Black Lives Matter Sacramento says it was ‘bullied’ into apologizing to settle libel suit

Hours after Black Lives Matter Sacramento posted a video Thursday on Facebook apologizing for “reckless behavior” that led to a Sacramento-area businesswoman being labeled a racist, BLM Sacramento backtracked and claimed the organization was “bullied” into the apology to settle a libel lawsuit.

“Black Lives Matter Sacramento was bullied into an apology in order to end a lawsuit for receiving racist emails,” a news release from the group and founder Tanya Faison said.

The statement was issued Thursday after a lawyer for businesswoman Karra Crowley asked a federal judge to dismiss a libel suit against Faison and BLM because the two sides had agreed to a settlement under which Faison posted a Facebook video apologizing.

Now, Crowley attorney Jeffrey Ochrach says Karra Crowley and her husband are considering asking a federal judge to set aside the settlement agreement and continue with the lawsuit because of the claims in the news release.

“It completely violates the spirit of our settlement agreement,” Orcrach said Friday. “She had even wanted to say in the apology that she was just doing it just to settle the case, and we said if it’s not a real apology we don’t want it.

“She was supposed to honor the agreement and make a sincere apology, and we thought she really meant it. Now, the question is do we ask the court to withdraw the settlement and allow her to continue to defame the Crowleys or not.”

Orchrach said a decision on that likely would come next week.

Faison did not immediately respond to a phone message and email to BLM Sacramento, but she posted a second Facebook video Thursday night declaring that “this is an example to me of how white supremacy works.”

“It was a lose-lose,” Faison said of the decision about whether to continue fighting the suit or apologize to the Crowleys. “But I had to pick one and so I decided to go ahead and do the apology.

“It is not heartfelt. I don’t think that it’s even warranted, but it’s something I had to do to get past ... and move on to the work and keep focused on the work and not worry about this case anymore.”

The dispute stems from racist messages sent to BLM Sacramento’s Facebook page two years ago that falsely claimed to be from Crowley, but which actually were sent under her name by a former tenant she had evicted, according to court papers.

In response to those messages, BLM Sacramento posted Crowley’s name and wrote that it had “VERIFIED” her business and home addresses. The group refused to remove the posts even after Crowley contacted Faison and told her the messages had not come from her.

The Facebook fight led to two years of litigation that appeared to end Thursday when Crowley’s attorney asked for the case to be dismissed after Faison posted her apology on the BLM Sacramento Facebook page.

“On behalf of myself and Black Lives Matter Sacramento, I deeply apologize for my reckless behavior and the harm that we caused Ms. Crowley, her family and her business,” Faison said in the 98-second video.

Faison acknowledged in the video that she should have removed her post about Crowley after Crowley contacted her in 2021 and assured her the messages had not come from her and that she did not hold racist views.

“Nonetheless, I posted on the Facebook website that I had verified Ms. Crowley’s identity,” Faison said. “I posted Ms. Crowley’s city of residence and work and I asked the public to make Ms. Crowley famous.

“Terrible consequences for Ms. Crowley followed, including death threats. Black Lives Matter Sacramento and I were wrong.

“We should have taken the Facebook post down after Ms. Crowley explained to me that she had not sent them,” Faison said.

The apology seemed to satisfy Crowley, who told The Sacramento Bee that all she wanted was an apology for the damage that had been done to her reputation.

But hours after The Bee published a story on the apology, BLM Sacramento issued the news release with a headline that said BLM “shares the truth on lawsuit ‘apology.’”

“Karra and Chris Crowley’s initial demand from BLM Sacramento was $200,000.00,” Faison said in the release. “Money that we don’t have.

“When the courts explained to them that even if they won that they probably wouldn’t get that kind of money from us, they threatened to take the land that we grow food on to give to community, our garden. We were able to negotiate an agreement that wasn’t something that we wanted to do, but it avoided the costs of continuing on to litigation and also having to fight to keep our land.

“The Crowleys insisted we read an apology statement from us but written by them, and that we posted it to our Facebook page, as well as emailed it to them. We have met their demands and we are moving on with the important work of trying to contribute toward making Black Sacramento whole in our fight for justice and equity.”

Asked to respond to the claims in the release, Karra Crowley said she was shocked.

“This is unbelievable,” she said. “After everything that they have done? That is not true. Clearly, they don’t do anything in good faith.”

Crowley added that “I didn’t even ask for a penny, I asked for a public acknowledgment of what they had done.”

Faison’s attorney, Mark Merin, said late Thursday he had not seen the news release but confirmed no money had changed hands to settle the lawsuit. He added that the settlement agreement did not contain a confidentiality agreement and that Faison was free to speak out.

“That’s Tanya’s perception, what can I say?” Merin said.

The dispute has led to various accusations, including Faison claiming in another video published Thursday that Crowley’s husband showed up at a home connected to a BLM Sacramento member — at one point, she claims, with a gun in his waistband — and that he offered someone $500 for Faison’s address.

Chris Crowley said Friday he never showed up at a home with a firearm and that the only reason he was asking BLM Sacramento board members for Faison’s address was to serve her with legal papers.

Faison also has contended the Crowleys sought to take land BLM Sacramento uses for a community garden, something Karra Crowley and her attorney each denied.