A former Bethel police officer has been sentenced to community service and electronic monitoring after being convicted of assault and lying to fellow officers.
On Feb. 19, Judge Nelson Traverso sentenced 39-year-old Jonathan Murphy to complete 100 hours of electronic monitoring and 150 hours of community service. This comes after a Bethel jury found Murphy guilty of three misdemeanor counts related to a 2023 incident in which he punched a man repeatedly in the head and then attempted to cover up the incident.
Murphy is required to complete the community service portion of his sentence in Bethel. It’s not yet clear whether the Alaska Department of Corrections will allow Murphy to complete the electronic monitoring in his home state of Arkansas. Judge Traverso left the question open in sentencing.
"My preference would be that he do the electronic monitoring in Alaska … but he must do the community service work in Bethel. I'm not going to allow that to be transferred anywhere else," Traverso said.
Murphy has been convicted of misdemeanor assault, providing false information, and tampering with public records. He lied to fellow officers about being struck by a vehicle reported to be stolen that 44-year-old Bernard Mael was driving.
After a pursuit through Bethel, that vehicle became wedged against a snowbank. Body camera footage obtained by KYUK shows Murphy punch Mael repeatedly in the face with a closed fist as Mael struggles to shield himself.
Afterward, Murphy repeated the false claim that he had been struck by the vehicle. A fellow officer backed up Murphy’s account in a sworn affidavit charging Mael with felony assault, according to an Alaska State Trooper investigation.
Mael did not appear in the Bethel jury trial or at sentencing.
In sentencing, state assistant attorney general Erin McCarthy asked the court to hand Murphy a sentence of at least 60 days in jail. She said that Murphy had done lasting harm to the community.
"This is a community that is policed mostly by outsiders who do not live in Bethel, and building trust in a situation like this for law enforcement is incredibly difficult," McCarthy said. "It gives fodder to the argument that the police are out to get us, that they are unnecessarily violent, that they will just make up things in police reports, that they will frame people for crimes, that they aren't to be trusted."
Murphy’s attorney, Joseph Miller, brought in character witnesses who described Murphy, a United States Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, as a man of integrity and honor. An officer from the Diamond City Police Department in Arkansas called Murphy the most honorable officer he’d ever worked with. That Arkansas department is where Murphy was hired as police chief while his Bethel case was working its way through the court. Murphy has resigned from the department.
When it was his turn to address the court, Murphy did not apologize to Mael or to the community.
"I've never been a danger to society, I have selflessly put my body, my mind, my physical ability, all of that you know, at jeopardy at every instance between military and law enforcement to help other people. I have no record, no criminal record," Murphy said.
Traverso said that the sentencing was one of the most difficult he had ever presided over. He said that Murphy used unnecessary and unreasonable force against Mael, but that it should be balanced with his record of service and lack of criminal history.
Traverso ultimately handed Murphy what is known as a suspended imposition of sentence, or SIS. If Murphy completes the electronic monitoring and community service within a year, the three convictions will remain on his record, but will not be used in the future to increase his sentence if he’s convicted of another crime.
The Alaska Department of Corrections did not respond to a question about whether the department will permit Murphy to complete electronic monitoring out of state.
