April 19, 2023 — Eric Osuch has been outside the Capitol for more than a week, urging legislators and staff to take action against trawling
A man urging Alaska lawmakers to take action against trawling was removed from the state Capitol in handcuffs and banned from the building after disrupting a committee hearing on Monday.
After his removal, former fisheries worker Eric Osuch went to the nearby State Office Building and was arrested by the Juneau Police Department after a fight was reported there. He was charged with criminal trespass, the department said.
Osuch was the first person forcibly expelled from the Capitol in three years. Though legislators frequently deal with contentious and emotional topics, protests are typically orderly and held outside the front doors during the lunch hour.
Jessica Geary, director of the nonpartisan agency that operates the Capitol, said no one has received a trespass notice barring them from the Capitol since 2020, and before that, the most recent incident was in 2016.
“The process is outlined in the Capitol Complex Security Operating Procedures Manual. Capitol Security can verbally trespass someone for 24 hours; anything over that requires a formal trespass notice, which must be written and given to the subject with a copy retained for Legislative records,” she said by email.