Posted on 09/29/2025 9:36:26 AM PDT by xxqqzz
WASHINGTON — Ken Jouppi, a bush pilot, was putting gas in his Cessna in Fairbanks, Alaska, on an April morning in 2012 when state troopers arrived. He was preparing to fly a client to Beaver, a remote village 110 miles to the north that prohibits alcohol.
“It was going to be a good day,” Jouppi, 82, an Air Force veteran, recalled last week.
But the encounter ended badly. The troopers found beer in the passenger’s luggage, and Jouppi was eventually found guilty of knowingly transporting alcohol into a dry community. He was sentenced to three days in jail and ordered to pay a $1,500 fine.
Prosecutors wanted one more thing: his plane, worth about $95,000. Because Jouppi had used it to commit his crime, they argued, it was subject to forfeiture. The Alaska Supreme Court agreed.
“He knowingly transported a six-pack of alcohol in plain view while acting in his professional capacity as the operator of an air taxi company and the pilot of the airplane,” Justice Jude Pate wrote for a unanimous court. “This factor suggests that the forfeiture of his airplane is not grossly disproportional.”
From 2013 Alaskan pilot may face $1M beer fine Jouppi, represented by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian legal group, asked the U.S. Supreme Court last month to hear his appeal. Although the case seems to present a substantial question in an area that has lately engaged the justices, the state waived its right to file a response.
In a sign that at least one justice is intrigued by the case, the court asked Alaska to file a brief. On Friday, its lawyers asked for an extension, saying they hoped to submit their response in November.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
>>If it’s Bud Light, I understand.
If it was Bud Light, he should appeal the conviction on the grounds that there was no “beer” involved.
>>If it’s Bud Light, I understand.
If it was Bud Light, he should appeal the conviction on the grounds that there was no “beer” involved.
They should be careful making an old man with nothing to lose a criminal, as he might want to get even before he dies.
Whoever made the decision to seize the plane should lose their job and pension.
State Troopers did this, ugh
Civil forfeiture attacks on Americans has become an epidemic.
There is no thief like a government thief.
There is no thief like a government thief.
> The beer may have been in the aircraft and visible, but that doesn’t mean that he was going to leave it in Beaver. <
Many years ago I went to a talk given by a 2A lawyer. One story he told was about a hunter flying up from the South to Maine for a hunting trip. He had a rifle in the plane’s storage hold. The plane had to make an emergency stop in NYC.
The hunter was arrested by the NYPD for bringing that rifle into the city.
Unfortunately, I don’t remember how the story ended.
“Now 85 and retired, Jouppi was a longtime air taxi pilot in Fairbanks when he planned to ferry a passenger and her groceries from that hub city to Beaver, a village in the Interior.
Before takeoff, an Alaska State Trooper noticed a six-pack of beer visible in the baggage. Beaver had outlawed the sale, consumption and importation of alcohol in 2004. Troopers searched the plane and found three cases of beer — two Budweiser, one Bud Light — intended for the passenger’s husband, the local postmaster.
Jouppi was indicted on bootlegging charges, convicted, and sentenced. His sentence included three days in jail and a fine. State prosecutors asked that he be required to forfeit his plane, but the trial judge declined.
The state appealed that decision, and the Alaska Court of Appeals ruled in 2017 in the state’s favor. The Appeals judges sent the case back to the trial court, which again refused to order the plane’s forfeiture, citing the U.S. Constitution’s excessive fines clause.
The state again appealed, and in 2022, a full decade after the original crime, the Court of Appeals partially ruled in the state’s favor. “
The war on (some) drugs created a lot of this nonsense.
The war on (some) drugs created a lot of this nonsense.
Because when a private sector thief tries to rob you, you can shoot the bastard.
When a government thief tries to rob you, shooting the bastard will get you killed ... or sent to prison ... and damned to hell as a "cop killer" on Free Republic.
“A six-pack”
Three cases in passenger’s luggage.
“A six-pack”
Three cases in passenger’s luggage.
“Civil forfeiture attacks on Americans has become an epidemic.”
Same with squatters taking other people’s houses and property.
Both of these actions should be illegal.
Otoh:
There are serious alcohol problems in some native communities in Alaska. As in, the whole community is drunk, and the children are running around without supervision.There may be very serious reasons not to introduce even a six pack of beer into some places.
He tried to choose both. Some monasteries choose only beer.
It never left. There are many counties in the south that are dry.
How do they know the passenger wasn’t going to drink it before the plane departed?
😂😂😂😂
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