Sacramento real estate developer accused of sex assault alleges smear campaign
Ethan Conrad, the head of a prominent Northern California real estate company who now faces a fifth civil lawsuit from a woman accusing him of sexual assault, has filed a lawsuit that alleges the opposing attorneys are behind a smear campaign against the Sacramento businessman.
Conrad’s lawsuit against Chase Meister, a Sacramento-area attorney, alleges that the litigator over the past several months has posted on his Instagram account photos of Conrad with accompanying text that accuses the wealthy real estate company owner “of rape and abuse, without any valid factual basis.”
Screenshots of the alleged Instagram posts were submitted as exhibits of evidence in the lawsuit against Meister, including a post with a photo of Conrad with text that asked his social media followers whether they’ve been assaulted, drugged or sexually assaulted by Conrad in California. “If so, you may be entitled to compensation,” the Instagram post said.
Authorities have not filed any criminal charges against Conrad based on the allegations made by five women accusing him of sexual assault. All five lawsuits are pending in court.
Last month, Conrad told The Sacramento Bee “that definitively there’s no validity at all to any of the allegations which are all simply extortion attempts which will fail.”
His Sacramento-based company, Ethan Conrad Properties, has properties across the region, including the Renaissance Tower, one of Sacramento’s tallest buildings, which he won with a $21 million auction bid last year. The company’s blue-and-yellow real estate signs mark property it owns.
Camille Vasquez, Conrad’s attorney, argued that Meister has launched a “campaign of extortion, harassment and defamation against a target with deep pockets” by filing meritless lawsuits.
“This is a case about a malicious campaign to destroy a man’s good name and extort money through litigation abuse and defamation,” Vasquez said in the lawsuit against Meister filed April 29 in Sacramento Superior Court. “At its center is defendant Chase Meister — an attorney who embodies the worst impulses and excesses of the legal profession.”
Attorney calls it a ‘publicity stunt’
On Tuesday, Meister said that as an attorney the litigation privilege provides him with immunity from lawsuits, such as the one filed by Conrad’s attorneys. He expects to file an anti-SLAPP motion in response to this lawsuit.
An anti-SLAAP motion asks the court to dismiss litigation. The SLAPP acronym stands for strategic lawsuits against public participation or to intimidate or silence criticism.
“I believe this lawsuit amounts to nothing more than an ill-founded publicity stunt by Ethan Conad and his attorneys in efforts to generate a news cycle reporting not about Ethan Conrad’s alleged abuse, but about a local attorney with a successful litigation track record; albeit an eccentric attorney practicing in domestic violence litigation for clients,” Meister said in a written statement sent to The Bee.
Meister said he made the Instagram posts after hearing from mutual acquaintances who said Conrad had been asking about the attorney’s personal whereabouts. Meister said Conrad took matters “out of court” and “personally” before he did.
Since November, attorneys have filed five lawsuits alleging sexual assault against Conrad. The first four lawsuits were filed in Sacramento Superior Court. The latest lawsuit against the well known real estate developer was filed in federal court in Sacramento.
Lawsuit in federal court
The woman, who is identified as “Penelope Poe” in court documents, accuses Conrad of sexual battery, assault, domestic violence and inflicting emotional distress. She alleges Conrad raped her while she was in a yearslong romantic relationship with him which began in 2019, according to the lawsuit filed April 15 in U.S. District Court Eastern District of California.
During this relationship, she and Conrad engaged in multiple sexual encounters that she believed were consensual, according to John Garner, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Penelope Poe. She later began to believe she was drugged.
“However, (Penelope Poe) now believes, and thereon alleges, that (Conrad) surreptitiously began drugging her with a date rape-type substance during these encounters, undermining her ability to consent,” Garner argued in the lawsuit.
She alleges that Conrad would often prepare and serve her “cocktails during their meetings, which he labeled as “delicious,” and which she drank them in good faith, trusting Conrad due to their ongoing romantic and intimate relationship, Garner said in the lawsuit.
She now recalls occasions after consuming cocktails when she experienced unusual symptoms that included disorientation, memory gaps, extreme fatigue, unconsciousness and physical weakness, according to her lawsuit. She alleges that she woke up after these encounters with vague memories, physical soreness and feeling violated, but Conrad dismissed her concerns and claimed she simply had too much to drink.
“It was not until early 2025, after other victims came forward with similar complaints and her relationship had ended with Conrad that (she) began to investigate foul play,” Garner said in the lawsuit.
Conrad’s legal team, which include some of the attorneys who represented movie star Johnny Depp who sued his ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation, filed on April 30 a countersuit in the federal case. His attorneys argue that the judge should not allow the plaintiff to use “Penelope Poe” as pseudonym in court.
“(She) offers no evidence of any harm she might face from disclosure of her name,” Vasquez said in the countersuit. “In fact, she offers no evidence at all. Instead, she relies exclusively on speculative allegations of sexual assault, and conclusory assertions that she might suffer embarrassment or ‘online harassment’ if her identity were known.”
Conrad’s attorney argued that Penelope Poe’s allegations “are outright frivolous” and fall apart under the “slightest level of scrutiny.”
Attorney filed four of five lawsuits
In the lawsuit against Meister, Conrad’s attorney calls Garner a co-conspirator in the alleged smear campaign against the real estate developer. Vasquez said the attorneys have a goal “to manufacture a public perception that Mr. Conrad has engaged in a pattern of abuse,” hoping Conrad will eventually “cave in and pay them a windfall sum of money to make them go away.”
Meister and Garner, who have separate law firms, jointly filed lawsuits on behalf of the first two women who accused Conrad of sexual assault. Garner filed lawsuits on behalf of two other women alleging misconduct.
“To achieve this goal, Mr. Meister and Mr. Garner have opted for quantity over quality — asserting numerous specious claims and recruiting several women with perceived grudges against Mr. Conrad to attack him with allegations that range from outrageously false to pathetic and absurd,” Vasquez argued in the lawsuit against Meister.
Garner on Tuesday did not respond to requests for comment.
Meister said Conrad’s lawsuit against him “makes baseless allegations” claiming that he and Garner “somehow recruited or solicited abuse victims” to file lawsuits against the real estate developer.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Meister said in his written statement.
The first woman who accused Conrad went to Meister for legal consultation, the attorney said, and he met the second woman who accused Conrad while investigating Conrad’s interactions with women in the first civil case.
Meister said he was aware of Garner’s “superior and more lengthy experience in complicated civil jury trials,” so he asked Garner if he had interest in co-counseling in these cases.
“John Garner was immediately struck by the severity of the allegations, then he began his own investigation,” Meister said.
He also said he has never met nor spoken with the women accusing Conrad in the three other lawsuits, and he has “no involvement whatsoever with those cases.”
On Wednesday, Meister filed documents informing the court he was formally withdrawing from the two lawsuits against Conrad. Now, Garner is the sole attorney representing the first two women who accused Conrad of sexual assault.
Meister said the lawsuit Conrad filed against him is meritless with false allegations, but he decided to completely withdraw from the two civil cases. He said Garner is an exceptional civil trial attorney, and his now-former clients are well represented in court.
“These lawsuits are about seeking justice for the victim clients and apparently my eccentric style and my representation of the first two clients is creating a distraction,” Meister said in a written statement to The Bee. “The clients must always come before me, it’s my ethical duty.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
