The Naked Truth About Alaska Courts

They have Been Exposed but Nothing will Likely Change

By Jessica Peasant

You would be hard pressed to find an Alaskan journalist with as much Alaskan-specific experience as Advocate Journalist Donn Liston. Liston has lived in Alaska since 1962. He has watched Alaskan history unfold before him over those decades. He was a reporter for Anchorage Daily News during Alaskan pipeline construction and experienced the 1960’s Civil Rights Era. Liston worked as an aide to former University of Alaska Anchorage Chancellor, John Lindauer, in the 13^th Alaska Legislature and lived in the capital of Juneau 20 years.

[1] Roy Peratrovich: Gruening Civil Rights Fight Recalled 06/28/1974 Reprint from ADN

Liston earned his Master’s Degree in Education from University of Alaska Southeast. In 1989 Donn married Cathy Gault in a ceremony at the Alaska Capital presided over by Midtown Anchorage Sen. Arliss Sturgulweski on Valentine’s Day,1990.

Liston’s left Juneau in 2003 after Donn had gained an AK Class A teacher certificate. Listons returned to Southeast Alaska so Mr. Liston could teach 6^th Grade in the Haines Borough School District during 2007-08.

Liston’s update of a 2018 story reflecting on that experience: My wife, Cat is back from cancer treatment Outside, our 5^th wheel camper is packed, and we are heading home to Eagle River, after my participation as staff for Eagle River Rep. Lora Reinbold, in the biggest sporting event in Alaska.

Iditarod doesn’t even come close to the drama of the legislature in session.

[2] Leaving Juneau after 100 days DONN LISTON           04/18/2018

Liston maintained a photo darkroom since 1987 and contributed frequently to a variety of publications as a freelance writer. Upon retiring from teaching in 2017 Liston continued to write as a trained journalist and certified teacher. He uses an instructional writing style. Liston has mentored this writer in the craft of speaking truth to power through Advocacy Journalism. Liston is a strong opponent against censorship of speech. He has empowered me to use my voice as an advocate for people experiencing hardship and injustice.

Liston was a 2013 BP Teacher of Excellence for his work with Nine Star Education and Employment Services, beginning in the basement of the Mountain View Boys and Girls Club, and later at the Mat-Su Job Center.

Liston was appointed to three Alaska State Education Commissions by Gov. Mike Dunleavy—likely in order to silence his criticism of Alaska Public Education Policy and poor academic outcomes. When falsely accused in 2021 of criminal behavior by Atlanta, GA scammers, Liston was dropped from these voluntary boards with no explanation of why.

Liston broke no laws and was framed by Bordens. He has refused to take the abuse in silence and he says the story has gone where he could never have imagined.

Objective Reporting is a Lie

Advocacy journalism is a genre of journalism that adopts a NON-OBJECTIVE viewpoint, usually for some social or political purpose… Proponents of advocacy journalism feel that the public interest is better served by a diversity of media outlets with varying points of view, or that advocacy journalism serves a similar role to that of muckraking.

[3] Wikipedia: advocacy Journalism

Liston proudly served 11 years at the end of his teaching career as an Adult Basic Education teacher. In doing so, Liston has opened doors for many Alaskans, some of whom still remain friends. Liston continues educating Alaskans about social/political developments in context with the History of Alaska which he has taught in the public system.

As part of this pursuit Liston has discovered a dirty secret about Alaska Public Safety: Forget about the Three Branches of Government–AK Courts, having no elected member accountable to Alaskans, serve as an extension of the Administrative Branch of State Government.

How Outside Scammers Violate Vulnerable Alaskans

Liston believes his public notoriety and some unfortunate life circumstances made him a target of professional scammers who have been rewarded for criminally violating him by Alaska Court Lawfare. In fact, what has happened to him is a perfect example of why Alaskans deserve an Independent Grand Jury to investigate and report likely wrongdoing to the People of Alaska when the system itself is the problem, in the absence of an independent elected Attorney General.

