Former Bethel judge Terrence Haas became the state’s top public defender in September 2023. Last week, he announced in a resignation letter sent to Gov. Mike Dunleavy that he was stepping down. That letter was shared with KYUK, in an email by the Anchorage Daily News.
In the letter, Haas wrote that the governor’s office had made his job untenable because of the response of the governor’s office to a recent legal pleading which, among other allegations, claims that Haas was romantically involved with his now-wife when he was a Bethel Superior Court judge and she was his law clerk.
As of Sept. 2, the governor’s office still hadn’t confirmed Haas’s resignation or provided comment on the allegations against him.
The allegations stem from a new filing in a case first assigned to Haas in 2021. In August of 2022, a Bethel jury convicted Kasigluk resident Peter Albrite of five counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor. Four years later, the 65-year-old Albrite is still awaiting sentencing, and his case remains open amid questions about his competency.
This June, Albrite’s defense attorney filed a motion for a new trial. The motion claims Albrite was never evaluated for competency prior to standing trial. Since his conviction, the motion claims the court has found Albrite not competent at least five times.
The motion also claims the court denied Albrite a fair and impartial trial due to what it alleges were overlapping romantic relationships between judge Haas, his former law clerk, and the public defender assigned to the case at the time, Danail Mizinov. KYUK has withheld the name of the former law clerk, based on the fact that she did not have direct responsibility for legal decisions made in the Albrite case.
Mizinov said in a sworn deposition cited in the motion that he began a romantic relationship with the clerk in early 2022, while Albrite’s case was still pending. That relationship ended before the trial.
When Haas learned of the relationship, Mizinov alleged that his interactions with Haas deteriorated. He said the judge made unreasonable demands and criticized his defense strategy in front of the prosecutor.
In the months leading up to the trial, Mizinov said he believed Haas – who was married to a different woman at the time – was also romantically involved with the clerk. Mizinov produced text messages sent to him by the clerk in which she mentioned late-night drinking sessions with Haas in Bethel. The texts include details that Mizinov interpreted as indicating that there was “more going on.”
Haas has wholly denied the allegations. In an email to the state prosecutor for the case shared with KYUK, he wrote that both he and the former clerk — who he married in 2025 — testified unequivocally under oath that no romantic or intimate relationship occurred during her clerkship. The former clerk is currently an attorney with the Alaska Office of Public Advocacy.
Alleged performance concerns
Prior to his appointment as a Bethel Superior Court judge in 2018, Haas served as a public defender in Bethel for a decade. With his decision to step away from the judgeship in 2023 to head the Public Defender Agency, he became Mizinov’s boss.
A year and half later, Haas gave Mizinov the option of resigning or being fired for cause. In a May 2024 letter, he criticized Mizinov’s performance and what he said was a failure to adequately prepare for serious cases. Despite language in the letter that implied Mizinov had been dismissed, Haas testified in a recent deposition that he did not ultimately terminate him. Mizinov currently works as an attorney with the Office of Public Advocacy. In 2023, Mizinov also applied for the top public defender spot that Haas was ultimately appointed to.
The Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions has backed Haas’s claims that concerns about Mizinov’s performance were at the root of their poor interactions. Assistant Attorney General Bailey Woolfstead, the prosecutor in the Albrite case, claimed in a recent court filing that any hostility perceived by Mizinov was due to Haas’s frustration with Mizinov’s level of preparedness during trial. The filing claims that, rather than act impartially, Haas had taken steps to protect Albrite’s rights and raise issues on his behalf during trial based on his concerns about Mizinov’s performance.
Reactions and re-hiring
In his Aug. 28 resignation letter, Haas wrote that his wife had gone through enough and that he would not expose her to further public controversy. Haas said the job had been the greatest honor of his legal career, but he was also critical of Dunleavy.
“Your administration has concluded that the political consequences of an allegation matter more than determining whether it is true,” Haas wrote.
In an emailed statement shared with KYUK, Mizinov called Haas’s resignation a positive step forward for the agency. He wrote it was also a positive step for attorneys with “an extremely difficult, thankless job that should not be further denigrated by the personal, petty grievances of their superiors.”
A spokesperson for the Alaska Judicial Council – which under state statute screens and nominates at least two applicants for the top public defender position – said on Sept. 2 that the timeline for doing that was unclear because the governor’s office had not informed the council of a vacancy at the agency.
The Alaska Public Defender Agency confirmed by email on Sept. 2 that Haas is no longer head of the agency, and that attorney Ariel Toft is currently serving as Acting Public Defender.
Oral arguments regarding the motion for a new trial in the Albrite case are scheduled for Sept. 21 in Bethel court.
