A jury has found Wyoming attorney John Knepper not liable for abuse of process or inflicting emotional distress.
A lawsuit had alleged that Knepper, as well as fellow attorney Cassie Craven, had done both while representing University of Wyoming (UW) sorority members trying to boot a transgender sister from their chapter.
The trans sorority member, Artemis Langford, sued the attorneys after the national publicity of the case brought down death threats on her.
Rachel Berkness, Langford’s own lawyer, said the loss at trial is not what they wanted, but she’s proud of her client for seeing it through.
“She is an absolute hero, and she stuck up for herself,” Berkness said. “She didn’t let her bullies get the best of her.”
The original lawsuit brought by Knepper and Craven sought to remove Langford from UW’s Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) chapter and ban trans students from ever joining.
Langford was inducted into the chapter by a majority vote of its members in 2022. The following year, six members launched the lawsuit to remove her. The national KKG organization allows transgender membership and has defended its ability to do so amid the lawsuit.
The suit has been rejected three times by the courts. In its first defeat, U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson ruled private organizations like KKG can induct whomever they choose and that it was not the role of the court to define womanhood. The case has been refiled, rejected again, and now rests in the hands of a federal appeals court.
Langford graduated last year and moved out of Wyoming.
Her counter lawsuit alleged Knepper and Craven engaged in “extreme and outrageous conduct” while advancing their clients’ case and “publicly humiliate[d]” her.
“Defendants needlessly sued Ms. Langford and injected into their filings exaggerated, false, and humiliating sorority gossip as well as private details about her life,” Langford’s suit alleged. “Defendants used these stories not to further their clients’ legal claims, but to raise money for their own attorney fees and to get their fifteen minutes of fame. As the District Court would later find, these details were legally irrelevant and unbefitting in federal court.”
Craven, but not Knepper, appeared on the Megyn Kelly Show alongside the sorority sisters seeking Langford’s removal. Her comments on the show were cited in Langford’s counter suit.
“They blew this story up from just sorority gossip to a federal lawsuit, and as a result [Langford’s] life has never been the same again,” Berkness said.
Langford settled with Craven last month for an undisclosed amount. The suit was allowed to proceed against Knepper and ended last week after a five-day jury trial. The jury found Knepper was not liable for either abuse of process or inflicting emotional distress.
Knepper’s lawyer declined to comment.
Berkness said it’s significant that her client’s suit got all the way to a jury trial, surviving motions to dismiss or for summary judgement.
“To get all the way to a trial and get all the way to a verdict, there have to be a lot of rulings in our favor,” she said. “So, the public might see this as a win for John Knepper, but I know that the legal community can read between the lines on that.”
Berkness has not said whether they will appeal.
