Cavner allegations mount up in 85-page suit

Allegations in the civil case against Nadia Cavner stemming from her interstate stalking charge tell a sordid tale of a vindictive mother willing to employ vast resources to both extract vengeance on her daughter’s ex-boyfriend and his new girl and defend Cavner’s reputation.

Based on details from the criminal case, the lawsuit charges Cavner hired two private detectives to carry out surveillance of Patrick McFarland and/or his girlfriend, Kristen Stancher, before they went to authorities when Cavner began talking about bugging homes and breaking McFarland’s arms.

According to the filing, a printed stack one-half-inch thick, Cavner employed multiple means of harassing McFarland, a college student in 2011, including making and causing others to make harassing phone calls; leaving intimidating notes in university mailboxes; having the ex-boyfriend followed on trips; paying to have electronic listening devices installed in his home; and plotting to have drugs planted on McFarland and have him physically assaulted.

According to the suit, Cavner associate Khulan Denny temporarily moved to Memphis, Tenn., to enact some of the stalking that included written letters and phone calls.
While seeking at least $500,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, the suit claims Cavner, through Memphis private investigator Dean Bartels, conspired and/or paid for a variety of unsettling acts to be carried out against the couple, including flattening tires, staging a drive-by shooting, having poison ivy or itching cream placed on their clothes, having them arrested for Driving Under the Influence and mugging them on the street.

“I don’t want to kill him. I don’t want to take him out. I don’t want to hurt him. But at some point, I may have to have you rough him up – break an arm or two,” Cavner said to Federal Bureau of Investigation informants, according to the filing.

McFarland claims in the suit Bartels reported to FBI officials that in a meeting with Cavner at the Memphis Peabody Hotel, she was bragging about the distress upon McFarland.

According to the filing, Cavner persistently requested Bartels commit illegal activities to the point where she wanted him to pay “a guy in a gray area” who would carry out her wishes. Bartels referred her to Joe Hoing, a retired Memphis police officer, who was cooperating with the FBI.

Before formally pleading guilty to a felony stalking charge in April, Cavner allegedly took substantial steps to conceal the harassment of McFarland and Stancher. According to the civil case the pair filed in Greene County last month, steps to avoid her association with the harassment included attending the funeral of McFarland’s father, denying involvement with the harassment she had heard about and telling the ex-boyfriend that she was “not someone to [expletive] with.”

In addition, the case alleges Cavner paid New York law firm Proskauer Rose LLP to hand-deliver letters to McFarland’s home that threatened a lawsuit if he did not write a letter of apology and acknowledge that she did not participate in harassment.