Howard Kusnick's Son to Be Sued After Failed Lawsuit Against Attorney Darren Heitner

By Matthew Hendley Wed., Dec. 14 2011 at 10:52 AM

Categories: Law & Order, Sports

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Darren Heitner

In September, Joshua Kusnick -- the son of convicted Scott Rothstein associate Howard Kusnick -- sued local attorney and sports agency owner Darren Heitner, claiming he made libelous comments on his blog about Joshua Kusnick's sports agency and the elder Kusnick's role in the company.

Now, Heitner says that lawsuit has been dismissed, and now there's a complaint going the other way.

In January 2010, attorneys representing Joshua Kusnick's sports agency -- Double Diamond Sports Management -- started writing letters to Heitner, accusing him of making "blatantly libelous" statements about the Kusnicks and the agency on his blog, sportsagentblog.com.

Even though Heitner retracted the part on his blog that was being complained about -- in part based on accusations of adding his own "commentary" and "emphasis" reporting of former New Times scribe Bob Norman -- Heitner eventually received another pissy letter, this time with a lawsuit attached.

Among the allegations in the lawsuit was a charge against the law firm Heitner worked for at the time -- Koch Parafinczuk & Wolf -- saying it was at fault for negligent supervision of an employee by Heitner using the law firm's "materials and/or resources" to post the remarks in question on his blog.

Now that Heitner says that whole thing was tossed, attorney Richard Wolfe is now filing the lawsuit against Double Diamond, Joshua Kusnick, and the attorneys that were representing them at different points throughout the process -- Jonathan J.A. Paul and Gregory & Clark.

Heitner says there will be three charges in this complaint -- abuse of process, intentional infliction of severe emotional distress, and malicious prosecution.

The complaint is to include an allegation that Double Diamond requested that the lawyers include the charge against Heitner's former firm to cause "great embarrassment in front of his colleagues and employers."

Heitner says the allegations against him were known to be untrue, and an ulterior motive existed to "embarrass and emotionally distress" him.

He's asking for no less than $300,000 in damages.

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