Charges: Snowmachiner Hit Jeff King’s Dog Team Doing 100 Mph
Chris Klint
Dermot Cole
Alaska Dispatch News
March 13, 2016
The snowmachiner who struck Iditarod musher Jeff King’s team near Nulato Saturday was traveling at a high rate of speed when he hit the four-time race champion’s dogs — killing one of them and sending at least one other to Anchorage with a broken bone — according to court documents filed Sunday.
Arnold Demoski, 26, is also accused of attacking musher Aliy Zirkle’s team earlier Saturday morning, injuring one of her dogs. He appeared in Fairbanks District Court via video Sunday afternoon, charged with two felony counts of third-degree assault, as well as six counts of fifth-degree criminal mischief, three counts of reckless driving and one count of reckless endangerment.
Demoski appeared by video from the Fairbanks Correctional Center and said little during the afternoon hearing, other than that he had received a copy of the complaint.
His bail was set at $50,000, but Magistrate Romano DiBenedetto said that if prosecutors had asked for bail 10 times that amount, he probably would have granted it.
More: Charges: Snowmachiner hit Jeff King’s dog team doing 100 mph