Can an ex-employer stop me from hiring one of her current employees?

I left a job about 8 months ago because of a power hungry supervisor who was verbally abusive to me and her other employees. I am now in a great job several states away and am in a position to hire one of my ex-supervisor's current employees. There are 2 other of her employees who are trying to leave now also but they have been offered jobs in the same company in different departments. One of them she forced to stay for 6 weeks before transferring. The other one wants to leave in 2 weeks (with support of his future employer) but she threatened the future employer and they are now in a battle over how long before he can leave. She has a lot of power in the company only because her boss is infatuated with her and does everything he can to help her. I am worried because I am in a very small profession where "everyone knows everyone" and she is very vindictive and I think she will har me when she finds out her employee will be working for me. If this occurs is there anything I can do to stop it?