Did the feds cover up sex allegations against Bill Allen? (VECO)

[maddezmom]

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On the surface, it appears the federal government might have hindered local police from doing their job - investigating alleged child sex crimes. And this raises a public policy question: Was it more important to investigate politicians for corruption than probing a prominent businessman accused of sexually abusing minors?

Let's be clear: Allen has not been charged with any crime related to the sex allegations and has firmly denied through his lawyers any wrongdoing. Neither has it been proven that the federal government covered up the allegations facing Allen or that it prevented Anchorage detectives from pursing the claims.

But Kott's motion to have his case dismissed does paint a detailed scenario where the feds went out of their way to suppress the sex-crime allegations, perhaps to keep the former VECO chief executive cooperating on the corruption front, and to keep his reputation as a witness untarnished.

Based on our own reporting, Kott's motion and the newly released documents, we know that Anchorage police have been investigating Allen off and on since 2004 in at least two separate cases that involved him allegedly hiring teenage girls for sex in the 1990s and early 2000s. We also now know that the federal government, including some of those agents and prosecutors who headed up the corruption investigation, knew of these allegations at some point as they zeroed in on Allen.

But the problem is that the documents the government has turned over to Kott don't tell the full story. There are still pieces of the puzzle missing. And Kott and his attorney, Sheryl Gordon McCloud, want prosecutors to provide more information.

more:http://www.alaskadispatch.com/news/the-outpost/2648-did-the-feds-cover-up-sex-allegations-against-bill-allen-

[maddezmom]

1. Allen's alleged sex crimes still in limbo

Allen's alleged sex crimes still in limbo
By Corey Allen-Young, CBS 11 News Reporter
Created: 10/28/2009 04:48:50 PM AKDT


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTVA-CBS 11 News)
Now that Bill Allen knows his sentence for corruption where does that leave the Anchorage police investigation into the alleged sex crimes Allen committed against minors? According to police, that's the tricky part because they are waiting to see whether or not these allegations were included as part of his federal sentence.

The initial investigation over Allen's alleged sex crimes sprung up when an A.P.D. detective uncovered evidence that Allen had sexual relations with a 14 or 15-year-old girl in the mid 90's. The investigation was suspended at the request of federal prosecutors which many say point to a deal made with Allen in exchange for his key witness testimony in corruption trials like convicted former house speaker Pete Kott.

The case was reopened and the information resurfaced when Kott's attorney submitted federal documents that contained the allegations and evidence that Allen committed several sex crimes against children. Something she says was withheld to please the prosecution.

"I have the allegations in black and white there are documents that the government with held from the defense during the trial," said Sheryl Gordon McCloud, Kott's attorney. "I don't know any more about the truth of the allegations but I do know that the government failed to tell us anything about them."

more:http://www.ktva.com/ci_13661996