A judge last week granted the woman suing Kathryn Knott and others more time to compose a response to the defendants’ motions to dismiss the suit.
Judge Mitchell Goldberg granted Kathleen O’Donnell’s extension request Aug. 30, giving the Norristown woman until Sept. 21 to respond to two separate motions for the dismissal of her federal lawsuit. O’Donnell filed the case this spring, contending that Knott, her father, the Bucks County District Attorney and two detectives conspired to violate her constitutional rights. She was terminated from her job after detectives visited her workplace investigating a complaint from Knott regarding an online profile of O’Donnell’s in which she used Knott’s photo and a likeness of her name.
In December, a jury convicted Knott of four misdemeanor charges in connection with a 2014 gay-bashing attack in Center City. She later served five months of her five-10-month prison sentence.
The Bucks County officials as well as Knott and her father, Karl, all filed motions to dismiss the suit in June but they were denied as moot after O’Donnell filed an amended complaint. In it, O’Donnell added a second claim against the Knotts. The defendants submitted two separate motions to dismiss in August, contending O’Donnell failed to adequately state a claim.
“In considering plaintiff’s free-speech rights, it is important to note that nothing in this entire matter prevented her then or now from voicing her opinions — on the Internet or otherwise — about gay victimization, the particular incident or of Kathryn Knott,” the Knotts’ attorneys wrote in their motion. “She simply could not continue to pretend to be Kathryn Knott.”
The motion included examples of O’Donnell’s online posts under the moniker “Knotty is a Tramp. On 6ABC.com she allegedly wrote, “I don’t need pay back, my daddy and mommy give me checks but I hate to take time to cash them. Hope they put money in my account when I go to the ‘big house.’” O’Donnell also allegedly posted, “I’m not guilty either. I have mental issues that caused me to violate the HIPPA[sic] laws and beat up those two guys.”