Quick Facts
Biography
Jahna Lindemuth (born October 3, 1969) is a former Alaska Attorney General. Lindemuth was appointed by Alaska Governor Bill Walker on June 28, 2016 following the resignation of previous Attorney General Craig Richards.
Career
Prior to her appointment as Alaska Attorney General, Lindemuth was the managing partner of the Anchorage office of Dorsey & Whitney. In January, 2016, Lindemuth spoke to the media as a representative of Dorsey & Whitney, following the deliberate crash of an Alaska Civil Air Patrol plane into the firms downtown Anchorage offices. The crash was determined to be an act of suicide by the husband of a member of the firm.
Lindemuth was actively involved in the defense of the Fairbanks Four. She helped gain the men's freedom after they spent many years in prison for a murder conviction.
Controversy
In September 2018, the office of Anchorage District Attorney Richard K. Allen entered into a plea bargain with lawyers for Justin Scott Schneider, a former FAA air traffic controller who allegedly kidnapped a native Alaskan woman in the middle of the day from a gas station, choked her until she passed out and then masturbated over her.
At the sentencing hearing, Allen's Assistant District Attorney Andrew Grannik stated that "I would like the gentleman to be on notice that is his one pass — it’s not really a pass — but given the conduct, one might consider it is.” In addition, Grannik referred to Schneider's having lost his air traffic controller job as "life sentence."
In response to citizen outrage at the reduced sentence and Grannik's comment about Schneider getting "a pass," the director of the Alaska Department of Law Criminal Division, John Skidmore, said that "Alaska law allows an offender to receive credit for any time spent on an ankle monitor or under house arrest against any jail sentence imposed." In addition, he said that "contact with bodily fluid such as semen is not categorized as a sex crime under Alaska law."
Gov. Bill Walker "issued a statement saying the sentence was insufficient and saying he wants to toughen the law." He stated that he would propose legislation that makes "unwanted contact with semen a sex crime."