AFTER INVESTIGATION, LOSES LICENSE AND JOB
Former Alaska Dispatch News columnist Mike Dingman is a former something else now too. He’s a former Alaska Department of Corrections correctional officer.
Working at DOC since 2005, Dingman was accused of abandoning his post while on duty, causing or directing staff to falsify information in log books, and having “undue familiarity” with a woman prisoner at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River.
DOC opened an investigation and Dingman quickly resigned and moved to Las Vegas. By that action, he has lost his Alaska Police Standards Council certification and can never serve in law enforcement anywhere in the country.
Dingman, in his description at the end of his ADN column, states he is a “fifth-generation Alaskan born and raised in Anchorage. He is a former UAA student body president and has worked, studied and volunteered in Alaska politics since the late ’90s.”
His latest column was Aug. 30. Two weeks prior, the Alaska Public Standards Council voted unanimously to revoke his certification. And two weeks prior to being officially sanctioned by the public safety community, he wrote a column titled: “GOP has become home to misguided opportunists and zealous lemmings.”
Dingman isn’t the only columnist the Alaska Dispatch has retained who has had run-ins with the law. Shannyn “just a girl from Homer” Moore has her own track record of theft, which led to years of probation and numerous other sanctions.
Dingman this past year was a contributor to two candidates, as shown on Alaska Public Offices Commission reports. He gave Jason Grenn’s campaign $250; Jeff Landfield received $281.
