Journalist Michelle Deininger is pictured with her dog. Photo: GoFundMe

PARK CITY, Utah – Freelance journalist Michelle Deininger’s 2024 investigation into Park City School District spending won a statewide investigative journalism award. It also triggered an ongoing legal battle with mounting bills.

Deininger’s five-month investigation, published in The Park Record November 19, 2024, examined district office contracts and compensation and the work arrangements of then-COO Michael Tanner. Among other findings, the story revealed former PCSD Superintendent Jill Gildea allowed Tanner to work remotely from Illinois as needed and his total compensation was approximately $394,000.

The story, for which The Park Record paid her $500, earned Deininger the Utah Society of Professional Journalists’ Don Baker Investigative Journalism Award in 2025. She also won first place in the education reporting category for the work.

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After his job was eliminated last summer, Tanner sued Deininger, alleging the article contained false statements, damaged his reputation and got him fired. He is seeking more than $300,000 in damages. The Park Record was not named as a defendant and is not helping Deininger with legal expenses.

Jeff Hunt with the law firm Parr Brown Gee and Loveless is Deininger’s attorney. He called a media defamation lawsuit that doesn’t name the publication “unusual,” and said in a statement to TownLift, “It appears to have been intended to deprive Michelle of the financial resources and legal defense that suing the newspaper would have provided. In that sense, it succeeded – the Park Record has not provided a legal defense to Michelle or any financial support. It has been very disappointing for Michelle, especially since the Court ruled there was no legal merit to Mr. Tanner’s defamation claim based on the Park Record article Michelle wrote.”

Park Record editors did not respond to TownLift’s request for comment about why the newspaper declined legal or financial support to Deininger.

This week, two Park City residents launched a GoFundMe campaign to help Deininger with her bills.

The fundraiser, organized by Jill Sheinberg and her daughter, Carrie Sheinberg, had raised $5,545 as of Friday afternoon. They say the campaign supports investigative journalism and the First Amendment.

“Michelle’s award-winning investigative reporting into Park City schools uncovered spending waste in the District, saving all of us at tax time,” the fundraiser states. “Now it’s time to have her back.”

The fundraiser copy claims PCSD “continues to hide essential information about the topics of Michelle’s report.” That appears related to both the original article and later Park Record editorials, which state that PCSD never fully documented Tanner’s compensation, including salary, stipends, benefits and any cash in lieu of benefits not used, or his remote work schedule, despite media requests.

Legal fight began with a demand letter

The dispute began long before Tanner filed his lawsuit.

Two weeks after the article published, attorney Ryan Bell of Kunzler Bean & Adamson sent a demand letter to The Park Record, its owners Matthew and Tatiana Prince, and Deininger on behalf of the school district, Tanner and PCSD Executive Assistant Lorie Pearce.

The Dec. 3, 2024, letter accused the newspaper of publishing “false and misleading” reporting that contained “false statements of fact, manipulated figures, and distorted half-truths.”

The letter demanded that The Park Record retract the story, publish a notice saying it had been withdrawn because of multiple errors, and have Deininger and the paper write apologies to Tanner and Pearce. It also demanded the newspaper agree never to publish another Deininger story about the school district or its employees. The letter threatened litigation if the demands were not met.

Pearce was named because according to the letter, publishing her $250,000 compensation information “injected terrible negativity and disruption” into her life.

The Park Record did not retract the story – or respond to the letter.

Park Record Editor Don Rogers defended the work in two subsequent editorials. He noted PCSD never identified specific factual errors or requested corrections. Rogers wrote that he had documentation supporting the reporting, and described the demand letter as “riddled with obvious mistakes.”

According to bills from Bell’s firm obtained through a GRAMA request, the district spent roughly $12,000 on Bell’s legal work connected to the matter.

The school district is Summit County’s largest taxing entity, capturing about two-thirds of property taxes. It educates roughly 4,000 Students and employs approximately 700 educators, administrators and classified staff. Its 2026-2027 annual budget totaled almost $246M. As a government entity, its finances including employee compensation are public information under state and federal laws.

Tanner’s job eliminated months later

In April 2025, the district eliminated the COO position by a reduction in force. District officials said the move was part of restructuring intended to reduce administrative costs and was connected to declining enrollment and planned school consolidation. Commenting on the change, board Vice President Nick Hill told KPCW that districts Park City’s size don’t typically have COOs.

Tanner received an exit package of roughly $161,000, including $78,000 for “emotional distress” and payment of his legal bills.

The district also conducted an external investigation into issues raised by the report and subsequent allegations related to Tanner raised by PCSD whistleblowers. District officials initially denied media requests for the findings, citing attorney-client privilege and other litigation-related exemptions.

Months later, after Tanner’s separation agreement was signed, officials reversed course and released the report. Though school board members had told the public the investigation was independent and would “get the truth,” its first page said it was commissioned by PCSD legal counsel to rebut “specious news articles.”

Park Record editor Rogers lampooned the report’s lack of objectivity in an editorial.

Judge dismisses claims over Park Record article

Tanner filed his lawsuit in July 2025. His lawyer is Ryan Bell. The lawsuit alleges that Deininger’s reporting falsely portrayed Tanner as negligent and overpaid and contributed to his job loss.

In June 2026, 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik dismissed Tanner’s claims related to the article, ruling in part that reporting on a public school official’s compensation and approved remote work arrangement weren’t capable of being defamatory. Claims concerning three comments Deininger later made on Facebook remain open for Tanner to pursue.

According to court records, Tanner can pursue defamation claims on three social media comments Deininger made in 2025. Those described PCSD employees fearing Tanner, a PCSD employee whistleblower letter alleging Tanner was misrepresenting his military service and violating district policies, and law enforcement directing Tanner not to have “unsolicited contact” with Deininger after a City Hall employee reported to school board President Reed that Tanner had made a threatening comment about Deininger.

“Mr. Tanner feels confident that the appellate process will draw focus to the inaccurate statements published in Mr. Deininger’s reporting. He looks forward to proceeding with his claims,” Bell stated in an email to TownLift.

Last month, Tanner filed a request to appeal the dismissal. Deininger’s lawyers filed a response to the request, and both sides are now waiting for theCourt of Appeals to grant or deny the appeal request.

That appeal is separate from the Facebook comments Tanner may still pursue in district court. To prevail under defamation law, Tanner must prove the comments were false.