Prosecutor Linked to Alaska Judge Harassment Scandal Is Demoted

The US Attorney’s Office in Alaska has effectively demoted a senior federal prosecutor connected to an investigation revealing sexual misconduct by a US judge in the district who resigned this week.

Employees at the Anchorage office were informed Tuesday—without an explanation—that Karen Vandergaw, their go-to strategist on criminal cases, was being removed from her position’s elevated advisory duties, said two sources with knowledge of the situation, who were granted anonymity to share an internal personnel matter.

The downgrade occurred a day after the Ninth Circuit judicial council published findings of an investigation showing former Alaska federal judge Joshua Kindred, who was forced to resign effective July 8, had engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a former law clerk and lied about it to the investigating judicial panel. Criminal defense lawyers are scrutinizing Kindred’s past cases for possible conflicts due to his relations with prosecutors.

Vandergaw, who was elevated to the title of senior litigation counsel during the judicial council’s investigation, is reverting to the sole position of assistant US attorney, which she’d had since joining the office in 2018. She wasn’t the same individual who the Ninth Circuit committee confirmed had been sexually harassed by Kindred, the sources said.

But the court investigative committee’s report also found that Kindred—whose chambers shared an Anchorage building with the US attorney’s office—"received nude photographs from another, more senior AUSA who practiced before him” and “with whom he had a flirtatious rapport.”

Vandergaw is the senior prosecutor who sent Kindred photos, one of the anonymous sources said.

Vandergaw, who applied last year for a US district court vacancy in Alaska, had at least eight cases initially pending before Kindred between November 2022, when the Ninth Circuit first received information about the judge’s possible misconduct, and March 2024, when the special committee submitted its report, court filings show.

In all eight matters, the Trump-appointed judge, who was confirmed in 2020, either recused or the case was reassigned within four days of Vandergaw’s name appearing on the docket.

Vandergaw didn’t respond to a voicemail and text message seeking comment. Shortly after Bloomberg Law first contacted her on her personal cell, Vandergaw’s LinkedIn profile was taken down.

The US attorney’s office “cannot comment on personnel matters,” said Reagan Zimmerman, the office spokeswoman.

The Ninth Circuit investigation found that Kindred also “exchanged flirtatious text messages” with a different local attorney. “He took no steps to report either of these inappropriate interactions and relationships that he had with these two attorneys who often appeared before him,” the court order said.

Kindred also told one of his clerks about the nude photos. After initially denying to the committee that he’d received the photos from the senior prosecutor, he later admitted it to the judicial council when confronted with evidence, the report said.

‘Keep Digging’

The prosecutor personnel shift comes as Alaska’s federal public defender’s office is examining Kindred’s prior cases for possible conflicts in light of the judicial committee’s findings.

“We are working to compile of list of cases in which the potential conflict of interest undermines either the sentence or the conviction,” said Jamie McGrady, the state’s chief federal defender.

McGrady said the US Attorney’s office has not yet disclosed the identity of the senior AUSA who sent nude photos to Kindred, but that the judge “did recuse himself from all cases assigned to certain attorneys when this investigation began.”

Rich Curtner, who retired as Alaska’s top federal defender in 2020, said his former office will feel obligated to review any possible cases that could now be called into question as a result of the judge’s improper relationships.

“When there’s a stench coming up from the ground you’ve got to keep digging,” Curtner said.

The former clerk who’d been harassed by Kindred subsequently worked as an assistant US attorney in Alaska as well. The judge’s improper sexual contact with the former clerk briefly overlapped with her tenure at the office, the Ninth Circuit council said.

But while the ex-clerk was a junior prosecutor who didn’t have cases before Kindred, Vandergaw, as the senior litigation counsel performed a more expansive advisory function for other criminal prosecutors, such as coordinating grand jury schedules and providing trial preparation strategies, while handling her own caseload.

In her April 2023 judicial application letter to the Alaska Bar Association, Vandergaw, a Duke University School of Law graduate, described her experience conducting a jury trial in a double homicide case, arguing before the Ninth Circuit, and defending death penalty cases in her prior role at the public defender’s office in Maricopa County, Ariz.

“I would be honored to serve our state from the bench,” Vandergraw wrote in her application letter. “I am deeply committed to serving all corners of our unique state.”