COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio judge this winter dismissed two defamation claims related to a blackface photo that went viral in June and resulted in a local woman’s expulsion from Mount Carmel College of Nursing (MCCN). But litigation in the case continues, with a third defamation claim, and accusations of false light invasion of privacy and breach of contract still undecided, lawyers involved in the case told Spectrum News 1.
The case stems from a photo taken at a 2016 Halloween party. In the picture, Courtney Coleman, then a high school student, is seen with her boyfriend, Jared Karr, who was wearing blackface and laying on the ground with a noose around his neck. The photo went viral at the time and resurfaced online at the height of last summer’s protests and calls for social justice following the death of George Floyd, Jacob Blake and Breonna Taylor. Within days, Coleman was expelled from MCCN, “wreck[ing] her standing in the community and seriously impair[ing] her sense of dignity and self-esteem,” according to a court filing.
The saga provides a snapshot of an ongoing American moment, with advocates for racial justice insisting that people face consequences for racist acts and their opponents accusing them of perpetuating “cancel culture.” It has resulted in defamation lawsuits, death threats, and small town drama.
Coleman, the former nursing student, is suing two women for tweets about the blackface photo and MCCN for expelling her. Coleman’s lawyer, James Kingsley, said his client is suing the women — Abby Stroup and Maddie Dozer — for defamation and false light invasion of privacy, which Cornell Law School defines as an accusation of “spreading falsehoods about a plaintiff that would be considered objectionable by the average person.” Coleman claims that MCCN breached a contract with her when she was expelled. A lawyer representing the school declined to comment on active litigation.
At the center of Coleman’s claims is the photo, taken by Karr’s mother in late fall 2016 and then posted online. The backlash was immediate in Laurelville, Ohio, population 527, with the Karr family pizza shop receiving dozens of threats after it went viral. Both Coleman and Karr also faced punishment at school.
For years, that was that. Karr went on to a job at a chemical company, according to his mother, and Colemen enrolled at Columbus’s MCCN. Then, on May 25, 2020, 750 miles northwest of Columbus, a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd. Within days, cities across the country were filled with demonstrators demanding justice for centuries of transgressions against Black Americans. Corporations issued statements endorsing racial equity, activists demanded police reform, and one former classmate of Coleman’s posted the Halloween photo on social media.
Coleman’s former high school classmate Abby Stroup put the photo on both Twitter and TikTok, along with more recent tweets from Coleman, one of which was a quote from a rap song that included the N-word. “Please don’t let her be a nurse,” Stroup wrote in one of her posts. Those who saw her video set out to ensure that Coleman wouldn’t.
“[U]unknown hundreds” of people contacted MCCN, according to Coleman’s lawsuit and the school expelled her within days. In a June 9 letter addressed to Coleman, MCCN President Dr. Kathleen Williamson cited five violations of the school’s policies relating to the Halloween photo and the more recent social media posts containing “vulgar, disrespectful” language.
“Due to the nature of these posts and comments made toward others, I believe your behavior and actions to be incongruent with the missions and values of the Mount Carmel College of Nursing and the nursing profession,” Williamson wrote.
The next day the school put out a statement saying it “does not tolerate prejudice or racism against African Americans and people of color. Such behavior has no place within the walls of an institution where students are called to prove compassionate care to others.” Along with suing the school for breach of contract, Coleman sued MCCN for defamation over the statement. But in January, Judge P. Randall Knece ruled that the statement was “innocent” and dismissed the defamation claim.
Kingsley said it will be up to a jury to decide if it’s “a reasonable rule of college that you can throw someone out for swearing off campus.” He also claimed that MCCN’s decision to expel Coleman was directly related to racial justice protests happening in Columbus at the time.
“They had to act immediately because they didn’t want that mob to walk down the street to the hospital,” he said.
In legal filings, Kingsley blamed “the new concept of Cancel Culture” for the fervor to punish Coleman. “It does not allow for any explanation,” the filing said of “cancel culture.” “It does not allow for due process. There is not room for forgiveness.”
Coleman is also suing Stroup and her cousin Maddie Dozer for social media posts calling her a “racist.” Coleman has accused both of defamation and false light invasion of privacy. The claims against Stroup stand, but the defamation claim against Dozer was dismissed in late December. In his decision, Knece wrote that when Dozer called Coleman a “racist” in a tweet, it “was clearly the opinion of the author. Therefore, a claim of defamation must fail.”
Brian Stewart, the lawyer representing the cousins, said all of Coleman’s claims against them are “frivolous.”
“The social media posts at issue are factually true, or at minimum, are our clients reasonable opinions,” he said.
Karr, meanwhile, has evaded renewed consequences for his role in the Halloween photo, which he defended in a now-deleted 2016 tweet. “For one it was a damn joke,” he wrote. “Two it was for a Halloween party. Third everyone loved it and laughed about it.”
“His life is just fine. If she screwed hers up, that’s on her,” Karr’s mother said of Coleman. “My son’s gotten a very good job and he’s not getting kicked out of his job.”
