Kathryn Knott and her father, Karl, filed a joint motion last week to dismiss one count of a federal lawsuit in which they are named as defendants. The suit asks for damages of $5 million.
The Knotts are asking to dismiss Count V of the suit by Norristown woman Kathleen O’Donnell. This count contends they collaborated in a conspiracy with Bucks County detectives and the District Attorney to violate O’Donnell’s First-Amendment rights. There are four other counts in the suit, but the Knotts are not implicated in them.
O’Donnell was fired from her job after Bucks County detectives visited her workplace to investigate a complaint made by Kathryn Knott, who was arrested in 2014 for her role in a Center City gay-bashing incident.
O’Donnell allegedly created an online profile under the name “Knotty is a Tramp,” using Knott’s photo. In O’Donnell’s original complaint, the profile was referred to as a Disqus account — a web-commenting tool — though the Knotts’ reply refers to it as a Twitter account.
According to the reply brief, O’Donnell posted “unflattering comments as though they were authorized by Kathryn Knott herself.” The brief states Knott complained about the account to her father, then police chief in Chalftont, who instructed his daughter to make a complaint to Bucks County law-enforcement officials, which prompted the visit to her employer.
The reply brief contends that, based on case law, O’Donnell needed to illustrate material facts to prove conspiracy.
“A plaintiff cannot get by with mere speculation, but rather must allege with specificity and support an actual meeting of the minds,” the brief states. “There is no indication of who agreed with whom or what they agreed to do. In fact, there is no actual allegation that any of the minds actually met, only that the defendants acted with the common purpose, which, of course, does not amount to conspiracy.”
In arguing against O’Donnell’s claims of First-Amendment violations, the brief argues that O’Donnell is actually responsible for committing the torts of “appropriation of name or likeness” and “publicly placing a person in a false light,” suggesting she also committed libel and identity theft. It goes on to note that the intersection of First-Amendment rights and the Internet have yet to be fully addressed by the courts.
Knott is currently at Riverside Correctional Facility, where she is entering her fifth month of a five- to 10-month prison sentence. Her attorney said he plans to request early release in July.
Knott also faces a civil suit from the victims, Andrew Haught and Zachary Hesse.