Joseph Miller Jr. and Jason Woodruff are each charged with fourth-degree assault. Both have served as troopers for more than a decade.
Alaska State Trooper Joseph Miller tases Ben Tikka while Trooper Jason Woodruff deploys a police dog against him on May 24, 2024 in Kenai, Alaska.
“I’ve been with this department 33 years and I’ve never seen any action like this before by an Alaska State Trooper,” Cockrell said. “Let me be clear, the action of these two individuals is not acceptable to me, not in the line of our training and our policy and I know it’s not acceptable to the Alaskans that we serve.”
Law enforcement didn’t ask the person for their name, the charges say, and didn’t learn until much later that the person was not the man they were looking for, but instead his cousin, Ben Tikka. The documents say body camera footage also shows Miller raising his foot and bringing it down quickly near Tikka’s head, Tikka “bleeding profusely” from the face and head while rolling on the ground and Tikka telling troopers he can’t breathe.
Troopers later opened a criminal case against Tikka, in which he was charged with three counts of fourth-degree assault, disorderly conduct and resisting or interfering with arrest. That case was later dismissed by the Kenai District Attorney’s office.
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