Circumstances Leading to the Set-Up

Liston’s life changed dramatically in April of 2017, when he and his spouse of 29 years, Cathy Liston, were informed she had Stage IV Lung cancer and likely little more than a year to live. He felt his relationship with his wife was made unnecessarily more difficult by the interference of in-laws from a previous marriage of Cathy. Liston believed he was the person with the duty to care for his wife. He believed he was more fit to make decisions for his wife over his in-laws. Also, Cathy legally chose her husband to be her Power of Attorney in consultation with their family physician, Dr. Timothy Coalwell.

[4] Cathy Liston Power of Attorney naming Donald Liston, June 26, 2018

The crisis of Cathy’s cancer diagnosis became surreal when Donn felt Anchorage Police facilitated Cathy’s kidnapping from her Eagle River home at 1 a.m. July 17, 2018, in response to his seeking mental evaluation with a court order of Cathy in the face of dangerous behavior. The couple had shared this home since 2010. This became a custody issue over Cathy—who was proscribed some 25 medications including Oxycodone and Fentanyl–and caused an extreme change in her environment due to a daughter who had been fired from Kettering hospital in Ohio for stealing drugs, and had her RN License suspended. This was contrary to Liston’s belief that Cathy would fare better by maintaining consistency in her life at their rural Eagle River Home as she continued to decline in health.

Liston was denied the opportunity to argue these facts in an Alaska court.

By July on advice of Cat’ doctors, Donn sought and received from the AK Court an Order for Treatment to evaluate Cathy at Alaska Psychiatric Institute in the wake of her dangerous acts.

[5] Order for Treatment, July 16, 2018

[6]Devastated by Cancer  DONN LISTON    04/11/2023

Liston described that Cathy Liston was dragged from her home by her daughter. He believes the court ignored key historical facts that would have prevented the shocking turn of events. Liston: The court failed to protect Cat. Her daughter had been fired from Kettering Hospital in Ohio and was suspended as an RN for stealing drugs–under the watchful eye of one of APD’s Finest keeping me at bay.  I had gained a court order for Cat to be taken to API for mental evaluation, but instead the police facilitated her kidnapping. They ignored the Power of Attorney Cat made for me to handle her care in her most vulnerable times.

Easy Target for Elder Abuse

Liston claims he was next targeted by a son and mother team of fraudsters out of Georgia. Donn was first contacted on Facebook two weeks after aforementioned event, as he was being prevented from seeing or even talking to his best friend and wife. Liston found companionship in 81-year-old Waneta Borden–who came to Anchorage from Kentucky the first week of November to make him Thanksgiving Dinner. Waneta had previously come to Alaska with her former husband, and they had bought a cabin in Willow before he died in 2006.

Willow Community Eyesore

Liston explained: Bill Borden is an Atlanta, GA huckster, and cohort in crime with the business Waneta previously owned In Kentucky, now named High Caliber Realty, Inc. (HCR) with an office in Alaska and co-brokered with his wife Brenda. Bill, Brenda and Waneta conspired as a team with ill intent to have us wed in Georgia–with the then-likely goal of the marriage being divorce and acquisition of assets of a widowed and divorced Alaskan in his 70s.

From the court pleading:

Liston’s marriage to Borden occurred on March 19, 2019 in a park, in Atlanta, GA where HCR is based. Sole witnesses in attendance included Bill and Brenda. Bill set it up and wrote the vows. This was done in a conscious and coordinated attempt to indenture me and steal my Eagle River home, purchased in 2012 together with my late wife Cathy Liston. Cathy remains on the Wells Fargo Bank mortgage to this day, Liston emphasized in court pleadings.

[7] Request for Annulment in the face of overwhelming evidence of a scam, August 28, 2022,

Annulment is different than divorce, An annulment would make the Georgia marriage performed by Bill Borden, dba High Caliber Realty, Inc. (sic) end as if it never happened legally. Both parties would have been returned legally to the unmarried status before the sham marriage set-up.

