Anchorage Daily News

A former village public safety officer in a Northwest Alaska village pleaded guilty this month to making peach-flavored homebrew that troopers say he sold by the gallon in plastic garbage bags to locals.

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Troopers arrested Richard Mashburn, 52, in November after tipsters said they saw him at a store buying fixings like yeast and sugar to make illegal alcohol and spotted a stream of customers at the house.

Neighbor Eddie Beaver, who estimated a gallon of the homemade alcohol sold for $50 in Selawik, said he didn't know what Mashburn was up to. But he did notice the daily visitors at the man's home.

"Going in there with an empty packsack, going home with a full packsack," he said.

Selawik is a dry village that banned the sale of alcohol in 2001.

Beaver, who grew up in the largely Inupiat community of roughly 800 people, said Mashburn is originally from out of town. But he'd been living there for decades -- and began working as a VPSO back in 1985, according to the state.

Village public safety officers may not carry guns, but they're responsible for protecting their neighbors and enforcing local laws in remote villages that might otherwise not have any local law enforcement. They're hired after a screening process, work for regional nonprofit corporations and team with Alaska State Troopers, said trooper Sgt. Leonard Wallner, statewide VPSO training coordinator.

Except for a break in 1989, Mashburn appeared to serve as a Selawik VPSO until leaving the post in August of 2007, Wallner said, citing state records.

Mashburn's file says only that he left the job because he was "unable to follow the policies of his employer," he said.

LARGE SCALE

Tipsters told troopers that Mashburn -- no longer a VPSO at the time -- appeared to be selling homebrew out of his house as early as last summer, estimating he made as much as $1,500 in a weekend, according to trooper affidavits.

He sold the brew by the gallon in white plastic trash bags to as many as 10 people in a day, one complainant told troopers.

In early November, troopers made a surprise visit to Mashburn's home and found more than 19 gallons of homebrew -- topped with peaches for flavor -- in a large trash can lined with plastic bags, said Troopers Investigator Aaron Meyer.

Many homebrewers make their alcohol on a smaller scale, in five-gallon containers, said Meyer, who called the haul in Mashburn's home the biggest he's seen.

Troopers also found 365 pounds of sugar, 20 pounds of yeast, 19 cans of fruit and boxes of the white trash bags, according to affidavits.

"We made a decision at the time not to arrest him, just seize the items and forward charges," Meyer said.

But then came a fresh round of complaints from Selawik, telling troopers that after they left the village Mashburn bought more ingredients at a local store. So two days later, troopers returned, with arrest warrants for Mashburn and his wife, who would later have her charges dismissed.

They found another 11 gallons of homebrew.

Mashburn told toopers that the alcohol wasn't new -- it was in the house when they visited the first time, they just didn't find it. He refused to answer any more questions, according to the report.

His defense attorney, public defender Stephen Hale, declined to talk about details of the case but noted Mashburn has a history of public service. Troopers said Mashburn appeared to have no criminal record before the recent alcohol charge.

Originally charged with two counts of manufacturing alcohol in a "dry" area, Mashburn pleaded guilty to a single felony charge on Jan. 7.

Mashburn was in Anvil Mountain Correctional Facility Tuesday awaiting sentencing in April. State prosecutors declined comment.

Meyer, who is based in Kotzebue -- about 90 miles from Selawik -- said homebrewing is tougher to spot than bootlegging but "extremely common" in the region.

Beaver, Mashburn's neighbor, guessed people are still making illegal alcohol in his village.

Stop one person, he said, and "less than 24 hours later, there's another bucket brewing somewhere."

Find Kyle Hopkins online at adn.com/contact/khopkins or call him at 257-4334.