There is a major verdict out of Texas where a mother and an attorney were ordered to pay millions for perpetuating an alleged hate crime hoax that was eagerly spread by the mainstream media. Asher Vann, a minor at the time, was labeled a racist maniac who tortured SeMarion Humphrey, his black classmate, with other classmates. After the jury found that the allegations constituted the intentional infliction of emotional distress, the same media that spread the story remained conspicuously silent. Crickets.
Major media outlets from NBC to CBS to the Daily Mail published the account of how Humphrey was tortured, shot with BB guns, and forced to drink urine during a sleepover. The NAACP and Black Lives Matter protested the lack of action from officials ignoring the alleged racist attack.
Good Morning America aired a segment featuring ABC host Linsey Davis, who promoted a GoFundMe account that raised approximately $120,000 for “therapy and private schooling.” In her interviews, Humphrey’s mother, Summer Smith, called Vann “evil” and described his depravity to enabling reporters like Linsey Davis.
Some, however, were not convinced. Washington Free Beacon reported that Smith spent less than $1,000 of the donated funds toward her son’s schooling while spending funds on items including a designer dog, dining, travel, beauty products, liquor and vapes.
Parents rallied around the Humphrey family and held events at the school.
Eventually, the case against Vann was submitted to a grand jury, despite later testimony by Plano Police Department officer Patricia McClure that she did not believe there was probable cause for any charge. Given the pressure campaign, it was given to a grand jury anyway. The grand jurors then refused to indict.
Vann sued and testified that the alleged racist act occurred at a camp that was caught in a snowstorm. Unsupervised, the teenagers engaged in dumb games and pranks. He said that, after unsuccessfully searching for small game, they decided to shoot each other. All of the kids were wearing thick clothing and shot each other with the BB guns for fun. He testified that Humphrey participated in the game with everyone else in both being shot and shooting others.
The urine was described as a prank that was played on various boys, according to Vann, but no one actually drank from the cup.
Under the common law, the elements of the tort of an intentional infliction of emotional distress require a plaintiff to show that the defendant “(a) intentionally engaged in some conduct toward the plaintiff considered outrageous and intolerable in that it offends the generally accepted standards of decency and morality; (b) with the purpose of inflicting emotional distress or where any reasonable person would have known that such would result; and (c) that severe emotional distress resulted as a direct consequence of the defendant’s conduct.”
A racially diverse jury handed down a verdict against Humphrey’s mother and the family attorney, Kim Cole. The inclusion of the lawyer in the verdict makes this a relatively rare case.
Smith and Cole were ordered to pay $3.2 million in damages to Vann, now an adult in college. Both the mother and the lawyer were ordered to pay $1,599,000.00.
The case raised obvious analogies to other cases that were eagerly promulgated by the media but later disproven, such as the Jussie Smollett hoax.
The Smollett story of MAGA-associated racists roaming the streets of Chicago was irresistible as politicians like Nancy Pelosi and others piled on. ABC’s Robin Roberts gave Smollett an interview that was breathtaking in its lack of substantive questions or even curiosity about glaring red flags in his account. Roberts described Smollett as “bruised but not broken” and nodded as he described his narrow escape from being lynched in America. She concluded the interview with “Beautiful, thank you, Jussie.”
The Texas case followed the same trajectory as the media built up the story and then went silent as countervailing facts were produced by the family.
Once again, the role and liability of counsel Cole is particularly interesting. We discussed a claim of defamation by counsel in the Depp-Heard case.
Attorneys are protected by absolute privilege in court in making harmful and even false statements. This privilege is best stated in the Restatement of Law (Second) of Torts section 586 “to publish defamatory matter concerning another in communications preliminary to a proposed judicial proceeding, or in the institution of, or during the course and as part of, a judicial proceeding in which he participates as counsel, if it has some relation to the proceedings.”
However, it also means that “statements made during an occasion outside a judicial proceeding are not covered.” Thus, while “[t]he duties and actions of a lawyer in representing a client are not confined to judicial proceedings,” the court ruled that interviews with a reporter would fall outside of the privilege. Most courts reject the notion of an absolute privilege while considering a more limited possible privilege for out-of-court statements. See Kennedy v. Cannon, 229 Md. 92, 182 A.2d 54, 58 (1962) (the “absolute privilege will not attach to counsel’s extrajudicial publications, related to the litigation, which are made outside the purview of the judicial proceeding”).
Likewise, actions by counsel can be deemed as the intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as privacy violations. This can be a dangerously fluid line, since all litigation causes some degree of emotional distress, particularly in tort cases, where reputations are attacked. Moreover, lawyers often assist clients in seeking donations to GoFundMe accounts, which may help defray legal fees. Such public advocacy, however, entails a greater risk of liability.
The key in this case was the actions taken outside of the court as well as the alleged falsity of the underlying representations.
