A Wyoming attorney who tried getting a court to void the membership of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority’s first transgender inductee in 2023 was found not liable Friday, after the sorority member accused him of launching personal and embarrassing claims into the public court file.
John Knepper declined “for now” to comment after hearing the news that he’s not liable for the more controversial claims he and another attorney, Cassie Craven, included in their 2023 lawsuit against the sorority and its transgender inductee Artemis Langford.
His attorney Anna Reeves Olson did not return a Friday afternoon email by publication.
That lawsuit complaint covered Langford’s characteristics and alleged lifestyle as a transgender person, among other hotly contested incidents and claims.
Rachel Berkness of Freeburg Law, who represented Langford, told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that even though the plaintiff didn’t win a favorable verdict, the conduct prompting the complaint was still wrong.
“I am incredibly proud of Artemis Langford for standing up for herself against her biggest bullies,” wrote Berkness in a Friday text message. “The jury agreed that what happened to her was wrong. They were just unable to determine whether it was legally permissible.”
Berkness concluded, “Artemis is a brave woman and I am forever proud of her.”
The case also theorized that Knepper and Craven sought publicity on purpose to drum up fundraising.
The Sorority Lawsuit
This story involves two lawsuits, one starting in federal court in 2023, and one beginning in Wyoming’s Laramie County District Court in 2024.
Langford was inducted into the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority via its University of Wyoming-based chapter in the autumn semester of 2022.
A group of seven — then later six — women sued the sorority in federal court the following spring, alleging the sorority misled them and strong-armed its members into admitting Langford.
They also sued Langford, but said they only did so to recognize the case could impact Langford’s membership in the sorority.
Their claims included statements about Langford’s noteworthy height and size, and a hotly-contested alleged incident involving signs of male arousal at a sorority event. Langford’s counsel rebutted that claim with evidence that the story was only drunken gossip.
The women had attested that the sorority misled them into believing they could be part of an all-female group.
They said that by Langford’s induction, they’d already sworn lifelong fidelity to the one sorority. Some said they were survivors of past sexual abuse and expressed distress at sharing the sorority with a biological male.
In August 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson dismissed the case, saying it’s not for the court to determine the definition of the word “woman” for a private group like a sorority, and that private groups can dictate the terms of their own membership.
That’s based on established First Amendment law giving private groups an “associational” right.
Another coalition, a mix of old and new litigants, challenged the sorority again in the same court. Johnson dismissed their case a second time and they appealed. That appeal is pending in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Langford’s Volley
Meanwhile, Langford filed a new lawsuit against the women’s lawyers, John Knepper and Cassie Craven, in state court on March 25, 2024.
Knepper’s Casper-based attorney Anna Reeves Olson successfully petitioned Laramie County District Court Judge Nathaniel Hibben to pare the claims against Knepper down from four to two.
Craven had not joined Olson and Knepper’s motion for early judgment, so she was slated to face four claims at trial instead of Knepper’s two.
Craven did not go to trial, opting to settle with Langford around late March instead. The terms of that settlement have not been made public.
Knepper’s case remained alive and went to trial starting Monday.
The Complaint, The Response
Langford’s original civil filing accused Knepper and Craven of divulging and alleging irrelevant facts for their 2023 lawsuit to garner media attention and raise money toward their attorneys’ fees.
“The allegations appeared to be an attempt to spark public outrage at Ms. Langford’s expense,” wrote Alex Freeburg of Freeburg Law LLC at the time.
The Kappa attorneys and/or clients agreed to interviews on the "Laura Ingraham Angle," the "Megyn Kelly Show" and "Fox News’ America" reports, says the petition.
“Defendants mocked Ms. Langford’s physical appearance, made jabs about her GPA and attempted to paint Ms. Langford as a sexual deviant who had joined a transgender-friendly sorority simply to gain access to women,” the petition adds.
Langford also disputes the attorneys’ decision to unseal Langford’s name when they unsealed their clients’ names after the judges denied the clients’ request for pseudonymity.
Langford, however, had gone public as the first openly-transgender member of the Wyoming-based Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority as early as 2022 in a story in UW’s student newspaper the Branding Iron.
Johnson also wrote when dismissing the first lawsuit that allegations about Langford’s behavior had “no bearing on (the women’s) legal claims” and were “unbefitting in federal court.”
No Duty Of Care
Craven and Knepper filed an Oct. 14, 2024, answer to Langford’s claims saying they deny wrongdoing.
They argued that they did not owe a duty of care to Langford; that Langford has not suffered any actual damages; that any damages Langford claims were based on contingent and speculative rights; and that Langford’s claims were barred by litigation privilege.
That is, the immunity lawyers have to make pleadings as part of representing their clients.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
