Former BigLaw partner wins reversal on one count of cyberstalking conviction
A former BigLaw partner’s messages to a former colleague may have been distressing, but they didn’t amount to “true threats” needed for a cyberstalking conviction, a federal appeals court has ruled. (Image from Shutterstock)
A former BigLaw partner’s messages to a former colleague may have been distressing, but they didn’t amount to “true threats” needed for a cyberstalking conviction, a federal appeals court has ruled.
In a March 21 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New York said the insufficient evidence required reversal of one count of three counts in the cyberstalking conviction for fired K&L Gates partner Willie Dennis, report Law360 and Law.com.
Dennis was sentenced to concurrent terms of two years in prison in federal court in New York City in February 2023 for cyberstalking former colleagues at the law firm.
Dennis had alleged in a November 2020 lawsuit that he was fired for his complaints about discrimination and then harassed by private investigators hired by the firm.
Dennis had argued in the criminal case that his communications didn’t constitute “true threats” of physical harm under the cyberstalking law, which must be shown to fall outside First Amendment protections.
But the appeals court said the evidence was sufficient to permit a reasonable jury to find that Dennis communicated and intended to communicate “true threats” to two K&L Gates partners but not to a third.
The third partner met Dennis at a professional conference for attorneys in New York City. The partner testified that he returned to his hotel room because Dennis was so upset about his ouster from K&L Gates. In his electronic communications, Dennis accused the partner of insensitivity, writing, “Gonna try to pick my pocket and tell me ‘I am concerned about u.’”
Dennis suggested that the partner viewed Dennis’ firing as “all a big game, right?” and said, “OK. Let’s play.” He also suggested that the partner and Dennis should “run our views by independent people at the conference to see if they can identify a path forward.”
In his last communication, Dennis told the partner that he was “heading to breakfast shortly,” and he asked the partner to please “save me a seat. I will find you.”
Those communications may have been distressing, the 2nd Circuit said, but they are not sufficient to show a true threat. A reasonable jury could have found that Dennis was threatening to embarrass the partner and K&L Gates at the conference, but it wasn’t enough to show a threat of physical harm.
One of the other partners had received 4,785 text messages from Dennis from late 2019 to early 2021, and another received more than 5,000 messages in the same period, according to prosecutors.
In response, the first partner upgraded his home security and slept with a loaded gun, while the second moved out of New York, even though K&L Gates had provided her “with round-the-clock private security at her home,” prosecutors said.
Dennis’ communications to the first partner included, “u r going to get yours,” you “need to pay the most” and, “when we are done, you are going to wish you had never met me.”
He also said he would travel to the partner’s New Jersey home to “water the plants,” saying he would “find a time when you are not there” and that “your sons can help me.” And he said he would “chase … down” the first partner’s children for the “sins of the father,” and “this is real.”
He also referred to mass shootings in Ohio and Texas and a mass stabbing in California.
Dennis’ messages to the second partner advised the lawyer to “sleep with one eye open,” said “u r toast” and said, “we are coming for you.” He also told her that you “really need to leave the New York office soon … like in a week or so or you will become part of the public conversation.”
Dennis, who represented himself at trial, had argued that there was no proof that he intended to communicate threats of physical harm.
“I ask you to consider the kind of man you see before you,” Dennis said. “Do you see a man who would ever threaten the physical well-being of or harm anyone in person or by way of text or email? The professional and gentlemanly way I’ve behaved in my 14-year career at KL Gates, even though I had been [dis]respected, had my clients taken, stolen, my compensation … what I did was not a crime. And nothing I did is deserving of prison.”
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