It looks like Nik Richie's getting nervous.
On the heels of a new lawsuit filed against him, the self-described "reality blogger" took down several blog posts from www.thedirty.com that had targeted a woman who sued him last year for invasion of privacy.
Richie published the posts last week to retaliate against Kristen Creighton of La Porte, Texas, who won a $1.5 million judgment in October against Richie and his company, Dirty World.
Creighton and her lawyer have ramped up efforts to collect on the bill, dragging Richie into a debtor exam in Phoenix last week so his financial shape could be determined. While on the ropes, Richie lashed out on his blog, threatening to make Creighton the "face of herpes in America."
But the move may have backfired: Creighton and her Houston lawyer, Chris Bell, filed another invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Richie and Dirty World based on the new posts.
Creighton seeks an injunction to stop Richie from publishing the hurtful -- though true -- information about her, arguing that she's not a public figure who can be exploited by the media. She's also seeking more money in damages.
Creighton forwarded us this statement yesterday:
Last week was probably one of the roughest weeks of my life. It was hard on my family, friends, ect. I don't think that Nik or The Dirty should be allowed to ruin people's lives. I hope to put an end to that site. There is nothing postive that comes from it. We are working to collect the money from the first lawsuit and my attorneys think it went well on Friday. I am still waiting to see the transcript. I don't mind if you use my name, it's pretty public anyways at this point.
Richie left up one post about Creighton, however, to let people know he hasn't totally backed down:
DIRTY ARMY, I want you to be aware that I did not take down the Kristen Creighton posts for any type of legal reason. They are strictly in a holding pattern with much more to come. I think I proved my point to Kristen Creighton and hopefully she sees what her life can become overnight if this is the route she chooses. I had a heart back in 2009 when she asked me to remove her very first post and I am trying to have one now. The facts are the facts... Kristen Creighton has herpes and her lawyer Chris Bell lied to us on record about it.
The dispute between Richie by Creighton should grab the attention of anyone who publishes their words, whether on the Internet or elsewhere. No one is accusing Richie of lying about Creighton's medical condition. Rather, it's the uber-public revelation that's at issue.
But the fact is, there's little to fight for at this point -- Richie has already lost the primary case because he didn't respond show up last October. (Creighton and Bell insist that Richie was served the court paperwork properly and that knew he had a court date).
After the October loss in Texas and the ill-considered retaliatory blog posts against the victim, the main thing we're wondering is which online legal-help site he uses -- so we can steer clear of it.