In response to the court’s dismissal of his charges, in his press capacity, Liston mocked Huckster Bill and the Court and for not recognizing this sham marriage for what it was.

Alaska courts are not used to having their actions questioned by our fawning press. In representing himself pro se, Liston wrote every pleading as if it was for publication and general readership, with corresponding relevant instructional stories posted on his website. Readers can soon expect to see regular installments of this entire goat-rope proving how Alaska court corruption. Liston will detail his personal saga of out-of-state scammers violating him with a sham marriage and being rewarded by AK Courts.

Evidence of Widespread Corruption Mounts

Liston realized he had to leave the state for his own protection against Bordens.

Liston believed he provided enough evidence to the court to prove an annulment was warranted. Liston wrote in his pleading but the judge would not even consider it: I stand before this court as a 60-year senior Alaskan—71 years of age—who was coerced into marrying Plaintiff at the darkest and most vulnerable moment of my life.

AK Law on Elder Abuse

They must have thought Liston would give up…

Victims of undue influence often realize too late that they have been subject to fraud and duress. Fraud is done by deceiving a victim, whereas duress is meant to overwhelm and confuse the mind. Liston believes he was tag-teamed by the Bordens in their criminal enterprise. He has declared he will be detailing how this was possible in great detail in coming posts to this Website.

Liston had been the caregiver of his wife, Cathy, caregiver of Waneta 30 months, and now he needed help himself.

In 2012, Alaska’s legislature strengthened the protections of the elderly by adding undue influence to the list of harm under the definition of elderly abuse. The previous list included: (1) abandonment; (2) abuse; (3) exploitation; (4) neglect; and (5) self-neglect.

Liston realized Bill had neglected his mother over many years except as she could help him in his business endeavors. Now she had entangled a public Alaskan in a desperate situation so Bill could exploit Liston as any organized crime family would do. Upon leaving Liston’s home of her own volition in January 2021 Waneta was immediately placed into Senior Care at a cost of $3,000/month–which the court ordered Liston to pay as part of the divorce from the sham marriage! Liston had demanded HE be paid that amount for the 30 months she was in his care now that the scam was in daylight.

Borden knew exactly how to use Lawfare to exploit Liston. It’s part of the culture of Georgia, you know.

[7] Elder Abuse and Elder Fraud, Alaska Legal Services

Liston described examples of exploitation by the Bordons from the first time he went to Georgia to meet Waneta’s family during Christmas time 2018. Liston feels the Bordens were after his home and assets through lawfare and they succeeded in getting them. When he was convinced he was being exploited, after an unprovoked physical attack from behind by Waneta while he was working at his computer in January 2021, Liston began to take steps to protect himself as frivolous restraining orders were filed against him. Liston claims Bill had to have financed Waneta’s legal representation to file for divorce August 1, 2022 and was therefore a party to the divorce as he had been a party to the sham marriage. In March Bill and Waneta had broken through new locks and burglarized Liston’s home, stealing his RING security monitoring system, causing the alrlady violated Liston to fear for his life.

Liston asked the Alaska Courts for an annulment from this sham Georgia marriage conceived in fraud and left the state for his own protection at the end of 2022. He hoped he might return in a couple of months.

More than 16 months have passed and Liston continues to look at his life through the lens of a journalist; his court pleadings and webpage stories have publicly documented his traumatic suffering after Cat’s death. He has grieved in his own way, by relying on his skills, true friends and what he knows, to document what happened toward recovery. As a public person, public knowledge of this dark chapter had created more difficulties by orchestrated additional criminal acts against him by other parties. Liston has committed NO CRIMINAL ACT during this time and now must resort to a campaign in the court of public opinion to bring the truth out and clear his name in the face of a biased AK Court.