The targeting of a minor is particularly notable in this case and raises memories of the disgraceful media attacks on Nick Sandmann, who was falsely accused of abusing a Native American activist in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Despite various media organizations correcting the story and some settling with Sandmann, some in the media continued to attack him.
The Vann case is likely to be reviewed by many lawyers outside Texas. It is a case that could be replicated in future cases involving lawyers accused of fueling reckless or inflammatory public claims. The fact that the damages were evenly divided between the mother and the lawyer shows the level of culpability that the jury assigned to the role of the lawyer.
Here is the jury verdict form: Jury-Verdict
We used to do the same thing when I was young in 1960’s (have fun with bb guns and bows and arrows, and small explosives, and stupid pranks). It is sad so many people didn’t have a normal childhood where you learned how to interact with others without adult supervision and interference. You had to THINK about how other people react to what you do and figure out what worked and what didn’t.
That seems to be one reason for the problems kids have today. They are rarely allowed to decide things on their own and seem to be unable to do it as a result.
I get upset when I hear 20-year-olds say ‘ no one told me what I should do’ – how will we survive as a species
And yes, we could have ‘shot an eye out’ – we also could have fell off a cliff or fell down a hole, we could have died in a tunnel collapse when we were trying out what we saw in the great escape move (we got a 13-foot tunnel completed). But we learned a lot that made us able to function as adults. And that we could figure many things out on our own.
In another case where the law firm lost in addition to their client see 1100 West v Red Spot. Summary judgement Southern District of a Indiana. Law firm became ‘chameleonlike’ with the client. $17mm at stake.
Unfortunately, this case, the Smollett case and the high risk of being declared guilty before trial by a corrupt and lying media, I cannot in good conscience ever again befriend or associate with blacks, or other ‘protected’ classes of people.
The funniest part of the Sandmann incident is the major outlets got the wrong thing to lay into him over. He’s an anti-choice for abortions, religious schooled bigot who spent the day pushing his anti-choice stance and just happened across another two protests. One, an unemployed grifter pushing some cause that had gotten no media coverage, and the other being the outrageously ridiculous Black Hebrews, a bunch of hyper-conservative grifters who enjoy winding people up. Clearly the unemployed grifter had a 20 or 30 foot wide staircase and chose to beat a little drum in Sandmann’s face so good on Nick for not taking the bait. As a Trump supporter Sandmann also helped lay the groundwork for over 1 Million American dying in the pandemic because Trump failed to manage anything. But at least Trump will soon be tearing down the Kennedy Center and replacing it with a gold leafed monstrosity.
It sounds like this case was based on some truth – people were shot with bb-guns and there was urine being served (where’s the funny part of that prank?) Were the accused offered the chance to explain that their children were just being stupid or did they want this rumor to get some traction for an inevitable slander/libel suit?
Was it reported whether the Black kid got his own chance to shoot other kids or serve up a hot and fresh cup of urine to them? Or is this one of those, all the white kids did it to other white kids and the Black kid was caught in the crossfire and was forced to participate?
1. It was not a little drum looked like about 36″ diameter
2. Trump relied on Fauci, Big Pharma, CDC and gangs of CCP facilitators who are STILL lying about origins of Covid and STILL censoring all the books smashing the Official Narrative
3. Why are the Black Hebrews “hyper-conservative”? I suppose the Nation of Islam qualifies. One of THEIRS killed a Capitol Hill police officer in 2021 before the other officers shot and killed him. Know that officer’s name? No on the Sainted Sicknick. Did not Lie in State either. But at least the NOI website is the only place you can see the astoundingly racist cartoons published in THE NEW YORK TIMES in the pre-WW2 era.
LOL!
Must be a real joy-fest to be in your presence on a regular basis. Wow…
Wow, I took a totally different take, our brains work differently, my thoughts are you are center left.
🤦♀️
Dribble. Anonymous dribble. Pure TDS.
Your TDS is on full display. Seek help.
“The funniest part of the Sandmann incident is the major outlets got the wrong thing to lay into him over. ”
Wrong. It was a coordinated political attack simply to denigrate his person (white supremacist snooting nosed kid) attacking an honorable American indian. Nothing more. For the public to accept it, it had to be put in simple terms.
“One, an unemployed grifter”
At the time that unemployed grifter was called a war hero ex Marine, Native American political activist.
Why a crackpot response. Where are all the horror stories of women being denied abortions? Since the election fervor over this there hasn’t been a single story over this. Not one.
I’ve seen a few but they don’t seem to get traction so guess there aren’t any/many reporters trying to uncover more stories.
Your post is an anti-Trump screed. It lacks clarity since you describe everyone in pejorative terms.
Black Hebres “hyper-conservative” without giving an example.
Disagreeing with someones views does not allow you to publicly lie about them.
