Senate Judiciary, 4/22/26, 1:30pm

Let's call this meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee to order. It is 1:33 PM on Wednesday, April 22nd. Before we begin, I want to thank Juliana Singh, the Senate Judiciary Secretary, who makes sure we have a transcript of our meetings, and Doug Bridges from the Juneau Aleut who makes sure we have sound. At this time, I want to remind committee members and those in the room to please silence your cell phones. Present today we have Senator Tilton, Senator Stevens, Senator Tobin, and myself, Senator Clayman.

We have a quorum to conduct business. The first item on our agenda is confirmation hearings. The president has referred the following governor's appointment to the Judiciary Committee: the Alaska Police Standards Council. Members have received the resume for, resume for today's appointee. Today we have Veronica Lambertson.

Ms. Lambertson, if you're on the phone, please make sure you're not on a speakerphone as the sound is not as clear. Often making it difficult to hear what you're saying. Please put yourself on the record, and you may begin your testimony.

Through the chair, um, for the record, this is Veronica Lambertson, appointee to the Alaska Police Standards Council.

Did you want to make any statement to the committee?

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Um, just to introduce myself, that I've been in Alaska since my parents moved up in '85, and I had an opportunity to have some time free up in my life, and I was looking for positions to volunteer, and this one was presented to me, and that was Um, what brought me here to the position so far, of where I could help out in the community.

And I welcome any questions that anyone has. Any questions for Ms. Lambertson? Senator Stevens, we'll let you start. Well, thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Lambertson, what— so what is it you think you bring to the Alaska Police Standards Council as a member?

What would you bring to that council?

Through the chair to Senator Stevens, um, I'm a small business community owner and the position I'm fulfilling is the public position and pretty much that's what I'm anticipating bringing as a public position of, um, safety and standards and, um, slowly but surely learning about, you know, the background of the police officers and the police standards and how it functions and works. Okay, thank you. Helping out wherever I can from a public perspective. Thank you, Miss Lamberson. Senator Tobin.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Miss Lamberson, for offering to volunteer for the state of Alaska. I'm curious, as the Alaska Police Standards Council has jurisdiction and oversight over not just police officers but also village public safety officers, village police officers, tribal police officers, they provide a whole host of support and, and the ability for oversight and adjudication on, on those particular public safety and police that keep us safe and, and provide for public safety. Can you speak about your experience in rural Alaska and your experience with these different types of public safety and peace officers and your understanding of their different.

Jurisdictions? Thank you for the question, through the chair, Senator Tobin.

As I did state, I am still learning, but as a small business owner and living in the state of Alaska, I've been quite familiar with the whole state of Alaska and its different challenges that it has. With the different branches of officers. So for instance, when I was growing up in Girdwood, it was the Alaska State Troopers that patrolled that area. And when I lived in Bird Creek, the Alaska State Troopers, the two was there. And I have, being a small motel owner, I've experienced different incidents that I did have to work along with different branches of law enforcement in dealing with issues that do come to small towns, whether it's trafficking, kidnapping, or such other incidences that do happen.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And Ms. Lambertson, I'm curious, you're, as again, the oversight of this council is, and particularly the public seat, is one for a person who has relationships and connections with the different groups that have a vested interest in providing for our public safety. So I hope you can speak to your relationship with tribal communities and tribal governance, particularly as they're deeply connected to the tribal public safety officers and BPSOs, and your relationship to the broader community of Alaska that are all deeply concerned about ensuring that we have high quality and high standards for our public safety and peace officers and police officers.

Um, you're the chair, Senator Tobin. Um, I have been quite familiar with the American— or the Alaskan tribes, and I have multiple friends from village community And I have interacted many different ways through my 30-plus years as a business owner. And the tribal communities actually use my motel too quite regularly, so I do get a glimpse into the village and talking to people.

Follow-up? No, no, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the response, Ms. Lamberson. I was hoping you might talk to more formal connections or ability to work with tribal governments and to hopefully provide an avenue and insight so that their voices are also reflected on the Place Standards Council, but I recognize your focus is on private business ownership and there may be some limitations in my expectations there.

[Speaker] So through the chair, Senator Tobin, in the future, if an opportunity presents itself, I would be more than welcome to meet different groups of that sort. I'm just not in it right now. But this would be an opportunity that would put me in front of people too as well and meet and learn new things. Thank you for the question. Thank you, Ms. Lambertson.

The Police Standards Council published a user guide in 2021. It's 86 pages long. Have you had a chance to review that document?

Through the chair, I'm not sure who asked the question. Uh, it is the chair asking you the question.