Independent Grand Jury Investigation is Merited

Crime has been normalized by the Dunleavy Administration, to the point that the court system does not recognize crime even when it happens within the court process itself. In a separate case for criminal acts by Bill against him in March 2021, including cybercrimes, theft to Georgia of the business of his name (DONN LISTON COMPANY) and burglarizing his home, Bill responded IN A COURT FILING with irrelevant nude revenge porn photos stolen from Liston’s personal platform.

Instead of charging Borden with a crime under Alaska Law, the court returned the offending photos as being inappropriate for the public file.

What kind of person does that and why would AK Courts allow it?

In response to the later frivolous divorce of a sham marriage filed August 1, 2022 Liston explained to the AK court that he felt unduly influenced by the Borden conspiracy which included driving Waneta’s overloaded 1-ton Ford truck and camp trailer some 3,500 miles from Georgia to Alaska three months after death of Cathy.

Despite grief upon passing of his wife, Liston soon realized he had been ambushed, and knew he had to play the hand he was given, honorably.

I am not the only person the Bordens, dba High Caliber Realty, have scammed, continued Liston in the pleading to the court. They also scammed the State of Alaska by misrepresenting the sale of the largest USDA certified meat processing plant in the state–Mt. McKinley Meats and Sausage slaughterhouse in Palmer, AK–as something other than a 5-year lease/option. This fraud threatens Alaska food security.

[8] Alaska’s Soviet-Style Food Security Program 06/13/2023

Liston’s story is a textbook example of Elder Abuse. Alaskan elders that experience this kind of abuse feel they have been defrauded while under duress. The type of abuse Liston describes may appear to be undue influence against a person that is at least 60 years old. Many actions Liston experienced are examples of domestic violence; financial abuse, isolation and more. Liston felt HE was the victim of domestic violence long before the Bordens falsely accused him of domestic violence. False recurring double-jeopardy charges against Liston cluttered the overwhelmed Alaska courts and were dismissed without penalty to plaintiffs on multiple occasions.

[9] Elder Abuse in Alaska Law

According to Alaska Law Help: Undue influence happens when a person in a position of trust or authority uses that position to wrongfully exploit the trust, dependency, or fear of an elder or vulnerable adult to gain control over decision making, including decisions related to finances, property, residence, and health care of the vulnerable adult. Bill applied his influence and control over his 80+ year old mother to exploit the man she sought companionship with as a pimp would do over a sex worker.

Being an outspoken member of the Alaska Press for decades and politically charged as a conservative who once was a liberal Democrat, Liston has written extensively about Alaska political events over his 60 Alaska winters. He has also documented the events which have violated him by the Bordens AND AK Courts. Liston mistakenly believed AK Courts would recognize an outside catfish scam after ruling against multiple false DV charges against him. By the time Liston’s ordeal was over, two retired seniors on fixed incomes who spent 30 months together. One of them had been invaded in his domicile by the other and when it was all over he was ordered to pay for standing his ground in the face of outrageous violation of law and decency. At the start Liston had been devastated by death of his wife of 29 years, and he was extremely vulnerable to somebody who was seeking better living accommodations than the squalor she was being maintained in, trained in real estate with an eye to stealing that house. Once instituted into Liston’s life the scammer team went to work trying to get clients for their real estate company. HCR actually gained $3.5 MILLION in direct listings from introduction of Bill Borden to Greg Giannulis by Liston. The true ethical vacuum of HCR became obvious to a number of people with scam of the owner of the Palmer Slaughterhouse through formation of a company with HCR/Borden having a financial interest in the offer. Bordens then engaged the AK Courts with false and humiliating revenge porn stolen from Liston’s private accounts in violation of his constitutional right to privacy and engaged a series of attorneys in false charges against Liston. Ultimately $400/hr Divorce Lawyer Jimmy White-Shark convinced a gullible Judge Josie Garton that Liston’s documentation and outrage at this treatment in a clearly sham marriage by the Alaska Justice System deserved punishment.

