A man who sent a message to Governor Mike Dunleavy in April, threatening to kill the governor, has been charged with Terroristic Threatening and Criminal Impersonation, court documents say.
An Alaska State Trooper dispatch posted on Sunday says that the incident involving 22-year-old Seward resident Matthew Stanley began with a report submitted to the Department of Public Safety on April 12, 2024. “The Alaska Bureau of Investigation’s Technical Crime Unit received a report of an online threat directed to an elected official in Alaska,” the dispatch states.
According to the dispatch, Investigators determined that the threat originated from Stanley, who was attempting to attribute the threat to a different Seward resident due to a personal dispute.
Charges contained within the court documentation reveal that data from the state Office of Information Technology showed the message was transmitted via a virtual private network (VPN), which can conceal users’ internet activity. However, the network’s operator informed troopers that there was no account linked to the specified sender.
Charging documents show that, on April 12, the governor’s office received a feedback form with the name and contact details of another resident from Seward. The message urged Governor Dunleavy to increase wages for members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, including both the listed sender and his son.
“Or else everyone at ilwu and my son will take a stand here at seward,” the message read. “I will (expletive) bomb and shoot you with my son.”
Neither the court documents nor the AST dispatch identify the individual or individuals Stanley impersonated in his threatening message.
According to DPS Public Information Officer Austin McDaniel, the dispatch was posted on Sunday after the charges against Stanley were officially filed in court. “The individual wasn’t criminally charged until July. So, the report came in April, and it was investigated, and charging decisions were made. And we became aware of those formal charging decisions over the weekend, and that’s what instigated the press release being posted.”
Stanley was charged on July 1 with one count of Terroristic Threatening in the Second Degree and Criminal Impersonation in the Second Degree.
