Former Alaska Wildlife Trooper and Haines Borough Police Department officer Ken VanSpronsen has become the fifth Haines law enforcement officer in five years to lose state certification or be convicted of a criminal charge.

The Alaska Police Standards Council, a statewide police oversight agency, opened a case against VanSpronsen on July 2 after his separation from the Alaska State Troopers, said standards council administrative investigator Sarah Heib.

VanSpronsen worked for the Haines Police department as a “special emergency hire” from June 20 through Aug. 24, and again from Sept. 18 through Dec. 29.

After determining there was “probable cause,” the council voted in December to pursue revocation of VanSpronsen’s license and sent him a packet of information outlining the accusations against him, Heib said.

VanSpronsen opted to surrender his certificate rather than plead his case before the group, which oversees police and correction officer standards statewide. The council accepted the surrender of his certificate March 10.

VanSpronsen worked as a wildlife trooper in Haines from June 1, 2012, to June 18, 2015. When a law enforcement officer separates from an agency, the agency is required to file a form with the council providing details of the separation, Heib said.

The form asks several questions of the employer, including whether the officer or trooper resigned or retired in lieu of termination, and whether the agency would recommend that person’s decertification.

Council executive director Robert Griffiths said VanSpronsen’s superiors at the Department of Public Safety answered “yes” to both those questions on the form.

“That triggered a further inquiry by APSC staff, which I declined to participate in because of my personal relationship (with VanSpronsen),” Griffiths said.

Griffiths was working as interim Haines Borough police chief when he hired VanSpronsen as an officer following VanSpronsen’s separation from the troopers. Griffiths served as interim chief in Haines from May 2015 to November 2015, when he accepted the job as council executive director.

Griffiths this week said he knew about VanSpronsen’s status with the troopers when he decided to bring him on as an “emergency hire” for borough police due to a time of short staffing.

“I knew he was going to be terminated,” Griffiths said. “I asked him for details (about the circumstances) and then asked him, ‘Are you going to be decertified?’ And he said, ‘Who knows what they may do, but if they do try to do that, I will resist that.’ That’s what he said at the time.”

Griffiths said he also asked VanSpronsen if he thought being an officer in Haines would “cause a problem.” VanSpronsen said, “No, I do not.”

Griffiths said VanSpronsen was “well thought of” by most of the community, well-trained and readily available, which is why he hired him. He doesn’t regret the decision.

“At the time, we needed the staff. He did a good job for Haines while he was there, so I can’t say that I regret it, no,” Griffiths said.

Neither Griffiths nor trooper officials would say what allegations or incidents triggered VanSpronsen’s departure from the troopers and ultimate decertification.

Because VanSpronsen elected to surrender his certificate, information about his departure from the troopers remains confidential. Had he elected to contest the allegations, those details would have become a public record, Griffiths said.

When asked if the option to surrender the certificate and keep the case confidential was a way of skirting public scrutiny of wrongdoing, Griffiths acknowledged it is in some ways.

“In one way, it is a cop out, but in the other way, it blocks them from being a police officer anywhere else in the country. No agency in the country will hire him if they do their due diligence and determine that he has surrendered his license somewhere,” Griffiths said.

Surrendering the license technically only prohibits VanSpronsen from working in law enforcement or corrections in Alaska, but in practice it will end his career in the profession, Griffiths said.

“It is a forfeiture of your future law enforcement career, period. Regardless of where you go,” Griffiths said. “And that is what we tell people when they ask us what are the implications of (surrendering the certificate). Our response is, ‘You will need to find a different profession because you won’t be able to work in this one again.’”

With the loss of his certification, VanSpronsen joined a growing list of former Haines officers to flunk out of law enforcement.

John Havard, who worked for the Haines Police department from July 2011 to January 2012, surrendered his certificate in 2013 after the council began investigating him upon receiving allegations of misconduct. Former officers Jason Joel and Kevin Kennedy also lost their certifications.

Kennedy and former officer Cassandra McEwen were also convicted of misdemeanor criminal charges: Kennedy was convicted in 2011 of interfering with a constitutional right under color of law, and McEwen was convicted in 2012 on three misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals.

Two Haines men publicly accused VanSpronsen of leveling unfounded charges against them for residency violations.

VanSpronsen referred 27 charges to the district attorney against lodge owner Byron Rettinger, six of which were filed on March 7, 2014. All six charges were for unsworn falsification, alleging residency violations in which Rettinger claimed Alaska residency on hunting tags while receiving a resident’s property tax exemption in Michigan.

VanSpronsen brought 28 charges against James Puckett in March 2013, claiming Puckett falsified his residency to obtain Alaska hunting and fishing privileges while also receiving tax exemptions on Indiana property.

Both claimed VanSpronsen filed the charges against them as retaliation for personal relationships gone sour.

The state dismissed all charges against Rettinger and Puckett.

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