This is the caliber of judges we have in Alaska, serving in collaboration with the Alaska Attorney General to violate Alaskans. Now Liston isn’t going to the Alaska Supreme Court for more corrupt Lawfare punishment. He has escaped from Alaska with his life and now dares the state to allow an Independent Grand Jury to review what has happened given this attached final order.

Such a request will probably be blocked by Dunleavy’s AG, of course. All corrupt state workers gotta do is make it to retirement…

References:

[1] Roy Peratrovich: Gruening Civil Rights Fight Recalled 06/28/1974 Reprint from ADN
https://donnliston.net/1974/06/gruening-rights-fight-recalled-reprint/

[2] Leaving Juneau after 100 days        04/18/2018
https://donnliston.net/2018/04/alaska-legislature

[3] Wikipedia: advocacy Journalism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advocacy_journalism:

[4] Cathy Liston Power of Attorney naming Donald Liston, June 26, 2018

[5] Case Assignment by Presiding Court Judge William Morse and Order Authorizing Treatment, July 16, 2018

[6]Devastated by Cancer  04/11/2023
https://donnliston.net/2023/04/devastated-by-cancer/

[7] Request for Annulment in the face of overwhelming evidence of a scam, August 28, 2022,

[8] Alaska’s Soviet-Style Food Security Program     06/13/2023
https://donnliston.net/2023/06/alaskas-food-security-options-2020/

[9] Elder Abuse laws in Alaska can be found at AS 47.24.

According to Timothy P. Flynn, who writes about elder abuse through fake marriages, wrote, “Bad actors in elder abuse schemes often go to great lengths to bilk their victim, including getting married to the target.” *

Flynn claims there is a typical script these abuser follow. The target is usually alone with some form of physical or cognitive limitations. According to Liston, his grief affected his decision making, leaving him vulnerable to predators.

Abusers take advantage of the targets trust. “After the sham nuptials, the abuser will next attempt to convince their spouse [target] that his or her estate plan needs to be revised to reflect their new material status,” wrote Flynn.

When an abuser fails to manipulate their target, the abuser may still gain access to the target’s estate as a surviving spouse. Lawyers are trained to identify elderly abuse by undue influence by the following signs: (1) Wide-age gap; (2) the companion does most of the talking and answering for the target; and (3) the abuser becomes uncomfortable with a lawyer or doctor separating the target and abuser into different rooms.

Other References in Law:

* https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRS0LlEIQsuTsfO0wSTsSTIvVE5RO8sLc

6. Court Information and Forms https://alaskalawhelp.org/court-information-and-forms 7. https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/Attachment.aspx?id=119571

8. Chapter 24. Protection of Vulnerable Adults https://www.touchngo.com/lglcntr/akstats/statutes/title47/chapter24.htm

9. Adult Protective Services (APS) https://health.alaska.gov/dsds/Pages/aps/default.aspx

10. Making a Report of Harm https://alaskalawhelp.org/resource/making-a-report-of-harm

11. Adult Protective Services: dhss.alaska.gov

12. Elder Abuse and Elder Financial Exploitation Statutes https://www.justice.gov/elderjustice/prosecutors/statutes?state=AK&category=5

13. CSSB 248(HES): “An Act relating to services for and protection of vulnerable adults; and providing for an effective date.” https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Text/18?Hsid=SB0248B 14. https://thesketchleymethod.com/resources/alaska/ 15. Elder Fraud, https://alaskalawhelp.org/resource/elder-fraud

16. Black’s Law Dictionary:

– Abuse of the elderly (1971) Abuse of a senior citizen, generally those at least 60 – 65 years old, especially by a caregiver or relative. Examples include deprivation of food or medication, beatings, oral assault, and isolation.

– Exploitation, n. (19c) The act of taking advantage of something; especially, the act of taking unjust advantage of whither for one’s own benefit or selfish means.