Katherine Heigl and her mother, Nancy Heigl, were sued for alleged fraud by a woman who claims their nonprofit failed to reimburse her over $300,000 for work done, In Touch can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by In Touch, on February 20, Alyssa Faith Deetman sued Katherine, 46, Nancy and their nonprofit, The Jason Debus Heigl Foundation. Katherine and her mom launched the nonprofit foundation in 2008.
The foundation, named after her late brother, helps rescue animals from high-kill shelters to give them a second chance at life.
Katherine and Nancy claim to have spent over $8 million to help fund this work.
As part of the work, their foundation finances medical treatment and veterinary care for shelter and rescue animals and various other services.
Katherine and Nancy said they often partner with other nonprofit rescue organizations to leverage “as many resources as possible” to help the animals.
Alyssa’s lawsuit was filed days before Katherine and Nancy filed their own lawsuit against Alyssa and her animal rescue, The Pitty Committee. In Alyssa’s lawsuit, she claimed she started working with Katherine’s nonprofit in 2023.
She said The Jason Debus Heigl Foundation agreed to pay for or reimburse vet bills, training, medical/behavioral boarding and other expenses connected with shelter dogs picked by Nancy and rescued by Alyssa.
Alyssa believes Nancy never intended to pay or reimburse the expenses, “leaving [Alyssa] and her dog rescue to pay such expenses, as was the pattern and practice of defendants, and each of them.”
Alyssa claimed her dog rescue spent “approximately an unreimbursed $349,691.23 relying on [Nancy’s] promises … with the understanding that these expenses would be fully reimbursed.”
She said that Nancy and Katherine’s nonprofit disparaged her and damaged her dog rescue’s reputation, donations and income.
Alyssa said Nancy’s comments caused her severe emotional distress.
In her suit, Alyssa claimed Katherine’s nonprofit “have a pattern and practice of using dog rescue organizations, as with [Alyssa], who are less well funded, and less sophisticated, than defendants, and each of them, for favorable publicly by requesting these organizations to rescue shelter dogs chosen by defendants … for public attribution to defendants … offering promises of fully funding the requested efforts.”
The suit continued, “The publicized rescue creates goodwill and favorable publicly for defendants, and each of them, including their efforts to obtain donations for Jason Heigl Foundations and to sell [their pet food brand]. But defendants, and each of them, after the recue has been initiated at the request of defendants … then refuse to honor their promises … causing hardship on the rescue organization.”
She pointed to one alleged $15,000 bill that she said Nancy only paid $800 on.
Alyssa’s lawsuit demanded the full $349,000 plus interest and other damages.
On March 5, Katherine, her mother Nancy Heigl and the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation sued Alyssa for defamation, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage and breach of contract.
In court documents, Katherine and her mom said they were approached in 2022 by a non-profit rescue named The Pitty Committee, run by the defendant Alyssa.
Katherine said her nonprofit agreed to pay The Pitty Committee a monthly donation fee in exchange for them rescuing a minimum prescribed number of dogs that Katherine’s foundation chose.
Katherine said her foundation satisfied all payment obligations pursuant to the deal and paid over six figures “of funding” to The Pitty Committee in order to save at-risk dogs.
However, the actress claimed she eventually realized Alyssa saw the donations as a “blank check” despite being “incapable of fulfilling” the “obligations under the agreement.”
The actress accused Alyssa of mismanaging the donations and “continued requesting” additional funds outside the agreement. The deal expired in January 2024.
Katherine’s nonprofit decided not to enter into another agreement with Alyssa or her company.
Katherine and her mom alleged, “In response—and seemingly because of her greed and inability to manage her financial difficulties—[Alyssa] engaged in an online smear campaign against [Jason Debus Heigl Foundation] and the Heigls. [Alyssa] made false, defamatory, and derogatory accusations that [Jason Debus Heigl Foundation] and the Heigls have mistreated rescue dogs, failed to provide promised funding, and stole from [The Pitty Committiee], all in an effort to ruin [Jason Debus Heigl Foundation] and the Heigls’ reputations and/or coerce some sort of monetary payout.”
The suit said, “Instead of thanking [Katherine’s nonprofit] and the Heigls for their unselfish contribution to the rescue community, [Alyssa] attempted to capitalize and trade on Katherine Heigl’s celebrity in Hollywood and the animal rescue space rather than accept the end of the business relationship.”
Katherine’s suit alleged Alyssa privately praised Jason Debus Heigl Foundation’s work, only to trash them when the donations stopped coming in.
The suit claimed Alyssa refused to remove her false online statements, which led to the suit being brought.
Katherine and her mom demanded unspecified damages and an order requiring Alyssa to remove the posts.
