PHILADELPHIA: Court OK’s Retaliation Lawsuit Against Convicted Gay Basher And Local Police Chief Father

The Philly Voice reports:

A federal lawsuit alleging Kathryn Knott, her father and members of the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office conspired to retaliate against a Montgomery County woman who posted mocking Internet comments can proceed, U.S. District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg ruled last week.

Goldberg declined to dismiss the lawsuit filed last year by Kathleen O’Donnell, a Norristown resident who used the screen name “Knotty is a Tramp” to post disparaging remarks about Knott in the comment sections of online news articles. O’Donnell’s username included an unflattering picture of Knott drinking from a bottle of alcohol.

O’Donnell claims Kathryn Knott and her father, Karl, used his then-position as Chalfont police chief to retaliate against her, alleging they conspired with former Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler and two county detectives to threaten criminal charges. Heckler left office in September 2016, a year before his second term was to end.

The lawsuit alleges that O’Donnell was fired from her job after detectives met with her boss. The detectives had used a court order to force Disqus to reveal her IP address.

Kathryn Knott served five months in prison last year after refusing the plea deal that allowed her two fellow gay-bashers to avoid a jail sentence. The trio had been identified from surveillance photos via a “human search engine” organized by a straight man on Twitter.

In July, Knott claimed “self-defense” in the civil suit brought by her victims. A jury trial is expected to begin in December. My many reports on the attack and the subsequent legal cases can be found here. (Tipped by JMG reader Joe)