JUNEAU -- Alaska courts can prosecute crimes on the Alaska Marine Highway even when the offenses occurred off of Canada, the state's highest court has ruled.

Assistant attorney general W.H. Hawley argued the case before the Alaska Supreme Court. The case stems from an alleged sexual assault on the state ferry Matanuska on May 12, 2001.

The ferry was northbound from Bellingham, Wash., in Canadian territorial waters when Vernon G. Jack V allegedly assaulted a woman. An Alaska state trooper was on board and investigated the incident.

A grand jury in Ketchikan indicted Jack on charges of first- and second-degree sexual assault as well as four misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree assault.

However, Juneau Superior Court Judge Larry Weeks dismissed the 2001 indictment after Jack's attorney argued the court lacked jurisdiction. The Alaska Court of Appeals agreed with Weeks, and state prosecutors petitioned the state's highest court to hear the case.

Juneau District Attorney Patrick Gullufsen said he had not read the decision but called the issue important as the state deals with crimes committed on the high seas.

Alaska State Troopers spokesman Greg Wilkinson said a law passed in 2002 gives troopers jurisdiction aboard any state-owned boat or aircraft. That law grew out of the case recently before the court, said Margi Mock, an assistant public defender in Anchorage, who argued the case on Jack's behalf.

The ruling cited two reasons Alaska had jurisdiction in the case. One was a law dating to Alaska's first Legislature in 1959 that granted offshore jurisdiction to Alaska in cases where the U.S. has jurisdiction.

The judges also found that the alleged crime could have had an impact on Alaska. They discussed a Florida case where a sex crime was allegedly attempted against a minor aboard a cruise ship. The ship, which was 100 miles from Florida at the time, returned to port out of safety concerns for the passengers. The judges also noted that leaving passengers unprotected could have affected Florida tourism.

In recent years, Juneau prosecutors have brought charges and won convictions against people accused of crimes on foreign-flagged cruise ships in Southeast Alaska waters.

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