Anchorage Daily News

A lawyer who represented embattled state Trooper Mike Wooten in his claim for workers' compensation benefits said he saw no evidence Gov. Sarah Palin's office interfered in the case.

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Lawyer Chancy Croft says Wooten's case was "run of the mill."

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Wooten, 36, the man at the center of the political storm known as Troopergate, hurt his back on Jan. 15, 2007, as he helped lift and carry a body bag containing a man's corpse through the snow. The man had died in a car crash at Mile 50 of the Parks Highway, an accident report shows.

Because of his injury, Wooten missed work and collected workers' compensation benefits totaling more than $11,000 between the date of the injury and mid-April of that year, say records the trooper's attorney released Wednesday with his client's permission.

Subsequently, a lawyer for the state challenged payment of further benefits, prompting Wooten to hire attorney Chancy Croft of Anchorage.

Ultimately, a settlement was reached that pleased Wooten, who has since returned to work, Croft said.

Croft, who was the losing Democratic candidate in the 1978 race for governor, said he's handled hundreds of workers' comp cases over 25 years. The Wooten case, he said, was "run of the mill," with no indication that it was handled any differently from any other case or that the governor's office took any hand in the matter.

Further, he said, it's common for rank-and-file workers in the state bureaucracy to challenge benefits, as was done in Wooten's case based on a second doctor's opinion of the trooper's injury and a pre-existing condition.

However, Croft said, that doesn't mean a former adjuster at the private Anchorage company that processed Wooten's claim didn't feel pressure to deny his benefits.

That possibility seems to be a big focus for Steve Branchflower, a former prosecutor state legislators hired to investigate whether Palin abused her powers in firing former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan.

The Monegan dismissal has taken on national significance because of Palin's status as John McCain's vice presidential running mate.

Monegan has said he believes he lost his job in July for failure to yield to pressure from Palin and her husband, Todd, to fire Wooten, who was involved in a rough divorce and child custody battle with Sarah Palin's sister, Molly McCann.

PRESSURE TO DENY?

At a Sept. 12 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Branchflower said one of the people he wanted the committee to subpoena for testimony was Murlene Wilkes, owner of Harbor Adjustment Service. The Anchorage company holds a contract worth more than $1.2 million a year to process all workers' comp claims for state employees.

Branchflower said he heard that "someone from the governor's office or someone from the state" advised Wilkes to deny Wooten's benefits.

Branchflower said contacted Wilkes and she told him she had never talked with anyone in the governor's office about the Wooten file, nor had she seen photos of Wooten on a snowmachine while on workers' comp -- something the Palin family has alleged along with a string of other reputed misdeeds.

Later, however, Branchflower said the former Harbor adjuster who handled Wooten's claim 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 told legislators that Wilkes might have had a financial motive to be "not truthful" because of the state contract.

Harbor Adjustment is seeking a new contract, and state officials have chosen the firm from among four bidders. However, the competition isn't over because one bidder with a slightly lower score has appealed.

Branchflower, who is aiming to finish his investigative report by Oct. 10, has taken statements from the former Harbor adjuster as well as Wilkes, who was subpoenaed.

A receptionist at Wilkes' Midtown office on Wednesday referred a reporter to her attorney, Robert Erwin, a former Alaska Supreme Court justice. Erwin did not return a call for comment Wednesday.

RECORDED PHONE CALL

Questions about whether the governor or people close to her unlawfully perused Wooten's confidential personnel or workers' comp files arose Aug. 13, when Palin released an audio recording of a telephone call one of her aides, Frank Bailey, made to trooper Lt. Rodney Dial on Feb. 29 of this year.

On the recording, Bailey said the Palins were wondering why Wooten was "still representing the department." He also made reference to Wooten possibly making a false workers' comp claim.

Dial asked Bailey how he knew that, as such information usually is "extremely confidential."

Bailey later said in a sworn statement to Palin's lawyer, Tom Van Flein, that he'd never seen a workers' comp file, and that he got his information through "candid conversations" about Wooten with Todd Palin.

Governor's spokesman Bill McAllister said Wednesday he knows of no involvement by Palin or anyone in her office in the workers' comp case.

"Only the appropriate state officials were involved is what I've been told emphatically," McAllister said.

Roberta Erwin, daughter of Robert Erwin, is the attorney who represented Palin's sister in the divorce and child custody litigation.

On July 17, Roberta Erwin wrote a "To whom it may concern" letter saying, "The governor's office, and particularly Governor Sarah Palin, has at no time had any involvement in this litigation."

Erwin said she wrote the letter because she was upset by a local blogger "insinuating that I had accepted records obtained illegally from governor's office."

Erwin said she didn't even know about Wooten's workers' comp benefits until they were mentioned in recent media reports.

Find Wesley Loy online at adn.com/contact/wloy or call 257-4590.

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