Fort Yukon city councilman charged
Published Wednesday, April 16, 2008
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Stumble It!A Fort Yukon city councilman has been charged with helping his younger brother evade authorities.
Jack Shewfelt, 43, a convicted arsonist, was released from the Fairbanks Correctional Center on March 13 to attend a funeral in Fort Yukon on the condition that he return to custody a few days later. He never did, and a felony warrant for his arrest was issued.
Fort Yukon police received several reports from people who saw him around the village, which has a population of 700, and said that he was staying with his brother, Paul Shewfelt, 49, a member of the city council.
Paul Shewfelt, a registered sex offender, was charged with one count of first-degree hindering prosecution, a Class C felony, after police contacted the brothers last Wednesday.
Acting City Manager Richard Carrol said the council will not take any action until Shewfelt has his day in court.
Jack Shewfelt has been charged with unlawful evasion, also a felony. He is being held at the Fairbanks jail without bond.
Community Discussion
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Fort Yuk is all over the paper today,sheesh!
How can someone who is a registered sex offender (i.e. felon) be on the city council, do they have no standards...
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Scotty Berg,
There are 101 ways to become a registered sex offender; some of them involve questionable cases, such as occured at a local department store, where, rather than telling a gentleman that his fly was down, the store's personnel chose to call the police, and have him arrested for indecent exposure. In that case, following their convicting of the man, and finding out only then what -ALL- of the facts were, several persons on that jury, including the foreman (from what I've been told), wrote the fellow a letter of apology for their having convicted him.
Other members of that esteemned list got there by forcibly raping children of various ages, or adult women, as well as other inexcusable felonies.
I don't know how the fellow got on that list.
My point is that there are completely reprehensible means by which to attain that status, and other mechanisms for getting onto that list that sometimes leave one shaking their head, as it can sometimes seem like the whole purpose of that list has been misdirected.
Only after finding out the specifics of a person's case, can one conclude what degree of abhorant or socially-unacceptable individual they really are.
The bottom line is that he harbored an arsonist, and sheltered him from the just desserts of his actions. For that, he's now singing those crow-bar hotel blues; as he probably should be.
I feel bad for Paul's wife, she is an old friend of mine. Hey, how stupid can someone be to go to the Ft. to try to "disappear". My buddy that I used to work with up at the Ft. said, "why would someone try to hide in a place like this?? Go to the south side of Chicago, you would never be found!!" One cannot go to the bush and "hide". Especially when that person is known as well as Jack Shewfelt. Too funny. And for Paul, well, that is not too bright if you helped him either. Dang, back to jail, I know that sucks, but hey...if ya did the crime, do the time.
The esteemed member of the Fort Yukon city council was only convicted of Sexual Assault I...I guess they really don't have standards.
He was elected to the City Council by a "jury of his peers" who all know him well. People have to be allowed to put their past behind them and move on. All of us have a past with something in it we would like to forget.
Lets put Ft Yukon in the paper right before tourist season!
look out ft. yukon the police are back from hibernation.
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wtwlly, how dare you mention someone's mother who is long gone passed away. you don't hear us talking bad about your loved ones that are gone.
and to all of those of you who are concentrated on the registrated sex offender who is on the city council, he was doing a good job of acting city manager. also, to clearify things, the city council is runned by the state, not our tribe. so if you think the city has no standards, then complain to the state, not us.
and for honeyhi, go for it, tell the tourist only what you THINK you know about us. i hope when they ask you if you are from here or even have been here ever, they'll disregard anything you have to say. they already know what a beautiful place this is from the past tourist.
you know what hollywood says about publicity, bad or good is better than none.
Georgina Solomon
PS jack and paul, see ya around at home buddies!
Ha Ha, tell em George,
Most are too quick to judge and distort the gossip as they've nothing better in their lives than to thrive on such misery of others, putting them even lower than the culprits. Gwichyaa Zhee is still the greatest and oldest town in AK.
Can we just get back to saving the "YUKON FLATS WILDLIFE REFUGE" instead of arguing about things that will be forgotten by tomorrow like this story?
YES! We are in the papers again.... For all you readers who think this is a bad place to live, think again. These reports happened over the past several months and unfortunately were put into the same paper. I think the Fort Yukon Police Department sucks! Do you see them out there getting the drug dealers, sex offenders, traffic violators, etc.... I don't. These are the ONLY cases over the past 3 months on record. Which is what? Four of five. Now what do you think of Fort Yukon? Fort Yukon is full of love and generosity. When someone is suffering a loss in their family, the WHOLE town stands behind them and offers help! Please don't let these reports fool you! Fort Yukon is the best place to live!
Who are you to judge people from Ft. Yukon. The news papers don't have all facts, it's mostly just for intertainment! I've been to Ft. Yukon and it's a wounderfull place. The people there are kind and generous. If you haven't been there before then keep your thoughts to yourself because you don't know what your talking about. Oh Yeah, The state runs the city council so bring your nasty comments to them! By the way, Why would you let someone out of jail for a funeral if they have a reputation like his. As for Paul thats his brother, whats he going to say, "Get out of my yard" please get real people.
Here we go again! The news miner is just reporting news and some people are so prejudiced about native people that they ALWAYS jump at the chance to say anything BAD or NEGATIVE about Fort Yukon or any other native community. You will also notice that the newsminer ALWAYS has to put Fort Yukon in big bold letters when it's reporting. If any of you know "Jack"...... he is HARMLESS and if anyone thought he WASN'T; he would not have been let out of jail! Any "smart" person would know that what is posted or broadcasted on/in the news is not always correct. Quit judging! Fort Yukon is a great community to live in........ sure it has problems, but so does every other community...... we just always happen to always make the news EVERY time something negative comes up. We probably always make the news because we're SO GREAT! People either LOVE us or they are JEALOUS for some reason....... maybe it's because us Gwich'in tend to stand together. Anyways...... I don't know why I'm wasting my time here.... you can't talk any sense in to senseless people.
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