Houston lawyer Michelle Acosta is criticizing a plea deal for opposing counsel, San Antonio attorney Allan Manka, who was charged with Class C misdemeanor assault by contact for allegedly grabbing Acosta’s buttocks in a courthouse lobby.

Acosta shared her story on Facebook, and expressed frustration at how the Wilson County Attorney’s Offices and sheriff department handled the case. She said the prosecutor who handled the case should not have offered Manka a plea deal. Her Aug. 14 post has made waves in the Texas legal community, attracting nearly 200 reactions and more than 100 comments and shares.

Manka, the male lawyer on the other side of the allegations, is a family law solo practitioner who got his law license in 1973. He initially pleaded not guilty but later accepted the plea deal in which he will pay a $400 fine and donate $100 to a children’s services nonprofit. Under the deal, he must also complete 90 days of deferred disposition, in which he must refrain from all criminal conduct to avoid the charge appearing on his record.

Manka declined to comment, but his accuser was speaking out against the deal.

“I want a conviction,” Acosta said in an interview with Texas Lawyer Monday. “Giving him deferred adjudication is a small slap on the wrist.”

Wilson County Attorney Tom Caldwell said Manka’s charge was a Class C misdemeanor, the same level as a traffic ticket, which carries a maximum fine of $500 and no jail time. It’s normal for first-time offenders to receive deferred disposition, he added.

“From a criminal standpoint, from what I’ve seen, it was simple assault. It definitely wasn’t going to rise to something we could charge more severely,” Caldwell said.

The complaint in the case said Manka intentionally or knowingly caused physical contact with Acosta by grabbing her buttocks, and he knew or should have known that she would see the contact as offensive or provocative.

In her day job, Acosta’s the general counsel of a Houston vegetation management company, but she was in Floresville on June 13 because she was representing her brother in a child custody matter. Manka represented the brother’s ex-wife.

Michelle Acosta, general counsel, ABC Professional Tree Services, Houston (Courtesy photo)

Their clients were talking after a court hearing, and that’s when Acosta said Manka made his first unwanted touch.

“That’s when he comes around and starts putting his hand around my waist,” she said.

Her father, Hipolito Acosta, provided a witness statement that said he saw the incident. It said that when Manka touched Acosta’s waist, he, “stated that he sometimes would get close to the clients he was representing, and to make their ex-husbands feel uncomfortable, [he] would put his arms around them.”

Later, the clients announced that they wanted to work out their dispute for the benefit of their daughter. The lawyers negotiated a Rule 11 agreement, said Acosta. In the end, Acosta said she moved to shake Manka’s hand, then the alleged assault occurred.

“He gets a handful of my rear end and squeezed. It wasn’t like a pat: It was a grab and squeeze,” she said. “It really caught me off-guard.”

The Wilson County Courthouse’s security cameras recorded Manka touching Acosta. Acosta’s brother, wearing a black shirt, was blocking the view of the moment when Acosta claimed Manka grabbed her bottom. The video shows Manka walking to Acosta’s left side and bending to the right. Next, Acosta jumped backwards and appears to hit him with her right hand. Manka’s arm blocked her, then he turned around and walked out of the courthouse. As he left, Acosta appeared to yell at him.

Watch the video:

“I said, ‘I bet you’ve been waiting to do that, huh?’ I wish I had thought of something better to say, but that’s all that came out of my mouth. I said it in an aggressive tone: I wanted him to know I was mad and not OK with what he just did,” she said.

Caldwell, the county attorney, said he urged Acosta to file a grievance against Manka with the State Bar of Texas.

“I think it’s highly unprofessional conduct by an attorney in Texas,” Caldwell said. “If he did try to intimidate her in court by doing that, it’s unconscionable behavior.”

Acosta said she’s gathering court documents and plans to file a grievance.

Read Acosta’s Facebook post: