(Photo: Flickr)

After a fraught public spat that included rape and abuse allegations and captured tech watchers on both coasts, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has filed a law suit against his former girlfriend, Jenn Allen, for attempting to "smear plaintiff's name on the internet, to destroy his reputation, and to deter third persons from associating with him," according to a lawsuit uncovered by Valleywag.

In the suit, Mr. Arrington alleges that he has "suffered loss of his reputation, shame, mortification, and hurt feelings, all to his general damage," and that Ms. Allen's comments were made with "malice." The suit also asks for a trial by jury in order to settle the claims.

The suit comes almost a month after Mr. Arrington posted a legal letter to his site demanding Ms. Allen retract the claims.

You can read the full suit here.

Mr. Arrington (Photo: Flickr)

Techcrunch founder and venture capitalist Michael Arrington posted a letter to his Uncrunched blog this evening regarding statements made by his ex-girlfriend, RTist.com founder Jenn Allen. In March, Ms. Allen alleged on her Facebook page that Mr. Arrington physically abused her. She later stated in the comments of a Gawker post that he also raped her.

A subsequent Gawker story also outlined claims that Mr. Arrington had abused other women, including ex-girlfriend Meghan Asha. He was also investigated in 1999 for misconduct against a female coworker when working at the company RealNames.

Mr. Arrington denied all allegations made against him earlier this week. Now, he has published a forceful letter from his legal counsel regarding the claims. The letter paints Ms. Allen as "a person who is distraught at a break-up, and angered that her ex-boyfriend entered into a new relationship." It also contains a Facebook photo meant to serve as evidence that Ms. Allen was not in the same state as Mr. Arrington on March 5, 2012, the night she claims he raped her. That night, the letter says, Ms. Allen was in California while Mr. Arrington was in Washington.

The letter also contains private text messages and photos Ms. Allen sent to Mr. Arrington after the alleged rape occurred, in an attempt to prove that she had reached out to him after the alleged incident. (Ms. Allen has stated she had not spoken to Mr. Arrington since March of 2012.)

Unfortunately, there's more:

Very regrettably, your actions here appear all too similar to your actions on May 18, 2011, when you emailed Michael that you were pregnant and were planning on having an abortion the following day (which was your birthday). You subsequently told Michael that you feigned the pregnancy and abortion in order to get him to communicate with you.

The letter concludes with the demand that Ms. Allen publicly retract all "defamatory statements" she has made against Mr. Arrington as they have injured his reputation. According to the letter, if Ms. Allen does not agree to retract her statements, "you will have left us with no choice but to proceed with legal action against you." It continues:

Litigation is an absolute last resort for Michael, but we will pursue all options to undo the reputational injury caused by your misconduct. As that is our sole objective, to the extent any legal proceedings become necessary, Michael has pledged to donate to charity all amounts recovered.

Ms. Allen has not yet publicly responded on her Facebook or Twitter pages.

What's wrong with that? (Photo: Wikimedia)

The Chat-rooming Classes Today, seemingly every tech reporter in the business tuned into Jason Calacanis's "This Week in Startups," presumably in the hopes that Mr. Calacanis would tell all re: the allegations of abuse against Michael Arrington. But as familiar names chattered away in the chat room, Mr. Calacanis had little to say beyond comparing himself to Obi Wan. That would make Mr. Arrington Anakin Skywalker, of course; Mr. Calacanis said he taught him how to be powerful in media, and "I regret that."

As for the allegations themselves, Mr. Calacanis was quick to say he wouldn't be commenting on whether they were true, citing his lack of direct knowledge. (He did, however, openly discuss the time that Mr. Arrington called a PR honcho "the c-word," thereby outing someone who'd never mentioned the incident publicly!) [Correction: Mr. Calacanis first mentioned the incident and the PR exec (Brooke Hammerling) by name in the comments of his Facebook post, prompting Ms. Hammerling to confirm the story, also in a Facebook comment.] All in all, it sounds like he (kinda sorta) regrets getting involved. He apparently thought writing a Facebook note wouldn't go very far. "I thought that that would be a place where it just lived there," he said. (Paging Randi Zuckerberg!) "I got a little P.T. Barnum in me and I feel like me commenting on all this stuff actually detracts from it," he added.

