Attorney: ‘Old White Males’ ganged up on her. The Bar: she used ‘terrorist legal tactics’
Unlike most attorneys whom the Florida Bar hits with an “emergency suspension,” Fort Lauderdale lawyer Ashley Krapacs does not have a case involving the phrase “misappropriated funds” or “guilty of charges.”
This one involves the phrases “terrorist legal tactics” and “cyberstalking restraining order.” Both were applied to Krapacs’ online posts about peers Russell Williams and Nisha Bacchus. Social media posts about each were enough for the state Supreme Court to issue an emergency suspension on Feb. 27 that could get worse this week.
Krapacs and her lawyers are defending her as The Florida Bar argues for further disciplinary action Wednesday and Thursday in front of Florida Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer, acting as referee in this case.
When reached by email, Krapacs said she couldn’t comment with the case pending.
Meanwhile, the defamation suit Williams filed against Krapacs was settled March 11 with each side paying its own attorney costs. And the restraining order Bacchus got against Krapacs on Jan. 11 remains in place. Krapacs is appealing.
“By waging a personal and public war on social media against attorneys representing clients, Ms. Krapacs has resorted to terrorist legal tactics,” the Bar wrote in its petition for emergency suspension. “The practice of law, for attorneys Williams and Bacchus, should not subject them to guerrilla warfare, and such behavior is the essence of conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and great public harm.
“Additionally, (Krapacs’) outrageous conduct only serves to perpetuate the public’s perception that lawyers are uncivilized.”
‘OLD WHITE MALES’ IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RESTRAINING ORDER HEARINGS
This started with a different restraining order filing, with Krapacs filing for one in January 2018 against Greg Knoop, a Texas resident who Krapacs claimed was violently abusive during their relationship.
What follows comes from Florida Bar discipline documents and Krapacs’ answer to the Bar’s request for the emergency suspension.
Williams, representing Knoop, argued before Broward Circuit Court Judge Michael Kaplan that Broward wasn’t the proper jurisdiction for the restraining order. Kaplan eventually dismissed that on April 12. Krapacs re-filed on April 13, but had already begun posting her opinion of Williams.
The Bar presented an example from Krapacs’ LinkedIn account on March 1:
“Old White Male Attorney #2 steps up to the plate to harass a domestic violence victim with yet another baseless legal treat. Classy.”
And from April 14:
“Oh, and opposing counsel blatantly, flat-out LIED on the record. The judge didn’t bat an eye. So I had to start all over again. I filed a new petition yesterday. I’m documenting the date, time, and name of every courthouse employee I speak with. Something is really off here. #metoo #timesup #domesticviolence #womensrights #keepfighting.
I’ve been inspired — and pissed off — by my bully exboyfriend and his bully attorneys and their aggressive and intimidating legal tactics after I confronted my ex about his past abuse of me.”
In an article she wrote for her law firm’s website titled “When You Don’t Let Female Lawyers Talk, We’ll Only Get Louder,” Krapacs, 33, described both Williams and Kaplan as an “old white male” and, of the April 12 hearing, “I realized that I was going to lose that hearing regardless of how strong my argument was. The bias in that hearing was so subtle, I didn’t fully detect it in the moment. But, after listening to the recording, it was clear as day.”
The Bar found issue with calling the 56-year-old Williams and the 60-year-old Kaplan “old white males,” as well as the accusation of bias. The Bar quotes a hearing transcript as evidence Krapacs’ claims of mistreatment and bias are spurious. Krapacs’ response “denies that the transcript is accurate.”
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS AND GAMES OF TAG
Williams claimed Krapacs’ postings about him on social media and YouTube on a since-scrubbed account caused him “substantial emotional distress to not only me but my partners (at Williams Hilal Wigand Grande) as well.” He filed a civil suit alleging slander, libel and malicious prosecution for Krapacs’ dismissed bar complaint against him.
Krapacs returned to social media, firing on Williams and Bacchus, who represented him in the defamation suit.
“Russell J. Williams, partner at @WHWG_LAW, sued me for #defamation. Way to harass a survivor of #domesticviolence and #rape, you pig! Oh, and #TRUTH is an absolute defense to defamation, moron, so good luck with that. Smfh. #metoo #timesup #frivolous #vindictive #bully.”
She also posted on the page of Bacchus’ Florida Womens’ Law Center, “Nisha Elizabeth Bacchus. Damn, girl. You must be hard up for new cases to take on a piece of garbage like Russell J. Williams. And you promote yourself as being “pro-women’s rights.” How do you sleep at night? #sellout #womanhater #metoo #timesup #endrapeculture #endsexism #endmisogyny.”
Krapacs tagged Bacchus and her law firms in most of the posts. In a Jan. 30 affidavit, Bacchus described this as “a cyberstaling attack” with posts that “were defamatory in nature, malicious and did not serve any legitimate purpose.
“This attack went on for a series of three or more hours,” Bacchus wrote. “Every time I untagged myself or my firm, Ms. Krapacs would re-tag me or my firm. Ms. Krapacs even went as far to mock and make fun of me on the comments section of these postings for untagging myself.”
Bacchus said these social media salvos occurred on a weekly basis. One Instagram post criticizing Bacchus (“This lady is OUT OF CONTROL. Nothing but an evil bully. Bring it, diva.”) showed the scene from “Home Alone” when kid Kevin has a gun pointed at the head of one of the would-be robbers.
This unsettled Bacchus greatly, as well as a post that mentioned her make of car while calling her a sellout for representing Williams.
For their part, the Bar didn’t appreciate Krapacs saying in multiple posts across several social media platforms that Bacchus influenced the Bar’s treatment of her.
Krapacs took up, on a pro bono basis, the case of a former Bacchus client who filed suit in small claims court. The woman claimed Bacchus took a $5,000 retainer, then dropped communication, requiring the woman to get a different attorney. In a Jan. 4 social media post, Krapacs asked if anybody knew of other Bacchus clients she could speak to “because I have a strong reason to believe this is a pattern of Nisha’s...”
A week later, Bacchus filed for a temporary restraining order against Krapacs. That got extended on Jan. 23, then made permanent until further court order on Feb. 1.
Krapacs is forbidden from posting anything about Bacchus anywhere on the Internet and, by Feb. 26, had to scrub her posts that referred to Bacchus.
The next day, the Florida Supreme Court granted the Bar’s request for emergency suspension.
This story was originally published April 29, 2019 at 1:48 PM.
