Petersburg has a new state prosecutor. The Department of Law has assigned the post to Assistant District Attorney Nick Polasky, who is working out of Juneau. He’ll also cover Kake as well as statewide extradition cases.
Polasky was formerly one of the three prosecutors in Ketchikan. The Department announced this summer that it would be adding a fourth attorney to the District Attorney’s office in Juneau, which is responsible for criminal cases in much of Southeast, including Petersburg and Kake. The decision came after Petersburg officials had raised extensive complaints about short staffing in the D.A.’s office, the local dismissal rate for cases, and what they saw as a lack of communication with local police. In July, Deputy Attorney General Richard Svobodny said a fourth prosecutor in Juneau would increase the departments ability to respond to different courts by 25 percent.
Nick Polasky said this week he was looking forward to the Petersburg work. Matt Lichtenstein asked about his approach to staying in touch with the community:
