State drops latest charges against Palmer City Council member Richard Best

What you need to know:

• State prosecutors this week dismissed a criminal charge against Palmer City Council member Richard Best for driving with a revoked license.
• Palmer police charged Best during a Jan. 20 traffic stop in downtown Palmer, according to court documents. Police incorrectly identified Best’s noncommercial driver’s license as revoked through a state information system checked during the stop, according to a motion filed by Best’s attorney.
• Best’s license was revoked for 90 days after he pleaded guilty to refusing a chemical test early last year, but that revocation period had ended months before last month’s traffic stop.

PALMER — State prosecutors this week dismissed a driving with a revoked license charge filed against Palmer City Council member Richard Best in January.

The dismissal was filed Monday and announced during a hearing Tuesday morning at the Palmer Courthouse. State Superior Court Judge Martin Fallon signed the dismissal.

Palmer police charged Best with driving with a revoked license during a Jan. 20 traffic stop in downtown Palmer, according to court documents.

A state judge last May ordered Best's license revoked for 90 days as part of his guilty plea to refusing a chemical test following a traffic stop in Palmer last February. A charge of driving under the influence was dismissed as part of that plea, according to court documents.

Best's license was revoked from Feb. 10 to May 10 of last year as a part of that plea, according to a Feb. 20 motion to dismiss filed by Best's attorney, Lyle Stohler.

Palmer police Sgt. Michael Lynch made the January traffic stop “following a near collision in the crosswalk” between Best's vehicle and two pedestrians near the corner of Evergreen Avenue and South Alaska Street, charging documents state. Best was driving a Chevy Avalanche when he was stopped, the documents say.

A state safety information network used by police showed Best's license as revoked from last February through earlier this month, Lynch wrote in the charging document.

But that information was incorrect and the 90 days ordered through the guilty plea long over at the time of the traffic stop, Stohler wrote in the motion. The system should have instead shown Best's noncommercial license as invalid, not revoked, because he had not yet applied to the Alaska DMV to reinstate it, the motion states.

State rules require individuals to reapply for their license with the Alaska Department of Motor Vehicles following a court-ordered revocation. That step is often overlooked by former defendants, legal experts said in an interview.

Best failed to meet that requirement before the traffic stop, Stohler said Tuesday. The DMV fully reinstated his noncommercial license on Jan. 27, according to court documents.

Driving with a non-reinstated license merits a traffic citation, not a criminal charge under state law, Stohler said in an interview. It was not immediately clear whether Palmer police would issue such a citation now that the criminal charges have been dismissed.

A separate commercial driver's license (CDL) held by Best was revoked for a full year under his plea and was still revoked when he was pulled over last month, according to the motion. But a charge of driving with a revoked CDL would also have been incorrect during the stop because he was not driving a commercial vehicle at the time he was pulled over, the motion states.

Best did not appear in court on Tuesday. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Best is still facing charges of driving under the influence and reckless driving stemming from a 2022 case in Anchorage. A trial date has not been set in that case.

Palmer City Council members said late last month they want to consider sanctions against Best for violating the city's ethics policy, which requires elected officials to "avoid the appearance of impropriety."

Such sanctions must be included in a resolution proposed by council members, City Attorney Sarah Heath said at a meeting earlier this month. As of Tuesday morning, no such resolution had been introduced.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com

This story was updated Feb. 26 to correct the name of the judge who signed the dismissal.