A former Alaska State Employees Association worker is charged with forging documents of University of Alaska staff, and a former assistant attorney general has also been charged in relation to the scheme.
Skye R. McRoberts, a former worker with the Alaska State Employees Association, is charged with two counts of falsifying business records and two counts of second-degree forgery - all four offenses are regarded as Class C Felonies.
Erin Pohland, a former assistant attorney general who was responsible for providing legal advice to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, is charged with official misconduct.
Court documents say former union worker McRoberts could benefit financially from running a campaign for the organization of university staff because she had a mailing and printing business that sent out all mail to union members.
State trooper investigators allege Skye McRoberts forged a number of "interest cards" of University of Alaska staff during a January 2010 campaign to organize a group of employees at the university.
By law it's required that a union prove 30 percent of workers want to be represented in order for the unionizing process to begin.
State trooper investigators contacted university staff to confirm whether they had filled out an interest card. Erin Day is a UAA staff member who had her information falsified.
"[Troopers] asked if I could verify whether or not it was my signature or handwriting, so I took a look at it, and it's not my signature. Some of the information is incorrect on it and it was not something I filled out whatsoever," Day said.
Court documents say in early February 2010 Skye McRoberts admitted to one of her colleagues that she had forged a number of the cards to make it appear the union had strong support. The colleague eventually told police about the confession and provided them with some of the interest cards believed to be forged.
Court documents say so far investigators have been able to verify that 13 interest cards were not completed or signed by the university staff member whose name appears on the card.
Erin Pohland was the assistant attorney general at the time of the incident in 2010, and she was responsible for providing legal advice to the Alaska Labor Relations Agency, which oversees the union’s petitions and verifies the expression of interest from workers.
Court documents filed on January 30 this year say Pohland and the accused union worker McRoberts were actually friends - and Poland didn't turn in the suspected forged documents to police. Pohland is charged with official misconduct.
The charging documents can be read here