Oh, okay, sorry. That's okay, you're, you're on the phone and not on a TV, so it's harder to tell.

Okay, thank you. Um, I am not sure the document you're referring to, and I would— I read quite a few documents that were required. Plus, I don't have my computer immediately in front of me, so I am sorry I can't verify for sure if I have pre-read that document, but I'll definitely put it on my list for verification, or I can follow up in an email with you. I'm also curious in that you've been— you were appointed to the Council in 2025. Have you had an opportunity— and I don't want to know the details of a particular review— but have you had an opportunity to review or potentially consider any suspensions during your time on the council so far?

Um, yes, Senator Clayman, I have been able to attend currently two of the Alaska police standards council meeting so far. What did you think of the process that when they were looking at police certifications, what did you think of the process the council uses to do those police certifications?

Senator Flaman, I believe they were very thorough and professional.

And the board was very kind in introducing and helping me along with the first two board meetings. And they're pretty upfront, especially the chair, and very informative about the information. Do you have any concerns with how the Police Standards Council is operating today, whether you would think of any changes to the regulations or the procedures as you've seen so far?

Not at this time, no.

I know on your resume that you were a staff member at the Idea Homeschool. Can you let me know what dates you were working there?

Um, it's not actually working there per se. I've been a volunteer parent and been on the PAC for the past half year, but it's all volunteer positions. And I've been with the IDEA homeschooling since my first daughter started, which I have— I'll be having my fourth graduating child so far, and I joined IDEA back in 2007.

I know from your resume you live now in Bird Creek and that you also grew up in Girdwood. Have you lived anywhere, anywhere else in Alaska?

Um, yes. Oh, I lived in Anchorage, South Anchorage, before moving to Girdwood.

So we, we did a look and saw some of your social media postings, and I had— I wanted to ask you a few questions about some of your social media postings to, to get your perspective on those. One of the postings that I saw was a posting that you didn't believe the Holocaust Holocaust was real. Do you believe the Holocaust occurred during World War II?

Um, Senator Klainman, I'm not sure what post you're referring to offhand, and I don't— I would have to have it in front of me. Or be able to be shown it again to give a reference point of what purpose it was posted for. Well, I, I, I could follow that up in an email. So I'm not going to ask you about the particular post. These were posts that were identified as being posted from your— on your Facebook or something else on social media.

But I guess the question I have is, do you believe that the Holocaust, that when 6 million Jews were killed, actually occurred, or do you think that's fiction?

Do I believe something happened at the Holocaust and a tragedy and a lot of people died? Yes, I believe that actually happened. Are we being told the true story about it all? No, I don't believe we're being told the true story about it all. What do you believe is the true story?

Um, that I don't know yet.

Would it be fair to say you just, you just don't believe what we're reading and reading regularly in the news and in different museums around the country and the world? You—. We shouldn't believe that in your perspective?

Um, that's a very hard question to answer. Not that I don't think it's not true. Like, I think what I— what my last statement was, was I don't think we're being told the whole story.

But you can't tell me what part of the story we're not being told, correct? Because there is classified documentation on it. And there is only certain redacted historical events that are released.

And I think until we see the unredacted truth of the whole story, I would have questions about some questions.

Senator Tobin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Lamberson, I see that you were a member of the Turnagain Community Council. Is that accurate?

Through the chair, Senator Tobin, yes, I am an active member of the community council, the Turnagain Arm Community Council. A minor correction. It's the Turnagain Arm Community Council. Turnagain Community Council is in West Anchorage near the airport. Turnagain Arm is Is Bird Creek.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So just so I understand, that community council is part of the Municipality of Anchorage, is that correct?

Yes, it is. And so I, I think I have a curiosity. Is you're being appointed to the public member seat for a population of under 2,500, and yet you live in the Municipality of Anchorage?

My understanding was that it was a small community of 200, is the town itself of Third Creek.

Mr. Chairman, I would love to have clarity, uh, as from my understanding, this particular public seat is reserved for, uh, very small communities so that they will have a fair voice on this particular Police Standards Council. And it sounds like this member actually is living in a municipality that is much larger and has a much larger population than the particular seat that she is sitting in. And Senator Tobin, I actually— the perspective that sometimes the communities on the Turnagain— along Turnagain Arm, including Bird Creek, that are very much part of the Municipality of Anchorage sometimes feel like they're not necessarily as included as they might like to be doesn't change the fact that they are in fact in the municipality of Anchorage. And so I think that's a good question. Obviously not a question for this appointee, but certainly a question that I think we— if you'd like, I can certainly make a request to Ledge Legal to get their opinion about whether or not this— whether she even meets the qualifications for this appointment.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would appreciate that. We'll make that request.

