Long-Standing Feud in Alaska Embroils Palin

She characterized Wooten as a hard-drinking bully who held himself above the law and threatened her family.

"Wooten was counseled by my husband to join Molly in acting civilly and with maturity during their divorce -- for the sake of the nine kids they and Wooten's girlfriend have between them all -- and who are adversely affected by their circumstances. Wooten evidently took umbrage with the advice and that day told Molly she'd better 'put a leash on your sister' or he'd 'bring Sarah Palin down.' "

Palin added: "I feel strongly that Wooten is a loose cannon. He's a ticking time bomb, as others describe him, and I am afraid his actions do not merely reflect poorly on the State, but his actions may cause someone terrible harm . . .

"Is it acceptable for an Alaska State Trooper to use his badge and power in these aforementioned ways?"

She concluded, "Our faith is waning."

The divorce went to trial in the fall of 2005 while the state police internal investigation was pending. Anchorage Superior Court Judge John Suddock reviewed the complaints filed by Palin and her family. At trial on Oct. 27, 2005, the judge expressed puzzlement about why the family was trying to get Wooten fired, since depriving the trooper of a job would harm his ability to pay family support to Palin's sister.

"It appears for the world that Ms. McCann and her family have decided to take off for the guy's livelihood -- that the bitterness of whatever who did what to whom has overridden good judgment," Suddock said in an audio recording from the trial on TV station KTUU's Web site. "Aesop told us not to slay the goose who lays the golden egg. For whatever reason, people are trying to slay the goose here and it tends to diminish his earning capacity."

On March 1, 2006, Grimes sustained the allegations, saying, "The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession." Wooten was suspended for five days.

That fall, in a surprise, Palin defeated Gov. Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary and went on to win the general election. She took office in December 2006 and appointed Monegan, who'd just retired as Anchorage police chief after five years, to be public safety commissioner, a cabinet position.

In January 2007, Palin's husband, Todd, a commercial fisherman, oil company worker and champion snowmobile racer who was now first gentleman of Alaska, invited Monegan to the governor's office. Todd Palin asked Monegan to look into the Wooten matter. Monegan did and later told Todd there was nothing he could do because the matter was closed.

Monegan told The Washington Post that Palin called him a few days later on his cellphone, and that he told her the same thing. She brought it up again in February 2007 in the state capitol building and Monegan warned her to stay at arm's length.

Monegan said Palin mostly backed off, but kept raising the matter indirectly through e-mails. In the fall of 2007, Monegan said he alerted her to a bad jury verdict against a trooper in rural Alaska, and she replied by mentioning Wooten, but not by name.