F/V Alaskan Girl and the No Good Biased Media and Court System

The monicker 'Fake News" became a meme because nobody realizes just how bad the media is until they write a story about you, Brannon Finney is one such person who may or may not have been slandered by a biased court system and equally biased news reports that spread like fire:

Back story:

(SitNews) Anchorage, Alaska - Brannon Finney, 32, of Bellingham, Washington, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Scoble after having pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful discharge of a pollutant, a violation of the Clean Water Act. The Court ordered Finney to pay a fine of $8,000, pay an additional $2,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation as a community service payment; and perform 40 hours of community work service. Finney will be on probation for 18 months and is required to post a public apology. The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder.

According to court documents, Finney, as captain of the F/V Alaskan Girl, caused the crew to dump approximately 16,000 pounds of sandblast waste into Sumner Strait. Specifically, on June 15, 2017, F/V Alaskan Girl was in route from Wrangell to Petersburg, Alaska with four bags, known as super sacks or brailer bags, on board. Each bag weighed approximately 4,000 pounds and contained sandblast waste. The waste, generated from the recent re-painting of the F/V Alaskan Girl, was a mixture of the copper slag used to remove the paint from the vessel as well as approximately 15 gallons of paint chips removed in the sandblast process. The waste – totaling eight tons – had been loaded onto the vessel at the direction of Finney. [....]

Along with Finney and two crewmembers, a cameraman was also on board the F/V Alaskan Girl, filming for a possible cable TV reality show. Video footage taken during the trip from Wrangell to Petersburg captured one of the brailer bags hanging overboard the vessel while two crewmembers on board sliced through the bag with a knife. Afterwards, black sandy waste spilled from the sliced bag into the water, while at least one of the crew audibly cheered.

Once the vessel arrived in Petersburg, video footage showed an interaction between an Alaska Wildlife Trooper and Finney. In the video, the Trooper informed Finney that he had received a complaint about the vessel leaving the shipyard in Wrangell with sandblasting waste. When he asked where it went, Finney replied, “We just dumped it.” The investigation revealed that Finney unlawfully discharged the waste into Sumner Strait with the goal of avoiding spending $1,460 to dispose of it properly.

Brannon as part of the court requirements was forced to make a public apology, however, she `also wanted her side of the story to be [known]

In June 2017 I tried to bring my mom sand for a belated Mother’s Day present. It had previously been used to sandblast paint off my boat. Ironically I was repainting, and renaming the boat to separate it from it’s sordid past. I was told that the paint that came off my boat wasn’t toxic, and the sand was just sand, (copper slag variety deemed non hazardous by the EPA), and that people use the spent sand for horse shoe pits and landscaping. I decided to bring it home to my mom to use at her new property as fill. I had told the shipyard that was my intention from the first day of sandblasting. I didn’t take it to cut corners or costs, I give away more in scholarships and donations every year, I was trying to do something nice for my mom. After leaving the ship yard a week late, She told me she would only be able to unload it one pick up truck full at a time. I became anxious about getting ready for my first salmon season in time and letting the processing plant, fishermen, and my entire gender down if I couldn’t pull it off.

After consulting my dumping placard and determining that the sand was safe to discharge, I decided to dump it overboard to make my deadline. Unfortunately, my placard was outdated by one year. Something I didn’t know until my dockside exam a week ago. Although both the copper slag sand and the paint we use are considered non hazerdous by the EPA, NOAA has different definitions so it can still technically be considered pollution.

From the beginning I have been totally honest about the events that transpired, I had a film crew on board and let him roll the whole thing. I didn’t have him delete it because I thought it proved our intentions were good, we cut open the bags carefully to prevent getting any plastic in the ocean. Literally to prevent pollution. I didn’t try to hide it because I thought I was with in the law. As someone who recycles, conserves, reuses, and goes green whenever possible, I’d never intentionally discharge a “pollutant”.

The Prosecution threatened to charge me with a felony if I did not agree to this plea deal. The penalty seemed fair to me. But I had no idea then that it would be publicly reported on so one sidedly. I think I would have fought harder if I had known my name and my boat would be shamed like this. I use my boat to bring supplies to firefighters, and remote communities, to transport recycling for local businesses, to employ and provide scholarships to women in fishing, to start a “teach a girl to fish” program bringing young adults out to Learn about the industry, to donate to those in need. I have learned from it and will accept the consequences of my mistake, but I’m not the villain that the prosecution has made me out to be. I hope my negligence can be forgiven and learned from in the future.

So you decide, who is right the courts or Brannon?

Update: A Reader writes;

For POW AK REPORTS consideration. Most if not all publications including this one, for the most part, only report on the Law Enforcement bias side. This publication, as well as others, publish the State Trooper's Weekly Report and the Craig Police weekly report. These reports include numerous arrests and citations that the law enforcement agencies make and issue. These arrests/citations do not prove guilt. They just start the process in order to determine, by a judge, whether the individual is, or is not, guilty.

Just to make it perfectly clear, these arrests and citations are made, directly by the law enforcement officer as an initial charge. These arrests/citations are mostly issued strictly on the officers opinion of the law. Which in some cases is incorrect. They are not lawyers or judges.

And, unfortunately in some cases, the arrests/citations are made due to the officers personal agenda and are not based on state or city laws themselves.

We all are given our opportunity for a day in court. I am sure most, if not all, have heard of "INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY". However, due to POW AK Reports, and other media outlets, publishing the initial arrests and citations, the readership and viewers only receive the law enforcement bias side of the story.

Rarely, if ever, is there a follow up story to clear an individuals name after they prove their side in court and are found NOT GUILTY.

In my opinion, we need to change the media's actions to report only the proven cases. In that way, only the GUILTY get there names dragged through the mud.

This would not have helped Brannon, but my compliments to POW AK REPORT for publishing her side of the story.

Thanks for listening and please consider only reporting the PROVEN GUILTY.


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