Alaska Republican set for trial on election-crime charges

In a pair of hearings this week, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby, an appointee of former Gov. Sean Parnell, set the trial date after an extended back-and-forth with the attorneys involved in the case.

“We will plan for a trial to begin on Nov. 27, and we’ll reserve two and a half weeks on the calendar just in case cross-examinations take longer than you think they will,” he told attorneys on Thursday morning.

LeDoux, her former chief of staff, and the son of the former chief of staff are accused of soliciting and encouraging people who did not live in LeDoux’s district to vote for her in elections that year.

LeDoux represented Kodiak in the Alaska House of Representatives from 2005 through 2008, then moved to Anchorage and represented the district that includes Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson from 2013 through 2021.

After being accused of multiple felonies and misdemeanors in March 2020, she lost her re-election campaign.

LeDoux’s former chief of staff, Lisa Simpson, is also accused of multiple election-related crimes. She unsuccessfully ran for state House last year and withdrew from the race after finishing third in the primary election.

Simpson’s son, Caden Vaught, is the third person facing charges. Earlier this week, Judge Catherine Easter issued a bench warrant after Vaught failed to appear for a Tuesday hearing and his attorney said he had been unable to contact him. Saxby waived that warrant Thursday.

LeDoux’s attorney did not respond to a phone message after Thursday’s hearing.

Since the charges were announced in March 2020, LeDoux has maintained her innocence and has previously said she looks forward to a trial at which she intends to clear her name. She declined additional comment Thursday.

The charges against LeDoux were the result of an investigation that began in August 2018 when the Alaska Division of Elections alerted the Alaska State Troopers about irregularities with absentee ballot requests in LeDoux’s district before the upcoming primary election.

One of those irregularities: 17 voters requesting absentee ballots from a single mobile home in East Anchorage.

Troopers contacted voters in the area and got help from the FBI as they sought text messages sent by LeDoux, Simpson, Vaught and others.

According to excerpts published in charging documents and the state’s account of events, those text messages “raised concerns that LeDoux had solicited and/or encouraged people who did not live in her district to vote in the House District 15 primary and general elections in 2018 and 2014.”

A year after the initial charges, an Anchorage judge dismissed two misdemeanors linked to the 2014 race, leaving only issues related to the 2018 elections.

The COVID-19 pandemic postponed trials across the state, including matters related to LeDoux’s case. Scheduling conflicts have also postponed the resolution of the issue.

With three defendants and the state involved in this case, various judges have had problems coordinating times when all attorneys and the defendants are available.

The scheduling hearings have offered little new information about the case itself, but on Thursday, Saxby suggested that pretrial motions could be due in late September.

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