Going back to a couple other questions about social, social media, Ms. Lamberson. The first is, again, we saw a post that you believed children were being harvested for adrenochrome, and I'm probably mispronouncing it, adrenochrome. But do you believe that children are being harvested for adrenochrome?

Um, are you saying— from information I have seen and documentation that was provided, Is the question that should be asked.

I'm actually not asking someone other than you. I'm asking if you believe this is occurring today, you personally.

I have no evidence of seeing it personally, no.

In the last, uh, The last thing I wanted to note that I had seen postings that you were indicating that people that had been convicted of crimes relating to the January 6th Capitol insurrection in 2021, that those individuals were innocent. Do you believe people convicted of crimes relating to the January 6th events at the Capitol, do you believe they're all innocent?

I'm sorry, the connection was breaking up a little bit in between this question. I'm grasping it's about January 6th. I'll restate the question. Do you believe that people who were convicted of crimes related to their activities at the Capitol, the United States Capitol, on January 6th, 2021— do you believe those that were convicted are all in fact innocent?

Senator Clayman, I question the sensualization of the media and the presenting of how the January 6th happened and if there was a thorough report that I would question. I think there's a lot of questions. About what transpired still on January 6th as to whether having the full answers to what actually happened. Can you tell me one, one question that you specifically have about what did or didn't happen on January 6th? One question that you have.

Granted, you're taking me back quite a few years.

Um, I really have questions because of who was in charge, which was Nancy Pelosi. And the— I'm forgetting the head of the Senate back at Mitch McConnell. They're in charge of the District of Columbia Police on Capitol Hill, and I would question them and why they disarmed the police 3 days before that event.

So you believe the House Speaker and the Senate President disarmed the police 3 days before January 6th, the Capitol Police?

I believe that was one of the reports that came out.

And I think the last question on that topic: if there was a jury that sat, a jury of peers that sat and found a person guilty of crimes on January 6th. Do you trust the verdict of that jury?

I would trust a jury of 12 and public peers.

If they found someone guilty of a crime, yes, whether it was January 6th or not. Okay, thank you very much.

Any other questions for Ms. Lambertson?

Hearing and seeing none, I'm going to— thank you very much, Ms. Lambertson. I'm going to open public testimony on today's appointment of the Police Standards Council. Is there anyone in the room who would like to provide public testimony on the Police Standards Council Veronica Lambertson? Hearing and seeing no one, I'll look— looking online, I don't see anyone online for, for the Lambertson appointment, so I'm going to close public testimony. Any further questions for Ms. Lambertson?

Mr. Chairman, I don't have a question, I just want to make a comment, if I may. Thank you. The Bird Creek and the Turnagain Arm Community Council reside within the Municipality of Anchorage. They are under the jurisdiction of the Anchorage.

Assembly. Last I checked, the Anchorage Assembly has a population of 398,000, give or take. I, I'm looking at the statute, uh, 18.65.150, that says the Police Standards Council should have 4 members of the public at large and at least 2 members from communities of 2,500 population or less. I think this is unfortunately a situation of where Miss Lambertson has been put into a seat that she is not qualified to hold based on statute practice. And although I know this is not the place to not push her name forward, I would encourage Ms. Lamberson to consider withdrawing her own name as she is, in my estimation and read of the statute, not legal to sit in this seat.

And the only question I'd ask for you as committee chair, you've— while I've been asking some questions, you've been doing some research. Do you want Ledge Legal to follow up? Are you satisfied with the research you've done that she's not qualified? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd be happy for and appreciate lead research looking back in the record on intent when this council was discussed and established in statute and the lawmakers' intent when they designated two of those seats to be in populations of 2,500 and less.

We will make that request. Any other comments from members of the panel? Hearing and seeing none, may I have a motion? Senator Tobin, I have to see because Senator Keel is off to finance. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Judiciary Committee has reviewed— oh, excuse me, uh, yes, the Judiciary Committee has reviewed the qualifications of the governor's appointees and recommend— and recommends the following name be forwarded to a joint session for consideration: Veronica Lambertson for Alaska Police Standards Council. This does not reflect the intent of any of the members to vote for or against the individual during any further sessions for the purposes of confirmation. Ms. Lambert's name— her name will be forwarded to the joint session. We will take a brief— it is to sign the paperwork.

Back on the record. The second and last item on our agenda is House Bill 239, criminally negligent homicide, failure to assist, sponsored by Representative Kopp, who is with us today. This is the 5th hearing of the bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Today we'll be going over a more detailed section analysis of the work draft version B, and we'll also be taking any questions. I would note we have a fairly good roster of folks available for questions: Captain Scott Bartlett, Alaska State Troopers; Director Lisa Purinton, Statewide Services, Department of Public Safety; Director Susie Frenzel, Victim Assistance and Forensic Science, Department of Public Safety.

Nancy Mead, General Counsel to the Alaska Court System. Casey Schroeder, Senior Assistant Attorney General from the Department of Law. We also have Craig Orlin, Director of State and Local Government Relations, American Honda Motor Company, who's also invited. I would note that Mr. Orlin is here specifically to the provisions relating to airbag fraud. Other features of the bill, he has no expertise, but on airbag fraud, he's He's the one.

And then in terms of reviewing the more detailed review of the committee substitute that we're looking at is our staff, Brianna Kakarek. Ms. Kakarek, if you would please come forward, take a seat at the table, put yourself on the record, and you can provide your summary. And you all should have a— sectional analysis, which was not ready last week.

Thank you. For the record, my name is Brianna Kakarik. I'm staff to Senator Clayman. So today I'll be going a little bit more in depth with the sectional analysis of work draft version G of House Bill 239. Last committee, when we heard this, I went over an overview, but Please feel free to interrupt me if you have any questions about any specific sections or portions, or let me know if you'd like me to speed things along.

I know it's a longer bill, so I'll try and— I tried to consolidate it, so, but please feel free to interrupt with any questions or comments as I move along.

To start off, there are a handful of sections coming from House Bill 101, Crimes Against Minors, Age of Consent, and most of those changes found in the sections amend multiple statutes to update the definition of a minor, raising the age from 16 years of age to 18 years of age in, um, cases related to specific criminal offenses. Um, I won't go through every section unless the committee would like me to, but I will highlight a few sections that I thought were worth highlighting.

So in Section 12, um, AS 1141-452, Enticement of a Minor, that is the section that I highlighted in our last committee hearing about amending the close-in age gap for 16- and 17-year-olds sending, um, and receiving sexually explicit— sexual and explicit text messages, um, to 6 years to be aligned with the close-in year age gap for sexual under— sexual intercourse under House Bill 101. So that is the section I thought was worth highlighting.

Um, moving forward Um, to sections 7 through 8, I wanted to highlight that is from House Bill 242, sexual assault by a healthcare worker. And I wanted to note that more specifically about what that does. AS 1141-410 and AS 1141-420, sexual assault in the first degree and sexual assault in the secondary, are amended to update the definition of a sexual of sexual assault in the first degree and second degree by a healthcare worker to remove the stipulation that the offender must know the victim is unaware that sexual act is being committed. Um, moving on, there are also a handful of portions pulling from House Bill 47 and Senate Bill 247, which is the generated obscene sexual child sexual abuse material. Um, that is probably, um, legislation that is maybe second most referenced behind House Bill 101, and I wanted to highlight Section 10, um, AS 1141-436, sexual abuse of a minor in a second degree, um, specifically because it adds a new paragraph 8 to add contact with semen to the list of conduct that can be— that can constitute unlawful exploitation when the person is knowingly induced or recording a child under 18.

I wanted to highlight that because paragraph 8 is referenced in a handful of sections moving throughout, throughout the committee substitute.

I also wanted to highlight Section 26 because AS 1161 is amended to add two new sections. Section 1161.121, distribution of generated obscene child sexual, sexual abuse material, and Section 1161.122, possession of generated obscene child sexual, sexual abuse material. Those two new sections established in 1161 are referenced throughout the legislation, so I thought it was worth highlighting.

I also wanted to highlight that, um, also under the, um, House Bill 47 and Senate Bill 247 provisions of this committee substitute, definitions are updated in a handful of sections, including sections 51, 55, and 57, to include references to generated obscene child sexual abuse material.

Moving on to the next— to the next bill in this committee substitute, Senate Bill 100. In the last committee, Chair Clayman mentioned that there were a few portions that were included under Senate Bill 100 that we will be looking to take out in the next committee substitute substitute for this legislation, which includes, I believe, Section 20 and 21. Our intentions are to only keep— organized theft is a class of— classified as a Class A felony. Actually, actually, the goal is to remove Section 19 and Section 20 and keep Section 21 for mail theft. Okay, thank you.

Thank you for the correction. That's all right.

