A projected trial date has been set in a civil case brought by a local gay couple against their attackers.
If no settlement is reached first, Andrew Haught and Zachary Hesse’s suit against Philip Williams, Kevin Harrigan and Kathryn Knott will go to trial Dec. 4, 2017.
The trio was accused of attacking the couple in September 2014 in Center City, while using antigay language.
Williams and Harrigan accepted plea deals and were sentenced to probation and community service. Knott took her case to trial and was convicted of four misdemeanors. She served five months of her five-10-month prison sentence earlier this year.
The victims filed the civil suit this spring, requesting a total judgment in excess of $500,000.
A settlement conference will be held Sept. 4, 2017, and, if no agreement is reached, a pre-trial conference is projected for Nov. 6, 2017. Subpoenas were issued last month to all three defendants.
In related news, the plaintiff in a federal suit against Knott filed a response to her request for the suit to be dismissed.
Norristown resident Kathleen O’Donnell in the spring filed suit against Knott, Knott’s father and several Bucks County officials, contending the group violated her free-speech rights. O’Donnell was fired after Bucks County detectives visited her workplace investigating a complaint from Knott about O’Donnell’s online postings under the moniker “Knotty is a Tramp.”
O’Donnell is seeking $5 million.
In her Sept. 21 reply to the defendants’ request for dismissal, O’Donnell acknowledged that she failed to state a claim against the county itself, which she named as a defendant, and conceded to the county being released from the case.
O’Donnell argued that her online comments are protected by the First Amendment, and that none of the Bucks County officials are protected by immunity by nature of their positions; she contends they acted outside of their jurisdiction by investigating and retaliating against her for her postings.
At the time of O’Donnell’s termination, Knott’s father, Karl, was police chief in Chalfont, a borough in Bucks County, and is now a captain in the Central Bucks Regional Police Department.
The latest filing contends Karl Knott “worked in close proximity and in the same field” as the detectives and former District Attorney David Heckler, who resigned his post last month. Heckler previously told PGN he does not think he met Karl Knott.