Alaska House legislator’s aide arrested for DUI in Juneau

Snow falls on the Alaska State Capitol on Monday, March 16, 2026. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

By James Brooks

Alaska Beacon

The chief of staff for a member of the Alaska House of Representatives was arrested early Sunday morning in Juneau and accused of driving under the influence of alcohol. 

Kathryn “Katy” Giorgio, 45, is an aide to Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, and pleaded not guilty to a class A misdemeanor in an initial hearing on Monday. 

Her arrest came less than a week after Forrest Wolfe, a Republican and aide to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, was also arrested for driving under the influence. It was Wolfe’s second DUI arrest and Giorgio’s first. 

Giorgio was released without bail. Ordinarily, DUI release conditions require that accused Alaskans stay out of bars and other places where alcohol is served.

In Giorgio’s case, Judge Kirsten Swanson and the municipal prosecutor agreed to one exception: Giorgio will be allowed to play trombone this week in the Red Dog Saloon as part of an Alaska Folk Fest concert.

Mina declined comment when reached by phone Thursday evening but confirmed that Giorgio remains a member of her staff and that the matter is an internal personnel issue.

Giorgio declined on Thursday to speak at length about the incident but said “it was a bad decision.”

“I was not driving erratically. I was a block away from my house, and it was just an unfortunate situation, and I’m working through the system to do what I have to do,” she said.

In an affidavit submitted to prosecutors, Juneau Police Department Officer Joshua Shrader said he pulled over Giorgio about 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning after observing her car speeding and “driving down the center of the road” in Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley neighborhood.

“While Giorgio was searching for her registration,” he wrote, “I noted an open can of alcohol in the center console cup holder. Inside the center console glove box, Giorgio picked up another can of alcohol and attempted to conceal it in a napkin.”

Shrader said both Giorgio and the car smelled of alcohol, and her breath alcohol level measured at 0.126, more than the legal limit of 0.08.

A status hearing on Giorgio’s case has been preliminarily scheduled for April 24. A hearing in Wolfe’s case is scheduled for May 18. According to online court records, both have hired defense attorney August Petropulos. 

• James Brooks Cascade is a longtime Alaska reporter who lives in Juneau. He previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.