Michael Tanner and Michelle Deininger are heading to court over whether the former Park City School District chief operating officer indeed threatened her life.
Tanner sued Deininger, now a retired journalist, for defamation last July. The lawsuit took issue with more than a dozen statements she made about him in her reporting and on social media, including claims he made a threat on her life.
In a June 12 ruling, 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik narrowed the scope of Tanner’s lawsuit and threw out the majority of the allegations.
The judge says Tanner can only continue to sue over some of what Deininger said on Facebook, not what she reported in a November 2024 freelance story published by The Park Record.
Deininger initially sought to dismiss the case under Utah’s version of a law that wards off frivolous lawsuits against protected speech.
So during the first round of oral arguments, Mrazik said his ruling would be a “technical” one and litigation may continue on whichever of Tanner’s claims survive.
“The court's ruling is not going to be a final finding of fact regarding what was true, and what was not true, and what was defamatory, and what was not defamatory,” Mrazik said April 2.
The Park Record story raised concerns about Tanner’s compensation and authorization to work remotely during ongoing construction and district controversies.
Tanner believes the story was inaccurate, contributed to him losing his job and hurt his future job prospects.
His defamation suit seeks at least $300,000 in damages from Deininger; he did not sue The Park Record.
Mrazik says Tanner can’t sue over the story in large part because he was allowed to work remotely during the controversies Deininger described.
“If anything, when read in context, the November [2024] story … may lead a reader to reasonably question the judgment and competence of [former Superintendent Jill] Gildea and other district leadership, but not the job performance of Mr. Tanner under the rules set by the District,” the judge wrote in his ruling.
Deininger also reported that Tanner made $394,000 annually when he was paid $354,000. Mrazik didn’t think the larger figure could be defamatory since the “gist” is the same; that is, Tanner “was highly compensated.”
It remains to be seen whether Deininger’s social media posts in the year following the article’s publication were defamatory.
That includes Deininger telling another Facebook user “Tanner told a City Hall employee he wanted to kill me.”
She also alleged other district employees were afraid of Tanner and alleged there existed new “whistleblower” allegations against him.
Tanner’s sworn court statements say the posts are false.
First Amendment attorney Michael Judd, who is not involved in the case, told KPCW that is frequently all that a plaintiff needs to do to keep their lawsuit alive.
“The plaintiff's burden is going to increase as the case goes on,” Judd explained. “Out the gate, all you really need to say is, ‘These statements were false, and they're not opinions, and so therefore I should be able to go forward with my case.’”
Deininger’s attorney Jeff Hunt told KPCW his team is pleased Mrazik tossed out the defamation claims directly related to the article.
“We believe Ms. Deininger's social media commentary related to the Park Record article is similarly protected and look forward to defending those statements in court,” Hunt wrote in an email.
Tanner’s attorney Ryan Bell could not be reached for comment Monday. An email response to KPCW’s inquiry stated Bell was out of town.
Deininger began regularly covering the Park City School District in 2021, culminating in the November 2024 story in The Park Record for which she won a statewide award for investigative journalism.
She was an editor and later news director at KPCW from 2021 to 2023.