Absolutely Sandman is pro-life as is about 50% of the country.
This is an issue that does not have super majority support on either side.
It is NOT an issue where you get to defame those you disagree with.
Further the issue is NOT the indian or anything else that happened
It is that CNN and other outlets LIED about Sandman.
And you are continueing to make the same mistakes
Do you have evidence that Sandman is a bigot ? Or did you just pull that out of your ass ?
Absolutely it is Washington – all kinds of groups gather to protest.
Tough I am not sure how you know one was an unemployed Grifter or that the black herew israelites are conservative.
Twice as many people died of Covid while Biden was president.
The death rates throughout the world are completely precitable by demographis alone.
Nothing any county did to thwart covid worked.
But many things done harmed the countries.
And the TREATMENT of covid other than the government approved methods was suppressed so many people died who didn’t need to.
I was lucky (planned well?) and had a doctor that did his research and had treatment plans for his patients that called him when they first showed symptoms – so my wife avoided dying in a hospital respirator and improved the next day after taking medication. My son and myself also had good results with medication, but we didn’t ever get to oxygen around 90% like my wife did (who had both of the shots weeks before).
the kids were not being stupid – they were being kids.
And it sounds like the race angle was an overlay by the adults after the fact.
I guess reading comprehension is not a skill in your wheel house.
Have you read Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian and philosopher (often discussed in philosophical contexts for his ethical and social insights). He wrote about “stupidity” in his *Letters and Papers from Prison* (written while imprisoned by the Nazis during WWII), in a section that’s commonly referred to as his “Theory of Stupidity.”
Pretty much explains your irrational bias.
Opposition to murdering babies is not bigotry.
And the “Black Hebrews” are NOT conservative, let alone “hyper-conservative”. They are kooky antisemites, who pretend to be Jews just as NOI pretend to be Moslem.
The thing about the Jussie Smollett hoax that was perhaps least convincing was the fact that the supposed attack occurred in -30 weather in the middle of the night in CHICAGO of all places. I live in Ohio and we’ve just had temps down to -18 and NOBODY is outside and it still doesn’t compare to Chicago where you’ll be walking forwards but going backwards because of the wind. How anybody could have believed that ridiculous tale for a picosecond is a mystery.
The least convincing thing was the suggestion that rednecks watched whatever show Smollett was on.
The second least was that said rednecks had enough dedication to wait for however long it might be for Smollett to possibly return to Chicago and wait out in the cold.
The most believable part is that Smollett was a not a great actor and this was a terrible production. He failed to commit to the role.
Jussie did not think of that event. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker were running for president and pushed an anti-lynching bill in the Senate. They conspired with Jussie to make a national event that would do several things – besmirch MAGA, promote the anti lynching legislation and elevate their presidential chances – and get jussie a sweet spot in a new series.
BINGO!!! It amazes me that people are too dumb to see what is plainly right in front of their faces.
The truly sad part is that there are more than one victim. I am very glad the hoax is exposed and there are damages awarded to try and make whole this victim.
The bigger victim is unnamed as of yet, but when something real does happen to a person due to racial animosity, what happens when everyone reacts with skepticism due to cases like this one?
I hope this young man gets his money and the hoaxers are ruined. But, more importantly I hope the next true victim does not get forgotten about.
Shame on the media for the non-coverage.
“But access to secured government spaces is administered. Not everyone is entitled to a seat in a White House briefing room or on Air Force One. That’s access, not speech.”
Precisely. I actually think that Trump & co were far too lenient when they began restricting MSM access. I think they should have stuck to them good & hard.
This comment addresses the good professor’s reference to media “crickets.”
Perhaps a new version of Restatement Torts (3rd ed.) needs a new chapter on Remedies to include addressing legacy/MSM.
It would address MSM’s need to beat the rush in reporting a story later found to be untrue/embellished.
A proposed Model Remedy:
(1) Compel prime-time announcement for viewers/readers to contact a 1-800 number to aver to viewing or reading the original untrue story or statement;
(2) Compel prime-time retraction, restatement, or correction, with reference to the above (1).
(3) Compel prime-time announcement for viewers/readers to contact a 1-800 number to aver to viewing or reading the RETRACTION OR CORRECTION of the original untrue story or statement;
(4) Subtract (3) from (1).
(5) Multiply remainder x nominal award, say, $1 each.
Example: 1,500,000 averred viewers/readers to the original untrue statement or story, minus 300,000 averred viewers/readers who claim to have read or seen the retraction or correction = a remainder of 1,200,000 viewers/readers x $1 each equals=$1,200,000 FINE imposed on media.
This should defeat 1A challenges and improve media accountability and standards for truth, balance, and fairness.
(I’m joking, but you get my point.)
