KC nonprofit founded to end mass incarceration sued rival and won $8 million | Opinion
When I found out that two Kansas City-based social justice organizations were suing each other, it was a bit disappointing. I would be lying to you if I told you that it wasn’t. Social justice groups are supposed to help the community, not fight one another in court.
But in this rare instance, two groups on the front lines of the 2020 summer protests here against police brutality — Operation Liberation and One Struggle KC — recently concluded a five-year legal saga that ended in a multimillion-dollar verdict in favor of Operation Liberation. That organization is a Kansas City nonprofit co-founded by Dawn Oliver-Ramsey and Nicole Smith to provide bail support and other valuable resources to local residents — specifically people in the Black and Hispanic communities who are disproportionately affected by the criminal justice system.
For the last five years, Operation Liberation’s fight to put a dent in mass incarceration and combat other social justice issues here was put on hold because of theft accusations made by the founder of One Struggle KC, a coalition of community activists started in 2014 after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
Turns out, those allegations — first made in social media posts by One Struggle KC founder Diane Burkholder, and later in a lawsuit Burkholder filed against Oliver-Ramsey and Smith — were demonstratively false, according to a recent court ruling. In 2024, Burkholder’s lawsuit claiming Oliver-Ramsey (formerly known as Dawn Oliver-Dysart) and Smith stole money and property from One Struggle KC was dismissed, court records show.
And just last month, the legal battle between the two entities ended when a Jackson County jury awarded Oliver-Ramsey and Smith $8.1 million in damages stemming from a counter lawsuit they filed against Burkholder, One Struggle KC and its registered agent, Cecilia Belser-Patton.
Operation Liberation damaged?
Yes, the amount awarded to Oliver-Ramsey and Smith was staggering — and it’s fair to wonder if they’ll ever collect a dime of the money. But the accusations Burkholder made against Operation Liberation and its founders were far more damaging than any financial windfall the group could receive down the road. The allegations, proven in court not to be true, stained the nonprofit’s standing in the community, Oliver-Ramsey told me during a recent telephone interview.
“This woman held us hostage for years,” Oliver-Ramsey said of Burkholder. “Our ability to show up and bail people out of jail was decimated,” she said, adding that the lawsuit “paralyzed our work.”
In an email statement sent to me, Burkholder said she is reviewing avenues to appeal and raising funds for a legal defense fund. During a recent seven-day trial that ended April 28, Burkholder said she represented herself.
“I obviously disagree with the judgments,” she wrote. “I have complied with the process and believe broader questions remain about how activist disputes are handled through the courts. Should activist disputes produce multimillion-dollar judgments?”
Meanwhile, Belser-Patton, One Struggle KC’s registered agent, declined to comment on what she planned to do next. In a statement sent to me, Belser-Patton said she was never employed by One Struggle KC and was added when Burkholder was relocating to California. She was asked to become the organization’s registered agent. As such, Belser-Patton would be responsible for receiving correspondence and providing a point of contact for One Struggle KC.
“This included allowing my address to be used for receiving mail, as the organization did not have a permanent location at that time,” she wrote. “This decision was made in good faith and with the understanding my role was limited to administrative support. l believed, at that time, that I was supporting work aligned with justice, liberation and community healing.”
Belser-Patton’s statement continued: “In hindsight, I recognize that this decision lacked the due diligence and boundaries necessary for such a responsibility. While my intentions were rooted in liberatory love, service and solidarity, I acknowledge that agreeing to represent an organization in any formal capacity requires a higher level of discernment and structure than was present.”
Killing of George Floyd
Listen, I have no dog in this legal fight. But I will always side with the undeniable truth found in court findings and the jury’s verdict spoke volumes.
If you recall — I most certainly do — in the summer of 2020, local residents from all over the region gathered in protests to denounce the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and the fatal shootings of unarmed Black men in our own backyard.
During that tumultuous time, One Struggle KC and Operation Liberation joined together to help organize protests and bail demonstrators out of jail, according to Burkholder. When money started pouring in — hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations were made to Operation Liberation, Burkholder told me — problems arose. Those issues were handled internally until they weren’t, Burkholder wrote.
“During Summer 2020, as I was transitioning out of Kansas City and passing the baton to other One Struggle KC organizers, George Floyd was murdered,” she wrote. More than $100,000 “of donations came in and there was a painful internal split in which (the) bailout program, Operation Liberation, separated itself from One Struggle KC. Out of a desire to stay out of the legal system, we attempted mediation several times. One Struggle KC was faced with two options: Turn over to the DA for criminal charges or file a civil lawsuit. They counter-sued and it grew into a sprawling case I had to defend mostly on my own, without an attorney I could afford.”
Here’s how the civil case unfolded, according to a counter-suit filed on behalf of Oliver-Ramsey and Smith: In 2021, Belser-Patton signed sworn affidavits as Burkholder’s Missouri proxy, alleging Operation Liberation’s co-founders stole from One Struggle KC.
The following summer, Operation Liberation and its co-founders counter-sued Burkholder, Belser-Patton and One Struggle KC for making false public statements and for filing a lawsuit against each of them. On May 15, 2024, Burkolder’s lawsuit against Operation Liberation and its co-founders was dismissed, court records show.
In late April, a jury unanimously found that Burkholder committed fraud by presenting One Struggle KC as a nonprofit to the public and Oliver-Ramsey and Smith, when it wasn’t, court records indicate. The jury also found the defendants committed libel, slander, civil conspiracy and abuse of the judicial process by filing a lawsuit that was found to be frivolous in nature and subsequently thrown out, court documents show.
Oliver-Ramsey and Smith were awarded more than $1.1 million each for damage to their reputations, according to court records. Operation Liberation received $5.6 million in verdicts against Burkholder, Belser-Patton and One Struggle KC for multiple claims.
“It’s been a long five years, but Operation Liberation is grateful to finally shine the light of truth on the malicious allegations,” Oliver-Ramsey and Smith wrote in a joint statement.
Operation Liberation cleared
According to its website, Operation Liberation provides bail support to local residents, and employs restorative justice practices, mutual aid and other valuable resources to the Black community, which is disproportionately impacted by mass incarceration in the United States, as countless studies have found.
For example, according to the ACLU, Black Americans are incarcerated for drug offenses at a rate 10 times greater than that of white offenders, despite the fact that Black and white people use drugs at roughly the same rates.
At the height of the 2020 summer protests, I remember Operation Liberation being among a handful of groups on the front lines of the community’s fight for social justice here and elsewhere. Heck, One Struggle KC was too, which is why the dueling lawsuits were such a letdown.
After clearing their names, I am rooting for Oliver-Ramsey and Smith to regain the organization’s footing in the region because there is still a need for bail reform in Kansas City, which has a temporary jail under construction.
And the new Jackson County Detention Center, expected to be over max capacity on Day 1, opened recently. It would not be a stretch to conclude some nonviolent offenders countywide remain behind bars pending trial because they are poor and unable to make bond.
And that is where organizations like Operation Liberation matter most.
