Alaska officer says politics delayed arrest
ANCHORAGE - A drug investigator said authorities delayed the arrest of a woman tied to Governor Sarah Palin's family until after the November election, in which Palin was the Republican vice presidential candidate, a newspaper reported.
Sherry Johnston - whose son, Levi, is engaged to Palin's daughter, Bristol - was arrested Dec. 18 on six felony drug counts.
She is accused of selling OxyContin, a strong prescription painkiller, and pleaded not guilty yesterday.
Investigator Kyle Young sent an e-mail to the Public Safety Employees Association saying the search warrant of Sherry Johnston's house was delayed for political reasons, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
"It was not allowed to progress in a normal fashion, the search warrant WAS delayed because of the pending election, and the Mat Su Drug Unit and the case officer were not the ones calling the shots," Young wrote in the Dec. 30 e-mail.
The warrant was delivered the same day as Sherry Johnston's arrest.
Joe Masters, public safety commissioner, insisted the case was handled fairly and said no one in the governor's office knew troopers were investigating until Sherry Johnston's house was searched.
After the house was searched, Masters said, he called Palin's chief of staff, Mike Nizich, to alert him of a potential media frenzy. Colonel Audie Holloway, the troopers' director, also vigorously disputed that there was anything irregular in how the case was handled.
ASSOCIATED PRESS 