A pair of Soldotna-based Alaska State Troopers were charged with misdemeanor assault in the fourth degree on Wednesday for their conduct during a May arrest.
Joseph Miller Jr., 49, and Jason Woodruff, 42, are accused of assaulting Ben Tikka, 37, whom they approached while trying to arrest his cousin, Garrett.
During a press conference on Thursday, State Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell said that Miller is a 14-year employee of the state troopers and Woodruff has been a trooper for 16 years.
Per the complaint, the two troopers responded to a call on May 24 about a vehicle parked at the Kenai Bark Park in Kenai at around 5 a.m. Troopers thought the vehicle was connected to Garrett Tikka, 32, who had an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for failing to remand on a 10-day sentence for driving while license revoked.
The complaint cites both audio and body camera footage taken by Miller and a Kenai Police officer in recounting the event, though Woodruff wasn’t wearing his camera. It says that Miller arrived first, waiting for Woodruff as backup. Miller said “he’s a runner,” seemingly referring to Garrett.
The pair discussed using Woodruff’s dog, K9 Olex, when they approached Tikka — an encounter that Woodruff said would be “lawful but awful.”
Before the troopers engaged Tikka in the vehicle at the dog park, a Kenai Police Department officer contacted the driver of a second vehicle that had been seen at the park that morning. The officer was told that the only occupant of the vehicle at the dog park was Ben, the cousin of the man being sought by the troopers — information “never relayed” to the troopers.
The troopers confronted Tikka in the vehicle at the dog park, telling him to exit the vehicle. He responds, per the complaint, asking what he’s being arrested for.
Miller broke a window of the vehicle and pepper sprayed inside. When Tikka tried to reach out and open the door, Olex jumped up and tried to bite him.
Olex, the complaint says, repeatedly fails to respond to commands and bites its handler even before they start interacting with the man in the vehicle.
When Tikka exited the vehicle, the complaint says Miller kicked him and hit him in the back of the head, pushing the man to the ground — which was covered in broken glass from the window. Miller used his taser on Tikka, the complaint says, while stepping on Tikka’s head. Miller tased Tikka a second time while holding him on the ground, at which point the dog began to bite his body as well.
The complaint says that Tikka can be seen in body camera footage laying on his stomach with his hands behind his back, as ordered by troopers, blood “visible covering and dripping” from his head.
The dog bites him again, repeatedly, while Miller “is still giving commands … to place his hands behind his back, although (the man’s) hands are behind his back already.” The complaint says that Olex at that time bit Tikka for “66 consecutive seconds.”
Sustaining repeated bites from the dog, Tikka tried to move away, when Miller tased him a third time and he fell to the ground.
As Tikka “is screaming” that he’s complying and asking for the troopers to stop, the complaint says “Woodruff continues to give the bite command.”
“Can I go to jail?” Tikka asked. “Please stop this now!”
A Kenai Police Department officer attempted to intervene, but Woodruff said to “let the dog work.” Miller said, the complaint says, “you were given so many opportunities, man.”
The complaint says that no law enforcement officer asked Tikka what his name was until they were in the ambulance on the way to Central Peninsula Hospital.
At the hospital, Tikka told another trooper that he had attempted to comply with commands. The complaint says the video and audio “demonstrated (he) answered the questions honestly.”
Despite that, troopers arrested Tikka and charged him with three counts of fourth-degree assault, a count of resisting or interfering with arrest and a count of disorderly conduct. All charges were later dismissed by the Kenai District Attorney’s Office.
The complaint says that the Alaska Bureau of Investigation was alerted of the incident on June 6 and began investigating the trooper’s use of force. Medical records showed that Tikka had an open bite on his left arm, a bone fracture in his left shoulder and lacerations deep enough to tear muscle — which required surgery.
Cockrell said Thursday that he the incident was reviewed first by the department’s K9 coordinator, who flagged “that there may have been multiple violations of policy” up to department leadership. All K9 deployments are reviewed, Cockrell said.
When he reviewed the body camera footage, Cockrell said, he immediately ordered a criminal investigation, which resulted in the charges filed Wednesday.
“When I reviewed this video, I was totally sickened by what I saw,” Cockrell said. “I’ve been with this department for 33 years, and I’ve never seen any actions like this before, by an Alaska State Trooper.”
Woodruff made a statement to investigators on June 14, saying that “when I do deploy the dog, it’s not something that I take lightly.” He said that the other three law officers couldn’t handcuff Tikka, so he used the dog. The investigation found “several discrepancies” in Woodruff’s report compared to observations in the videos.
Miller told investigators, per the complaint, that he felt his use of force was reasonable, even knowing now that Tikka wasn’t the man they were seeking.
The charges returned after the investigation are both misdemeanors, rather than felonies. John Skidmore, deputy attorney general for the criminal division of the State Department of Law, said during the press conference that the classification of a felony would require “one of two elements,” either the use of a dangerous instrument or serious physical injury. The state doesn’t believe, he said, that either was present, even though Tikka was hospitalized.
He also said that no body camera footage would be released until after a trial.
During the press conference, Cockrell said he wasn’t aware of any charges or civil suits filed against the department by Tikka. The two troopers, he said, are on administrative leave. He’s “not quite sure” whether that leave is paid.
Both Cockrell and Skidmore said that, to their knowledge, no Alaska State Troopers have ever before been charged with assault for excessive force while making arrest.
“The actions of these two individuals is not acceptable to me,” Cockrell said. “It’s not in the line of our training and our policy, and I know it’s not acceptable to the Alaskans that we serve. While this is an unfortunate day for the Alaska State Troopers, I hope that Alaskans will continue to place their trust in the hundreds of troopers that honorably serve Alaskans every day.”
The two troopers were not arrested on the misdemeanor charges, and instead were issued summons. They are scheduled for arraignment at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 10 in the Kenai Courthouse.
The full press conference can be viewed at “Alaska State Troopers” on Facebook.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
Trooper Jason Woodruff is seen as K9 Olex leaps up onto a vehicle in a screenshot from body camera footage taken in Kenai, Alaska, on May 24, 2024. (Photo provided by Alaska Department of Law)
