Philly Gay Basher Kathryn Knott Hit With $5 Million Lawsuit

Although convicted Philadelphia gay-basher Kathryn Knott is currently serving five to 10 months in prison for the 2014 brutal beating of a gay couple in Center City, her real trouble may be just about to start.

Philadelphia Gay News reports Knott is part of a lawsuit brought by a woman who claims that she unjustly lost her job after posting internet comments about the former Bucks County nurse turned jailbird. She is seeking $5 million in punitive damages on top of compensatory damages of at least $150,000.

Also named in the lawsuit is her police chief father Karl Knott, Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler; two Bucks County detectives and Bucks County.

The lawsuit was filed last Friday by Kathleen O'Donnell, 61, who created an online profile on internet social commenting tool Disqus under the handle "Knotty is a Tramp."

In August, 2015, two Bucks County detectives named in the lawsuit visited Walker Parking Consultants where O'Donnell was employed. According to the filing, the detectives met privately with O'Donnell's supervisor to tell him about her Disqus profile. They told him that through a court order they obtained the IP addresses of computers O'Donnell used to comment on Knott, one of which was a workplace computer. Later that day, O'Donnell was fired.

O'Donnell's co-counsel Martell Harris said they believe Knott's police chief father influenced the detective's actions.

According toPhilly.com, the suit says she was "expressing her opinions and outrage" about the attack on the two gay men when there was intense media scrutiny of Knott, who before the attack had expressed antigay sentiments on social media.