Widely accepted as being referred to as the Mainstream Media (aka the MSM), the industry is transitioning to being referred to as (A) Mainstream Mistruths (B) Mockingbird Media or (C) Media Propaganda Machine. NEVER THE LESS, the classic standard of American Journalism has transitioned from an exemplary standard of reporting news and information of the world completely and accurately to one that lies in an open casket awaiting closure and burial of what had been.
. Slow down, oppression , suppression of the press by GOVERNMENT. A wise guy came along thinking I’ll flatter the government with POLITICAL PRESS. Government will not suppress that. Government encouraged it. Here’s what I want the press to report and they did.
There isn’t a single reporter or Democrat politician without DJT as evil tied into all speech and press. It’s tiring.
People stay away from all of it and life is so much better.
Spot on!
At the same time, another mother-son team was convicted for false claims of racially-motivated treatment in Georgia,
https://www.lawofficer.com/police-brutality-claims/
Here is a compilation of some of the cases of misuse of the justice system in defeating false claims of hate crimes. This list only covers alleged CRIMINAL matters of hate crimes –and doesn’t even touch the thousands upon thousands of civil and administrative cases brought by alleged “victims” seeking monetary reward and media visibility (e.g., EEOC claims and civil suits for wrongful termination or discriminatory adverse action).
https://www.fakehatecrimes.org/
The vast majority of these false claims are motivate by two factors: monetary award a/o media exposure and fame.
What’s missing. Oh the story I jumped on like a June Bug turns out to be perpetuated by just another charlatan trying to make a buck. When it turns out that the June Bug was a Stink Bug there’s never an apology. The bitterness of the Stink Bug remains just waiting to be wiped out by the sweet taste of the June Bug which never comes because they have lost the capability to tell one from the other.
It’s not the fault of the poor bird because he has no agenda to fulfill. They do.
To me this speaks to, and many will not like it, that modern parenting is a sheetshow and in another ten years these kids will just be basically feral. No society can continue this way.
The problem is less the laws, it’s the parents that sue at the drop of a hat, and often *win*. This is cultural rot, not legal rot. The press component is just another symptom. We really, really screwed the pooch beginning in the 90s in this regard, and we are going to have to reap the fruit.
Pray There are still people remaining that can even impart these ideas with alacrity when my generation is gone, beyond the legal and political, as we seem to be the last at present. I hope I’m wrong.
. It’s much worse. People don’t know that there are children who’ve never been to school. Parents aren’t sending them, there’s no check on it. There’s a generation coming up of true 3rd world people born and bred 🇺🇸.
Probably some are harmed by incompetent parents, but I’ll bet majority are getting better results without the ‘professional educators’ meddling. Too many government schools are dysfunctional messes that just harm kids.
. Yes, feral. Very dangerous as anyone could be Nancy Guthrie. She should have had 2 German Shepards.
With the attorney included in the decision, I wonder why she isn’t being charged with suborning perjury.
Judge Boseman is calling for the people sent back to Venezuela by Obama to be returned to the U.S.
Sorry wrong President. He’s ruling that illegals sent to Venezuela by Trump must be returned. Hmmm.
“The Texas case followed the same trajectory as the media built up the story and then went silent as countervailing facts were produced by the family.”
This is why the media is accurately described as “Fake News”. Always has been and always will unless they are held to account. Next time, the media channels should be included in the liability, charges, and verdicts.
Anit-White is what the weird stream media is.
Finally, a validation of what all reasonable people know; that most of these racism stories are lies promoted by Democrat politicians and their Fake News media for money and votes.
Now let’s see how much money that Democrat propaganda media has to choke up for promoting those fake racism hoaxes.
Until both results are consistent and likely, they both will get away with perpetuating these lies, just like Smollett and BLM did with theirs.
We live in one of the most regulated environments in history. Contractors are licensed. Doctors answer to boards. Pilots are certified. Businesses operate under compliance rules every day. Yet when someone suggests journalism should have clearly defined professional standards tied to special access, suddenly that’s called censorship. That’s not consistent.
I’m not arguing for government control of speech. The First Amendment protects publication. Anyone can write whatever they want. But access to secured government spaces is administered. Not everyone is entitled to a seat in a White House briefing room or on Air Force One. That’s access, not speech.
If we’re going to claim standards are oppression, then let’s remove them everywhere. No licensing, no certification, no professional requirements for anything. But no serious person believes that. Standards exist because systems need them to function properly. Journalism holds extraordinary influence. It shapes reputations, public opinion, and policy debates. If anything, that makes professional standards more important, not less.
And we seem to forget why government exists in the first place. It exists to secure our unalienable rights. A free press is protected because it helps citizens defend those rights. But protection without responsibility eventually erodes trust, and without trust, a republic weakens. Free speech is protected. Special access is granted. Liberty requires both freedom and responsibility.
A note: where I’m from it’s inalienable…
The Declaration uses “unalienable,” but you understood my use to mean exactly the same thing.