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Megan Thee Stallion sues blogger over “defamatory falsehoods” related to Tory Lanez shooting
Megan Thee Stallion is suing blogger Milagro Gramz and accusing her of purposely spreading false information on behalf of rapper Tory Lanez, who was found guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot in 2020.
The rapper, 29, filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in the Southern District of Florida under her legal name, Megan Pete, against the popular content creator who is legally known as Milagro Elizabeth Cooper.
In the lawsuit, Pete’s attorneys accuse Cooper of intentionally causing the hip hop star emotional distress by cyberstalking, promoting and sharing deep fake pornography of Pete, in addition to questioning if she was actually shot.
The lawsuit calls Cooper a “puppet” for Lanez during and after his high-profile trial, where Pete testified that Lanez shot her feet five times after an argument escalated. A jury convicted Lanez on multiple charges, including assault with a semiautomatic firearm and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. Lanez was sentenced in 2023 to 10 years in prison.
“The jury got it right,” Megan Thee Stallion’s attorney, Alex Spiro, told CBS News in a statement following the trial. “I am thankful there is justice for Meg.”
In an exclusive interview with “CBS Mornings” in 2022, Pete explained why she wanted to tell her side of the shooting story.
“I feel like people create these narratives about you and when you don’t stand up for yourself, they just run and they go and people are able to stack lies on top of more lies, on top of more lies,” she told “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King two years ago. “I just really want to take control over my own narrative.”
Pete said in a statement regarding the lawsuit, “… These individuals need to understand there will be repercussions for recklessly posting lies and defamatory falsehoods.”
CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson said she thinks Pete has a strong case.
“What she’s alleged here are a variety of different torts and a state cause of action, essentially about deep fakes,” Levinson said. “She’s saying that there’s intentional infliction of emotional distress, cyberbullying, false statements, based on her complaint. It might make people think twice before they engage in cyberbullying or defamation.”
CBS News reached out to Cooper’s representatives, who have yet to comment on the lawsuit.
CBS News
“Dances with Wolves” actor is again indicted on sexual abuse charges in Nevada
A grand jury in Nevada has again indicted Nathan Chasing Horse on charges that he sexually abused Indigenous women and girls for decades, reviving a sweeping criminal case against the former “Dances with Wolves” actor.
The 21-count indictment unsealed Thursday in Clark County District Court, which includes Las Vegas, again charges the 48-year-old with sexual assault, lewdness and kidnapping. It also adds felony charges of producing and possessing child sexual abuse materials.
It comes after the Nevada Supreme Court in September ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse’s original indictment, while leaving open the possibility for charges to be refiled. The court sided with Chasing Horse, saying in its scathing order that prosecutors had abused the grand jury process.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson quickly vowed to seek another indictment.
The initial 18-count indictment charged Chasing Horse with more than a dozen felonies. He had pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer, Kristy Holston, had also argued that the case should be dismissed because, the former actor said, the sexual encounters were consensual. One of his accusers was younger than 16, the age of consent in Nevada, when the abuse began, according to the indictment.
Neither Wolfson nor Holston immediately responded Thursday to phone or emailed requests for comment.
Best known for portraying the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 movie “Dances with Wolves,” Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
After starring in the Oscar-winning film, authorities have said, he propped himself up as a self-proclaimed Lakota medicine man while traveling around North America to perform healing ceremonies.
He is accused of using that position to gain the trust of vulnerable Indigenous women and girls, lead a cult and take underage wives.
Chasing Horse’s arrest last January reverberated around Indian Country and helped law enforcement in the U.S. and Canada corroborate long-standing allegations against him, leading to more criminal charges, including on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Tribal leaders had banished Chasing Horse in 2015 from the reservation amid allegations of human trafficking.
The 48-year-old has been in custody since his arrest last January near the North Las Vegas home he is said to have shared with five wives. Inside the home, police found firearms, 41 pounds of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, and a memory card with videos of sexual assaults, CBS News previously reported. Police said that at least two of the women were underage when he married them: One was 15, police said, and another was 16.
When the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse’s indictment, the judges said they were not weighing in on his guilt or innocence, calling the allegations against him serious. But the court said that prosecutors improperly provided the grand jury with a definition of grooming without expert testimony, and faulted them for withholding from the grand jury inconsistent statements made by one of his accusers.
Chasing Horse’s legal issues have been unfolding at the same time lawmakers and prosecutors around the U.S. are funneling more resources into cases involving Native women, including human trafficking and murders.
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From the archives: Nelson Mandela on efforts to end apartheid in South Africa
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Here’s the weather expected for Halloween night
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