The Biggest Failure Silicon Alley fameballer and Vimeo cofounder Jakob Lodwick took to PandoDaily this week to lament his decision to sell his company Connected Ventures, which included CollegeHumor and Vimeo, to media conglomerate IAC in 2006. In the post, called “An acquisition is always a failure,” Mr. Lodwick wrote that selling the company to IAC was “the worst business decision of his life” because although it fattened his bank account, it stifled his ability to work creatively. Getting acquire is like giving up, he argued, which we’re sure delighted his fellow NYC entrepreneurs who are desperately groping for the exit sign.

We suppose you can’t have your cake and eat it too, even if the cake is made of millions of dollars.

Kenny Lerer's Got Ringtones In the midst of a recent phone call with Ken Lerer about Lure Fish Bar, his favorite power lunch spot, our conversation was interrupted by the dulcet sounds of Jim Morrison from his cellphone. Was that “People Are Strange,” we asked? Yes, Mr. Lerer confirmed, revealing that he spends “way too much time” picking out the right ringtones for the important people in his life. That Doors song was for Brian Bedol, Mr. Lerer’s business partner in the media and entertainment company Bedrocket. "If you knew Brian," he said, "'People Are Strange' is the perfect ring tone for him."

Did he have a ringtone for his son Ben, the cofounder of Thrillist? “Oh this is embarrassing,” he replied, admitting that it was Rod Stewart’s “Some Guys Get All the Luck.” “Not bad, huh?” quipped Mr. Lerer the elder.

Brit’s Got Jokes On Monday, Brit + Co. founder Brit Morin announced on her Facebook page that she was expecting a baby with her husband, Path cofounder Dave Morin. Of course, the update was quickly debunked as an April Fool’s Day prank, despite the fact that she posted it towards the end of the day. “For all of you who wished me congratulations on being pregnant, thank you for being a total sucker!” she wrote.

Apparently, along with making Christmas trees out of cheese and turning Mac extension cords into jump ropes, such personal pranks are part of Ms. Morin’s repertoire.

“The trick is to wait until the evening of April Fools when people think all the jokes are over,” she wrote. “I pull this one every single year and still, so many fall for it ;)” Guess she lost all of next year’s suckers by giving away her secret.

PR darling Brooke Hammerling had a subtweet for the ladies pretending to be with child for April Fool’s Day:

https://twitter.com/brooke/status/319229167046623233

Jack Did it All for the Nookie We knew about Jack Dorsey's nose ring, but we had no idea he used to be in Limp Bizkit. Business Insider uncovered an old photo of the Square cofounder that shows him looking quite different than he does when sporting his current hand-sewn jeans look. The black and white portrait has Mr. Dorsey with full-on 90s rave kid hair. Pass the glowstick, bro.

(Photo: Twitter)

Bloggers! They're Just Like Us! Business Insider editor Steve Kovach gets hearts aflutter, apparently. As overheard by fellow editor (so many over there!) Alyson Shontell, a starry eyed PR person compared their meeting with Mr. Kovach to that of a Hollywood star. It's understandable, we constantly confuse Mr. Kovach with Jake Gyllenhaal every time we see him out with the normals.

http://twitter.com/shontelaylay/status/319838156486758400

Do You Startup, Bro? Silicon Valley's fraternity president and Digg founder Kevin Rose was the subject of an ABC News profile this week which reminded us he's still around! The Google Ventures partner revealed what new apps he's circling to potentially fund, including a personal training app called FitStar. He also revealed that the Instagram filter Toaster is named after his adorable dog and detailed what his typical day is like: "Invest in start-ups. Find the next big thing. Meet with entrepreneurs. Drink coffee. Hang out." Sounds like a Bravo show in the making.

Internet Weak On Thursday, the New York collective of the Web’s  hive mind met up for a low key gathering at the Watch What Happens Live prop closet Design Within Reach showroom in SoHo to celebrate the quickly approaching Internet Week. The festival's new director Caroline Waxler welcomed the sharply dressed but older-skewing crowd. iPads were shuffled around to get attendees to sign up and vote  for the 200+ panels that are in contention for just 13 slots to be showcased at the yearly event. (Holding a drink from the open bar and registering on the iPad was difficult, but we managed.)

