Glass beads, homemade jewelry, baked goods and tax laws are at the center of a multistate Internet brawl between a Woodway woman and others that has fueled at least two lawsuits.

Woodway baker, jewelry maker and tax consultant Ullja Kuntze filed a defamation claim this week in Waco’s 170th State District Court against 30 women in at least 19 states, alleging they are conspiring to ruin her business ventures.

Kuntze’s lawsuit was filed two weeks after 54 plaintiffs, mostly artisans who sell their jewelry and art on the Internet, dismissed a similar lawsuit against Kuntze that they filed in Houston.

Words fly

The escalating war of words between Kuntze and the other jewelry sellers appears to have started in June 2008, when Kuntze was trying to establish her Italian homemade jewelry business and bought some glass beads from an Internet distributor.

The stories from both sides diverge from here, but some of the artists accused Kuntze of stealing their beads and artwork without crediting where they came from and using them in her own jewelry business.

As the dispute continued on the Internet, each side accused the other of printing false and malicious comments that have damaged reputations and businesses.

The “community” of defendants, Kuntze’s lawsuit alleges, “have repeatedly and continually posted false and defamatory statements. The specific purpose of this forum’s ‘thread’ is to destroy plaintiff’s name and to discourage people from doing business with her based on their false allegations.

“Further, defendants have essentially stalked plaintiff on the Internet, as well as through other means, and conspired to prevent her from pursuing any future business relationships.”

The lawsuit was filed by her Waco attorney, David Deaconson.

Deaconson declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Steven Pooke, the Houston attorney who represented many of the defendants when they were plaintiffs in the now-defunct suit against Kuntze, did not return phone calls.

Postings on sites

Some of the defendants purchased domain names, such as ulljas.com, ullja-s.com and ulljasgusto.com, and posted what Kuntze’s suit describes as defamatory information toward Kuntze.

They also linked those sites from their own business websites, widening the net of lies, Kuntze alleges.

The 54 plaintiffs who dropped their Houston lawsuit against Kuntze alleged that she retaliated against them by notifying taxing entities in their respective towns and states and depicting many of them as tax cheats, according to the dismissed lawsuit.

Kuntze also posted Internet sites that contained false and defamatory information about the 54, they said.

One of those named in Kuntze’s lawsuit, Deborah Pierce, a North Carolina-based jewelry maker, said they dropped their lawsuit when Deaconson gave notice that he wanted to take depositions in Texas in the lawsuit. She said she had no intention of coming to Texas, even as a plaintiff in a lawsuit.

“My time and money are better spent on other, more important pursuits,” she said.

Could be called off

The lawsuit could be resolved if everyone on both sides would call off their Internet blitzkriegs and take down all postings, Kuntze said.

Besides interference with Kuntze’s jewelry business, Kuntze lawsuit alleges that her varied long-distance nemeses reported her to the city of Woodway and local and state health departments when Kuntze tried to operate her baked-goods business from her Woodway residence.

“Defendants knowingly made false allegations and defamatory statements about plaintiff with the sole intent to prevent plaintiff from obtaining her license to open a bakery,” Kuntze’s suit alleges.

The defendants also posted negative reviews about Kuntze’s baked goods on a website called Urbanspoon.com, a site that features reviews of local eateries, Kuntze said.

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

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