Attorneys delivered oral arguments today in a perjury case for a retired Homer judge.
Former Judge Margaret Murphy was charged with one felony perjury count by a grand jury in April 2023. The indictment was filed by state special prosecutor Clint Campion. Murphy’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case in October, which they argued for Monday morning.
The charge is related to the case of David Haeg, a Soldotna man who was convicted in Murphy’s courtroom in 2004 for unlawful hunting crimes. Since then, Haeg has since led a larger campaign for the rights of grand juries and against judicial corruption. This morning in Anchorage, Haeg and a dozen other supporters stood outside the Nesbett Courthouse, holding signs that read “grand juries have the power” and “Alaskans against tyranny.”
The case was originally located at the Kenai Courthouse, where all Superior Court judges recused themselves. It was moved from Kenai to Homer by request of Murphy’s attorney, and assigned to Anchorage Judge Thomas Matthews. Last week, the oral arguments were rescheduled to Anchorage by court order.
Murphy’s attorney Timothy Petumenos went first, arguing that the state’s indictment of Murphy lacked sufficient detail and did not meet the state’s legal standards for a perjury charge. He said that according to grand jury log notes, the jury suggested they might want to charge Murphy with perjury, the state prosecutor drafted an indictment, but the jury didn’t have the quorum of members required to make the charge.
He also argued that evidence presented to the grand jury was inadmissible, and that the grand jury acted unfairly in targeting Murphy.
Petumenos told the judge that any of those reasons should be grounds for dismissal.
Campion, the special prosecutor, argued next, and said the defense’s claims about improper jury quorum were true. But he pushed back on Petumenos’s claim that the grand jury acted improperly in investigating Murphy. He said she testified in late 2022, and evidence the grand jury received several months later contradicted her testimony, leading to the perjury charge.
When asked by the judge if the lack of jury quorum was enough to dismiss the case, Campion said yes.
Judge Matthews told the courtroom he would not issue a ruling during the hearing, but that he would release a statement in writing after reviewing the arguments.
