statement from Wilkes, who he said was possibly "not truthful" in her
initial talk with him. Wilkes, he said, canceled a Thursday appointment for an interview on the advice of an attorney.
"She obviously is a key player because she handles all of the Workmen's Compensation claims for the State of Alaska,"
Branchflower said. "She may have a financial motive," he added, due to her contract with the state.
Efforts to reach Wilkes for comment were unsuccessful. A reporter visited her Benson Boulevard office early Friday
afternoon, and a receptionist said she couldn't talk because she was tied up in a meeting for about an hour. On a second
visit later in the afternoon, the receptionist said Wilkes had left for the day.
Tom Van Flein, an Anchorage attorney representing the governor, couldn't say whether someone with the governor's office
contacted Harbor Adjustment on the Wooten claim. But Van Flein said state officials did investigate "potential Workers'
Comp fraud," based on information from Todd Palin.
State officials on Friday were unable to fully specify details of the state's current contract with Harbor.
Brad Thompson, the state's risk management director and one of the people who will receive a subpoena, furnished a copy
of a one-year contract, signed in 2003, paying Harbor $1.2 million to handle Workers' Comp claims.
Thompson, in an e-mail, said the state has signed "several extensions" since that initial contract, but he didn't respond
to questions as to the current contract term or dollar amount.
Branchflower said he wants to subpoena Todd Palin as the "principal critic" of Wooten's continued employment as a trooper.
He told legislators Todd Palin had a meeting with Monegan in the governor's office in January 2007, not long after his
wife was sworn in, to show him the results of a private investigation into the trooper's alleged misconduct, including
photos of Wooten riding a snowmachine.
Two people who Branchflower hopes to interview, but who legislators decided not to subpoena, are the governor herself
and her former chief of staff, Mike Tibbles, now working as campaign manager for U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.
Branchflower is aiming to finish his report by Oct. 10.
Subpoena list
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NEW LEAD: Investigator wants to know if a Workers' Compensation employee was pressured.