Alaska State Commission for Human Rights chair Dorene Lorenz sued blogger Jeff Landfield of the Alaska Landmine on Friday. Lorenz accuses Landfield of defaming her by implying she stole state funding intended to preserve a historic building in Seward.
Landfield, whose irreverent blog often breaks significant political news, recently poked fun at a land acknowledgement Lorenz read at a United Nations gathering in Switzerland. In a social media post, he called the statement “super loose and bizarre” and labeled Lorenz an “absolute nut.”
“Nobody really wonders what I think, because I usually tell them,” Landfield said in an interview.
For her part, Lorenz said she gets it — as a public official, criticism comes with the territory.
“You can call people names, that's fine. You can suggest that they did horrible things, that's fine,” she said.
But the post went further. Landfield pointed to an episode in her past: “Remember when she got in trouble for using … state money for the Jesse Lee Home for herself?”
Landfield was referring to a 2015 move by Gov. Bill Walker’s administration to cancel a grant to a group Lorenz chaired seeking to restore the now-demolished Jesse Lee Home in Seward.
The state found the Friends of the Jesse Lee Home spent grant money on a wide variety of “disallowed and questionable” items — everything from stereo equipment, unapproved travel and an office remodel to a tub of bikini wax. A state official said that despite about $7 million in public funding spent on restoring the home, it was “painfully apparent that this project will not be successful.”
But Lorenz insists that she did not use the money for herself — and she said Landfield’s post crossed a line.
“You cannot say that a public figure stole public money when you know for a fact that they didn't,” she said.
Proving defamation can be an uphill battle. For so-called “public figures,” including many government officials, a plaintiff has to meet a high standard — they have to show that the speaker either knew what they were saying was false, or willingly looked away from evidence that it was.
Lorenz said she thought she had a good shot at meeting that high bar.
In subsequent posts and livestreams, Landfield pointed to a 2018 Alaska Public Media article detailing the grant cancellation. But notably, in that article, a deputy commissioner with the department said he did not believe Lorenz or anyone else involved had pocketed the money.
“Obviously he's aware that that is the statement and the conclusion of the state of Alaska,” Lorenz said.
Lorenz also named Alaska Landmine co-owners Paxson Woebler and Scott Jensen in the suit. Lorenz is representing herself and is requesting unspecified damages, a retraction and a correction.
“It’s a very open-shut case,” she said. “It’s not something that’s heavily nuanced.”
In an interview, Landfield stood by the statement. He called Lorenz’s use of state funds a “scam” and a “grift” that wasted millions of dollars.
He said he had yet to be served, but it was the first time anyone had followed through on a threat to sue him — and he said he was looking forward to fighting it in court.
“I'm going to be spending my immediate future … getting every single document, every single grant reimbursement request, and I'm going to show just what this woman did,” he said. “She really messed with the wrong one.”
