The Barrow football case dominated the August legal news. ALO represented the school in a lawsuit concerning an accident at the local football field, in the first game played on the million dollar turf. The field was built by donations from outside after news of the far north, all gravel field made it on ESPN. That station sent a crew to cover the game, which was televised nationally.
The accident involved a play which went out of bounds late in the fourth quarter. The plaintiff was a 76 year old woman from New York who for many years has spent her summers in Barrow because she can't stand the heat in New York. In her testimony, she described her first arrival in Barrow, noting that when she stepped off the plane, she thought she was in heaven. Not many share that view. Barrow looks a lot like Bethel, only with a tougher climate. No one ever said Bethel looked like heaven.
The plaintiff was standing on the sideline when one or more players mowed her down and broke her leg badly. She said she was standing there despite a lifetime as a fan of football where she learned that plays sometime go out of bounds and people standing near the field sometimes get injured. She said there was no place else from which to watch and she got caught up in the moment as Barrow drove for the winning touchdown. Game videos showed there were numerous safer places from which to watch. The person in charge of the sound system said there were several announcements urging fans to back away from the sidelines. The video showed 40-50 fans standing along the sideline, out of an estimated crowd of more than 2,000 at the game. None had to pay to get in.
The jury took a couple of hours to decide the school was not negligent for allowing folks to stand on the sideline. They were perhaps aided in their decision by testimony from the plaintiff that she did not agree that elders such as her had slower reflexes than a younger person, that older folks were more likely to break a bone because of a fall, and that she would possibly be unable to work by the time she reached 85 years of age.
After the verdict the plaintiff grabbed the school's representatives still in the courtroom and informed them that their attorney was evil, and that she was going to ask her pastor to pray for him. She concluded by noting that "he gutted me like a fish". There was no chance to thank her for the compliment.
Back in Bethel, the month featured mostly rain. Andy and Myron managed a few fishing adventures. One was to the Innoko River where Myron landed seven pike over 20 pounds in about 3 hours of fishing. Here is the biggest weighed at 27 pounds.
It is the largest pike actually weighed in many years of fishing the area, but larger fish have been caught. Andy usually outfishes Myron, but that day a beat up lure attracted the big ones while Andy caught none over 20.
Finally, this giant white tail deer is wandering around Long Pond Elk Farm in Minnesota.
It is clearly the largest that has walked in front of the camera in the past few years. John McDonald at Kuskowim Wilderness Adventures captured some interesting photos on his camera up the Kisaralik River near Bethel as well.