Civics: “The end result: a $95,000 plane forfeited for a six-pack of Budweiser”
April 3, 2012, began like any other day for Ken Jouppi, a longtime bush pilot in Alaska. He was scheduled to fly a passenger and her groceries from Fairbanks 110 miles north to the village of Beaver. Hidden in the passenger’s luggage, though, were three cases of beer—two Budweiser, one Bud Light—intended as a gift to her husband, who worked in Beaver as the local postmaster.
The beer was illegal to bring to Beaver, which voted to prohibit alcohol in 2004. Before Ken could take off, state troopers searched the plane and discovered the beer. Ken insisted he did not know about the beer. He was nevertheless charged, convicted and sentenced to the statutory minimum: a $1,500 fine and three days in jail.
But the State wasn’t done with him yet. For the past thirteen years, prosecutors have also been trying to forfeit his airplane, a Cessna U206D, worth about $95,000. And this past April, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the harm of a single six-pack of beer warranted seizing something as valuable as an airplane.
Jouppi v. Alaska.