You're doing great. Um, moving on, I wanted to highlight Senate Bill 233, which is the Controlled Substance Advisory Committee, located in Section 38.

Um, there will also be changes to the next, um, provisions, um, to the underlying House Bill 239, criminally negligent homicide failure to assist. As I noted in the last committee hearing about it, there were some drafting errors that we looked to correct.

And I could go more into detail, maybe with the help of the chair, if you want to hear more specifically about the details we want to amend in that. So I can quickly note, if you look at Section 62, which we won't be suggesting any changes to, but it identifies a failure— a person who fails to stop regarding assisting an injured person. And this is in Section 62. If you go down one section further to Section 63, it references a person who fails to comply with the requirement to stop. And that's the section that's supposed to involve when death has occurred.

But there's no indication of any type of injury or death in subsection D in Section 63. So we'll be making amendments to that to clarify that that for the, the greater penalty in Section 63, subsection D to apply, death would have had to occur.

Okay, thank you. Um, moving on to the House Bill 62 sexual assault examination kits tracking portion of the legislation that show up in, um, sections 52 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, and 70. I wanted to highlight the biggest changes. Some of, some changes that come from that are setting timelines for notification and requirements for tests to be done within a certain time frame, as well as adding new Section 4441.067 under Department of Public Safety regarding sexual assault examination kit tracking system.

Allowing DPS to develop and operate a tracking system for sexual assault examination kits.

Moving on to House Bill 81, access to marijuana conviction record— records portion of this committee substitute found in sections 53 and 54. Um, one of the biggest changes is adding new subsection F, which establishes that an agency may not release criminal justice information for low-level nonviolent marijuana possession charges, which are no longer crimes under current statute. So as long as the offender was under 21 years of age or older at the time of the offense and was not convicted of any other criminal charges in that case, and requests the agency not to release the records. Moving on to House Bill 3D4, definition of victim counseling center found in Section 59. It updates Section 1866-250, the definition section to add tribal government agencies to the definition of victim counseling center.

Senate Bill 17, crime counterfeit non-factory airbags found in Section 64. That is a bigger section, but it basically establishes and defines airbag fraud.

Um, moving on to the ends of the section. Section 74 includes repeals, and, um, Section 75 sets an effective date of July 1st, 2026 for AS 41070 subsection A. Section 76 repeals 4441070 subsection A, effective immediately, creating an automatic sunset of January 1st, 2028.

And then Section 77 discusses uncodified law of the state of Alaska, and then Section 78 through 81 set more effective dates, if you'd like me to go through those. But if not, I'm happy to take other questions.

Questions from members of the Kidney Committee, either, either for Ms. Kacarik or for any of the folks that are available for questions.

I don't see any questions. Representative Kopp, you have been very patient here. Did you want to add anything today while we are looking at the bill?

Thank you, Chair Clayman, and thank you to your team member for walking us through the sectional.

I appreciate the work putting this together and look forward to the public testimony and the amendment process and putting together a good piece of legislation that I believe will be broadly supported. And as I said earlier, I believe it was last week, trying to keep my days straight either. I think there's some—. It's Wednesday today. Wednesday, right?

Everything's very compressed now. I believe there's some very good policies in here that fill known gaps in the law in several different areas. And I think the bill integrates these fixes comprehensively throughout Alaska's sentencing structure and in the criminal law itself. And I just look forward to hearing the public testimony and going through the amendment process and getting a good, good product up to the next committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Senator Stevens has a question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Representative Kopp. Your bill started out much simpler than the one that we now have before us. Is there anything in it that causes you concerns? I mean, often other issues are added into people's bills and it leads to more opposition.

Is there anything in this bill now that you think is inappropriate or should not be there? Through the chair, President Stevens, thank you for that question. It's a great question. The chair has actually been good about talking with me about keeping some things out that I feel need further vetting, and that could really slow it down. And I appreciate that.

And the items that are in the bill now here, I think, are all very workable. I'm not saying they won't be amended or what the next committee might do, but there's nothing in the bill now that gives me heartburn, so to speak, that I feel would artificially drag it down in the process. Thank you for the question. Thank you.

Seeing no further questions, we're going to set this bill aside for further review, and we are going to adjourn for the day. Our next meeting will be on Friday, April 24th at 1:30 PM. We'll be taking invited and public testimony on House Bill 239, criminally negligent homicide, failure to assist. We will also be looking to the will of the committee to move out Senate Bill 249, Virtual Currency Kiosks, sponsored by Senator Tilton. And with that, we will stand adjourned.

The time is now 2:14 PM.