Anyway, the annoyingly arranged support columns, a seating arrangement dependent on the furniture layout, and the tri-level setup made it hard to pay attention to Vice editors Kelly Bourdet and Brian A. Anderson. After talking for a half hour about all the cool things Vice does (and plentiful mentions of the burgeoning media empire's massive presence at SXSW), they showed off a drone for people to play with. But that wasn’t enough to amuse the partygoers as throngs of them slinked off shortly after the panel ended. Perhaps that was enough Internet for one day.

Mr. Arrington. (Photo via Flickr.)

Jenn Allen, a startup founder and ex-girlfriend of Michael Arrington, revealed on Facebook that her relationship with the TechCrunch founder and investor was so wrought by physical and emotional abuse that she can’t get out of bed.

The public Facebook post, first reported by Gawker, was published late Thursday night to Ms. Allen's 4,500 followers. Ms. Allen said that Mr. Arrington cheated on her several times during their eight year long relationship and threatened to murder her. She described the emotional abuse as “equally bad," claiming that she is "completely over" him. 

Gawker confirmed that they dated in 2006 and dug up pictures of them together on her Flickr account, but concluded (by looking at publicly available evidence) that the pair did not date for eight years, as Ms. Allen implied in her Facebook post. Gawker says the personal relationship between the two has dissolved.

Mr. Arrington wrote about being on the receiving end of physical abuse in 2009 for post on TechCrunch.

I want them to realize that their words influence others who may be inclined to “take matters into their own hands” under the mistaken impression that threatening to kill someone, or physically attacking them, is somehow righteous. And I hope that my peers who tend to sit on the sideline while others attack will start to take a stand against it.

Neither Ms. Allen nor Mr. Arrington returned comment to Gawker. We've reached out to Mr. Arrington and will update the post if we hear back.

Update (4/2 | 1:00pm): This just got even uglier, as someone claiming to be Ms. Allen has now jumped into the comments on the original Gawker post. (We've reached out to Ms. Allen, in an attempt to verify whether this is really her.) In a long response, she accuses Mr. Arrington of making anonymous, mean-spirted comments about her. She also accuses Mr. Arrington of raping a friend of hers and insists that he needs to get help for rage issues:

I've looked inward and outward long enough to finally say something and know exactly why I had to say it. His lies, abuse, threats and what he did to a friend of mine 5 months ago was unforgivable as well. He raped her, and she told me in person he called her to confirm he did it after the fact. I'll leave it up to her if she ever wants to report it or say anything. This madness needs to stop, or he needs to start controlling his rage and rape 'disorder.'

Read the rest of the comment at Gawker.

Gizmodo's Sam Biddle sluttin' it up at CES. (Photo: Gizmodo)

News of the first annual Objectify a Male Tech Writer Day swept across the web this morning following an article penned by one of the event's founders, gaming and social media reporter Leigh Alexander. "From booth babes to harassment, snide comments to double standards, women have often had a hard time feeling comfortable around the tech industry," she wrote. In order to demonstrate "the absurdity of objectifying people you claim to agree with or support intellectually," she's encouraging female tech writers to give gendered compliments or make sexist proclamations to men about their work.

Though the actual Objectify a Male Tech Writer Day isn't until February 1st, Betabeat--comprised primarily of female writers--could hardly contain ourselves. Here are 25 gendered comments for 25 of our favorite male tech writers.

Walt Mossberg: What's a pretty face like yours doing buried in those product specs?

Mike Isaac: Shut up, honey, the women (Kara and Liz) are talking.

Ryan Tate: Started a flame war with Steve Jobs just to get some attention.

Sam Biddle: Hey baby, want a massage?

Mat Honan: It's cute how you just discovered two-step authentication last year.

David Pogue: All your scoops come from your PR girlfriend.

Michael Arrington: Swaggy? More like bitchy. Men should keep their opinions to themselves.

Steven Levy: Only wears glasses to look more authentically geeky.

John Herrman: 17 Ways John Herrman Uses His Looks to Get Ahead

Peter Kafka: You smell amazing.

Farhad Manjoo: Maybe I'd take you more seriously if your Twitter avatar wasn't so suggestive.

