SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Texas real estate investor has filed a civil lawsuit against Black Lives Matter – Sacramento and its founder Tanya Faison after the group posted to Facebook claiming the real estate investor sent them racist, hate-filled emails.
The lawsuit by Karra Crowley and her husband, Christopher, is seeking the removal of all related publications, posts and shares, from BLM – Sacramento, and “anywhere else they may appear,” as well as $75,000 in compensatory and general damages, punitive damages, court costs, and “other such relief as the court deems proper.”
Karra Crowley said her family had lived in the Sacramento area for years before moving to Texas in 2005.
BLM – Sacramento posted to Facebook photos of an email conversation with someone from the address “crowleykarra64@gmail.com” on April 26. In the caption, the group wrote “So this woman Karra Crowley has been emailing us and we figured she needs to be famous. She actually owns a business called Crowley Properties in Roseville but she lives in Loomis… Our phone, emails, and Instagram seem to have been doxxed after the Chauvin verdict. They seem to be mad.”
The post also included tags for several Sacramento media outlets, as well as national media outlets. As of this publication, the post remained on the group’s Facebook page.
One of the emails contained in the photos from “crowleykarra64@gmail.com” read:
“To whom it may concern, I am sick and tired of hearing about you guys on the news. You guys are nothing but a bunch of domestic terrorists. Crying because you can’t have your way about something. Why don’t you just give up, your (sic) never going to be able to change the world. EVER!!!! GROW THE F*** UP, White lives matter!!!!”
The email also concluded with the name of the purported sender “Karra Crowley” and “Crowley Properties.” Additional photos on the post contain follow-up emails with more racist messages from the same email address.
In the lawsuit however, the Crowley’s claim that they did not write or send the emails and that the email address does not even belong to them.
“The lawsuit was filed because we had no other alternative… the emails did not come from me," Karra Crowley told ABC10.
The lawsuit also states that Crowley contacted Faison on April 28 and asked for the post on the BLM – Sacramento Facebook page to be removed, but Faison refused.
“Defendants did not use reasonable care to determine whether Plaintiffs, or either of them, were the authors or senders of the purported emails from Ms. Crowley, which Defendants attributed to Plaintiffs nonetheless,” the lawsuit claims.
Jeff Ochrach, attorney for Crowley, said the organization had a duty to take the post down after hearing from Crowley.
“She’s left it up there now for a week knowing that Ms. Crowley says it’s not her, it’s not her email, (and) it’s not her sentiment. She’s leaving it up there anyway knowing she’s causing devastation to the Crowley’s,” Ochrach said.
He said that the Crowley's have even been threatened as a result of the post. Crowley added that she's been called vulgar and hateful things and that it is difficult having people think of her this way.
"This is over the top. I don’t just want them to remove the post. I want them to print a retraction, to acknowledge they did not verify anything, that they slandered my name and I want a formal apology,” she said.
Ochrach said the lawsuit will eventually move into a "discovery" phase that will involve subpoenaing Google to find out who sent the letters. He said they'll also be doing "discovery" of BLM Sacramento to learn more about what the organization did or did not do to verify the emails after being told that Crowley didn't send them.
ABC10 reached out to BLM Sacramento and have yet to receive any comment back on this story. Read the court documents below:
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