By RITA TROMETTER
April 8, 2026 – Democrats love to accuse Republicans for violating basic principles of ethics and honesty. But where are the Democrats when one of their own gets convicted and censured by local government? Crickets.
Consider two cases:
The first, the Democrats allegation that attorney John W. Woods is not fit to serve on the Alaska Judicial Council. The original allegation was that Woods, 79, is too conservative and is still an attorney, even though he no longer practices law.
A new political theory being floated by some radical journalist is that Woods got into personal trouble with the IRS 45 years ago, and as a result, he received a suspension by the Alaska State Bar. Apparently, these extraneous facts justify disqualification from the Judicial Council, as the Legislature is being told to vote him out.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed Mr. Woods to serve on the Alaska Judicial Council last year. The governor is entitled to this appointment, but the Democrats and the Alaska Bar Association are screaming foul.
Now, consider the second case, the tightly buffered example of attorney Savannah Fletcher. She arrived to Fairbanks in 2018 as a newly minted graduate of Stanford Law School. She went directly to serve as a law clerk on the Alaska Supreme Court for Justice Susan Carney. Carney presently serves as the Chief Justice. Fletcher also went into politics, serving on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly and ascending rapidly to the position of presiding officer. She later ran for Borough mayor and a state senate seat, but failed in both.
While serving as presiding officer, she engineered a scheme using a less educated member of the public to trump up charges against fellow Assembly member Barb Haney. Haney is conservative. Using an antiquated Borough ethics code, Fletcher rounded up all of the Assembly’s liberals to censure Haney because Haney spoke out on school safety issues, as well as the need to control public school spending.
Then, what can only be described as bad karma coming back to kick Fletcher in the rear, a conservative supporter of Haney filed charges against Fletcher for violating the exact Borough code that Fletcher used to prosecute Haney. The charges against Fletcher went straight to the Borough’s Board of Ethics for investigation. Fletcher got nervous and hired council to represent her at a formal closed hearing. The Ethics Board promptly convicted the very disappointed Fletcher for ethics misconduct and referred her for punishment to the Assembly.
Again, Fletcher brought in her private counsel, hoping to save her. After a comical round of testimony by Fletcher’s most ardent, left-wing supporters, Fletcher was further humiliated by the Assembly with censure for her dishonesty and violation of the Borough’s ethics code.
But in a remarkable reversal of misfortune, Savannah Fletcher was rewarded by the Alaska Bar Association with an appointment by the Board of Governors to the Alaska Judicial Council. The Bar Association usually elicites competition among Alaska lawyers for a seat on the Council, followed by a vote among members of the Bar for their favorite choice. But not in this instance.
Rule 8.4(c) of the Alaska Rules of Professional Conduct states: “It is professional misconduct to engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceipt, or misrepresentation.” Fraud, as in Fletcher’s case, includes acts of omission performed with the purpose to deceive. [See ARPC 9.1 (f)]. Here, the FNSB Board of Ethics investigated and concluded that the acts by Fletcher while she served on the Assembly were acts of ethical misconduct. And the Assembly voted to censure her.
The Alaska Judicial Council is comprised of six members. The Alaska governor selects three non-attorneys and the state Bar Association holds competitive elections for three attorney members. So, how did Fletcher escape an election of her peers and get appointed?
Four possibilities come to mind: Fletcher is a far-left Democrat; Fletcher’s personal friend and fellow far-left Assembly member, Patrick Roach, also serves as Secretary of the Alaska Bar Association; the Board of Governors of the state Bar needed a far-left lawyer on the Judicial Council to help install partisan, activist judges to the bench; and finally, the Judicial Council’s tie-breaking member, the Alaska Supreme Court chief justice, once had a clerk named Savannah Fletcher.
When members of the Legislature vote on whether to retain Mr. Woods on the Alaska Judicial Council, they should first consider the censureship of a different lawyer, while serving in political office, who breached the public trust. Fletcher’s history should disqualify her from a position in which she is called to evaluate whether someone is fit to practice as a state judge in Alaska.
Rita Trometter is a small business owner who lives in North Pole, Alaska.
One thought on “Rita Trometter: Should a censured lawyer serve on Judicial Council? No.”
Very informative article.
Patrick Roach, the Fairbanks Public Defender who also sits as the Secretary of the Alaska Bar Association, won his Assembly seat last fall in an election contest against Barb Haney. Fletcher was Mr. Roach’s campaign strategist. And Roach’s husband is the current City Attorney in Fairbanks who is employed by Fairbanks Mayor Mindy O’Neall, who was formerly an Assembly member and worked with Fletcher to get Haney censured on charges that did not comport with the true facts of the case.
Combine this with an undeniable fact that Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Carney was Fletcher’s one-time boss, I think you get a pretty clear picture of how Savannah Fletcher got her appointment on the Alaska Judicial Council. Democrats never intend to play fair. They will manipulate the rules whenever they can to get one of their own in power. In this case, Mrs. Haney was subjected to local ridicule for being censured, but Fletcher got a reward from the state Bar Association for her censureship. And Fletcher’s left-wing pal Roach took Haney’s job as Assemblyman.
It’s disgusting how this all happened and never reported accurately by the news media.
The Legislature should confirm John Woods to the Alaska Judicial Council. If they do not, the Legislature should first insist that Savannah Fletcher be removed from the Council prior to their vote.