Anil Dash: Nag!

Peter Ha: Only a celebrated reporter because he can fill out a hoodie.

Carl Franzen: Just because it's an all-night hackathon doesn't mean you shouldn't put in a little effort.

Om Malik: He just googled some companies to look cool, he doesn’t really get tech.

Eric Eldon: We know Alexia does all the work and you were just hired as window dressing.

Ben Popper: Why are you being MEAN to STARTUPS?

Josh Topolsky: Why don't you go back to makeup reviews?

Steve Kovach: Your obsession with Snapchat proves you're a sexting slut.

Jason Del Rey: Your Twitter presence is adorable.

Nick Bilton: Maybe try an industry where you'd fit in better, like construction.

Ashlee Vance: Who'd you sleep with to get on the Techmeme leaderboard?

Bryan Goldberg: We never see you around at tech parties. You should come outttttt more.

Christopher Mims: FAKE GEEK GUY ALERT

Adrian Chen: Pretending to like Reddit so he can be the only boy in a girls' club.

Brian X. Chen: What's a nice boy like you doing at a gadget convention?

Space! (Photo: NASA)

Tim Cook's not sure where you all got the idea he's robotic. [Bloomberg Businessweek]

He also confirmed Apple is bringing some manufacturing back to the U.S. No guarantees how much, though. [Bloomberg News]

Get psyched for Skype voice messages. [The Verge]

Hey Best Buy (and all other mega corporations): Maybe don't assume you can just rip off a startup's proprietary technology? [Redeye VC]

International fugitive John McAfee has been apprehended in Guatemala, reportedly for entering the country illegally. No word on whether the Vice guys are screwed. [New York Times]

Michael Arrington is very peeved at Instagram pulling Twitter integration. So peeved he felt it necessary to slap on a Winnie the Pooh hat and write a rant. [TechCrunch]

This is what the earth looks like at night. [NASA]

Screengrab

Saying it seeks to help politicians "become better listeners" and make techies effective citizens, TechCrunch today announced the launch of CrunchGov.

In an introductory post, CrunchGov creator Greg Ferenstein explained that the new site will include a political leaderboard grading politicians on how they vote on tech and a "legislative database of technology policy." That database will contain bills under congressional review and names of both the politicians who clearly understand the intersection of technology and policy and those who don't have a clue.

CrunchGov's tech-related report cards for politicos will rank legislators with "transparent criteria" that merge the political and the technical.

For example, members of congress who have excellent records of passing legislation in support of crowdfunding or opposing something like SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) may receive grades as high as a B or an A.

Texas representative Lamar Smith, the Republican behind SOPA, would naturally receive a failing grade.

TechCrunch recently renewed working relationships with founder Michael Arrington and writer MG Siegler. It looks like CrunchGov is the latest effort by the AOL-owned tech blog to expand the property's profile and drive it into a leading position.

(Photo: Yahoo)

Back at Le Web Paris in December 2010, then-TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington hosted a fireside chat with Marissa Mayer, who was recently named Yahoo's CEO. In the video, unearthed by commenters at The Verge, Mr. Arrington poses a series of hypothetical questions to Ms. Mayer, including--quite presciently--"If you ran Yahoo, for example, what would you do?" (Michael Arrington: modern day Nostradamus?)

Ms. Mayer launched into that well-known machine gun giggle, perhaps at the notion of answering hypothetical questions, or maybe even at the concept that she would some day come to head the sinking web property. She then began a diplomatic response, lauding then-Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz for some of her work.

But the most interesting part of Ms. Mayer's answer is that she leans on the notion of "smart acquisitions," saying that if she were in charge of Yahoo, she would focus on scooping up web brands with significant cache to help the company "stay relevant."

If I were Yahoo--one, I think it's a very difficult job, but I do think that Carol's done a lot of very smart things. I think that the partnership with search was smart in many ways--the partnership to have been with us [Google]. That was smart. But I also think that looking at other really interesting brands that are getting a lot of traction on the internet--those are smart acquisitions for them to make to really help broaden out their base, help broaden out their platform, and ultimately stay relevant.

