Alaska News

DA: Senate's ex-spokeswoman will plead guilty to assault, driving under influence

The Alaska Senate's former chief spokeswoman will serve at least two months in jail after agreeing to plead guilty to a felony count of assault, the Anchorage district attorney said Wednesday.

Carolyn Kuckertz, 38, was charged in June with three felonies and a misdemeanor of driving under the influence after police said she hit two women as she pulled out of the parking lot of the Legislature's Anchorage office building. The more seriously injured of the two was taken to the hospital, but released without suffering any broken bones.

In a plea deal made public Wednesday, prosecutors consolidated the three felonies into a single count of assault in exchange for Kuckertz's agreement to plead guilty. She will also plead guilty to driving under the influence, according to Clint Campion, the district attorney.

Kuckertz is expected to serve two months in jail for the assault charge and 20 days for the driving under the influence charge, though Campion didn't clarify whether the two sentences would be served at the same time or consecutively.

Kuckertz will be on probation for two years, according to Campion.

Kuckertz did not respond to a phone message this week, and Wallace Tetlow, who's listed as her attorney in court records, declined to comment.

Campion, in a phone interview earlier this week, said the plea deal was "consistent and in line with how we normally handle those cases."

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A change of plea hearing for Kuckertz is scheduled Aug. 31.

A spokesman for Senate President Kevin Meyer said last month that Meyer's office had decided to terminate Kuckertz's contract.

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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