Yesterday, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington sued his ex-girlfriend, Jenn Allen, for defamation and publication in a false light. He's seeking "general" and "special damages" according to "proof." He also wants the cost of the lawsuit covered and "any other relief the court deems just and proper."
This afternoon, Gawker obtained a copy of the 43-page lawsuit.
We've read all of it and the evidence against Allen is hard to argue. There are messages that show her instigating both playful and highly emotional messages to Arrington after March 2012, the month Allen said the alleged rape took place. Allen has yet to publicly respond to Arrington's suit.
Here are the highlights of the filing.
On March 29, 2013, Jenn Allen posted a statement on Facebook that accused Arrington of physical and emotional abuse. Allen alleged that Arrington "threatened to murder her if she told anyone" about the way he treated her.
News of Allen's post quickly spread to media outlets, most notably Gawker, which addressed Allen's post and did some further research into the allegations. Allen responded multiple times on the Gawker articles with messages that further blemished Arrington's reputation.
Arrington's lawyer asked Allen to write a public retraction of her "defamatory" statements by close of business on April 15 2013. Allen didn't. Arrington's lawyer obtained a message Allen sent to someone named "Chris" commenting on the alleged rape on May 3 2013.
In the message to Chris, Allen mentions some sort of PowerPoint presentation Arrington made that may address the allegations against him. (If you know about it or have a copy, please let us know here.)
Allen also sent out the following messages on Twitter on April 11, the day Arrington's lawyer notified her of the potential lawsuit. They imply that Arrington impregnated her at least once, with one other false alarm:
"Rape the first Friday of March 2012 in the early morning…in SF at the Airport hotel," and "If you were raped twice in the 8 yrs by Mike, in result pregnant twice by rape, one false pos preg, never a lie, pls have empathy."
One day later, Allen changed the rape date in another Twitter message:
"This is hard to look back on. Michael Arrington raped me Friday March 30, 2012 @ 1:30 am near SFO; was there to talk about past."
There are a pile of "exhibits" and attachments that further suggest Arrington's innocence, or at least show Allen is extremely emotional. Some are written by friends of Arrington's defending him, like Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera and former TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde.
Others are damning messages Allen sent to Arrington via email, Twitter and text message over the past year. One from July 2012 shows Allen emotional over a new relationship Arrington entered:
"You, Mike, seem happy with the most boring arrogant fake personalities person on the planet, who you treat the way I should have been treated," Allen wrote.
Five months ago, in October 2012, Allen sent Arrington a message asking how he was doing. Arrington did not appear to respond.
Below is the full lawsuit.
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