So, will acquisitions be a key part of her new plan to lead Yahoo back towards relevancy? Mr. Arrington seems to think so. "I’d expect a bold new product strategy and an acquisition plan to help build the foundation of that strategy," he wrote in Uncrunched on Tuesday.

Skip to 28:10 for the exchange.

Mark Ecko's office circa 2009 via Gawker

Back in December, Bo Fishback, CEO of the peer-to-peer marketplace Zaarly, which lets you buy and sell products and services from the people around you, told Betabeat that Zaarly planned to grow its presence in New York City from two full-time employees up to 10 or possibly 30 new staffers.

For the Kansas City-based company, which has raised $15.1 million in a little over a year since it launched, it was a signal of how important New York was both as a market and testing ground. “We hope to learn what we need to know from the New York community to help us go to scale in other cities,” Mr. Fishback told us at the time, along with the news that local staff would be moving into Marc Ecko's building at 40 West 23rd Street. Mr. Ecko is an investor, along with Ashton Kutcher, Michael Arrington, Crunchfund, and Kleiner Perkins.

But earlier today Betabeat was informed that Zaarly was closing down its New York office. "I've heard it's gone," said a source. Mr. Fishback confirmed the news, but said it was, "not really intended to be a big deal, and mostly just temporary moves," he responded by email.

According to Mr. Fishback, Zaarly had always intended for its local office to be more malleable. "It's actually part of the reason that we were paying for folks housing in NYC so that we could have the flexibility to move people around when it made sense," he added. Currently, all of the job listings--most for developers and engineers--on Zaarly's website are for positions based in San Francisco.

This recent adjustment, Mr. Fishback said, is tied to Zaarly's product development strategy. "We're in the midst of making some major product enhancements. So mostly for efficiency's sake, it just made more sense for us to have all our people working together under one roof, in one timezone."

Mr. Fishback said Zaarly is still committed to the community here. "We're regularly flying people out to New York, though, and New York continues to be one of the most active Zaarly cities."

Last June, after Zaarly had been in New York City for a month, Betabeat wasn't able to find a "peer" to deliver us a pack of Dentyne Ice in real-time, even at a considerable markup. And the requests on the site were scant, limited to just over a handful. But a perusal of the iPhone app this afternoon shows a number of requests from users in the five boroughs including a $200 for a Wordpress expert and $2000 for a wedding photographer from the past few days, although it's doesn't appear that those requests have been fulfilled since they were posted.

The Zaarly NYC Twitter account, which had 700 or so followers last June now has more than 5,200 followers and has been actively tweeting at locals--even, in the case of one Elmhurst resident, responding in Tagalog when necessary.

UPDATE: Mr. Fishback offered some clarification, also by email. "I wouldn't actually say we're shutting down given that we've got people there every week still and we didn't get rid of anyone... more just that we're getting a big product push ready to go so it made sense to have as many folks in one place as possible for the moment."

New York staffers are indeed being moved out to San Francisco. "We've got a bulging office there currently. :)," he wrote. He also added that, "NYC is our number one or two market in almost every category and continues to be one of our fastest growing Zaarly communities."

The asking price is said to be between $70 and $100 million--a clear indication to Ms. Lacy (a former TechCrunch editor) that "AOL is hoping to make something off the drama of the past couple of years:

$70 million would net the struggling Internet company about $10 million profit on what AOL originally paid for both TechCrunch and Engadget’s original parent Weblogs Inc. According to one source, AOL management has been seriously considering the move since early this year. The news also sheds light on why Arianna Huffington was so relaxed about relinquishing responsibility for the division last month, according to reports."

All that said, Ms. Lacy acknowledges that her sources know of no "serious bidders" at the moment. Michael Arrington certainly isn't interested. "I don’t know anything," he told PandoDaily, "No one tells me anything. I am not in the least bit interested [in buying back TechCrunch]. I was Team Pando all the way until Sarah Lacy fired me. That does not change my position on TechCrunch."

What will happen next? Will Vox Media, owner of The Verge, pony up such a substantial sum? Has the seemingly neverending TechCrunch drama poisoned the well for potential buyers in spite of its huge name recognition? Will J.R. emerge from his coma? Why was Bobby also The Man From Atlantis?

We'll surely have these answers and more very soon. Or not.