White Teen Awarded $3.2 Million Over False Racism Accusations

(Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via AP)

A federal judge upheld a jury verdict awarding more than $3 million to a 19-year-old Texas man whose friend’s mother accused him of racially-motivated bullying of her son.

Collin County District Judge Benjamin Smith upheld a jury verdict awarding $3.2 million to Asher Vann, who accused Summer Smith and attorney Kim Cole of causing him emotional distress and publicizing his private information.

Cole and Smith had alleged that Vann humiliated Smith’s son by inviting him to a February 2021 birthday party and using racial slurs while shooting him with a BB gun, as well as forcing him to drink the other attendees’ urine.

“While at the sleepover several white students shot [Smith’s son] with BB guns. When he was asleep they slapped him, all while calling him racial slurs. And worse yet, they forced [Smith’s son] to drink their urine. [Smith’s son] had been subjected to the unthinkable. He is in need of therapy and is planning to change to a private school,” a fundraiser set up for Smith’s son read.

The fundraiser brought in more than $100,000. Vann’s lawsuit claimed that Smith and Cole had “decided to capitalize on the situation to the maximum extent possible” and “embarked embarked on a campaign, all of a sudden claiming the events were racially motivated and that the boys had invited [Smith’s son] to the party for the purpose of playing out some sadistic racist fantasy.”

“This wasn’t me doing a racist act. This isn’t me hating someone because of their skin color. This was me at an immature stage of my life at a sleepover for my birthday, doing immature dumb things,” Vann told WFAA about the incident.

The lawsuit reads:

Ultimately, [Smith’s son] went to sleep first. The group, as they had planned for whoever fell asleep first, decided to play a childish and immature prank on their friend. In short, the boys filled a cup with apple juice, and (to the extent they could), one or more boys dribbled a bit of urine into the juice. They then woke up their cohort, offered him the icky brew, which he appeared to take a brief sip (swallowing none).

The federal judge’s decision upholds a previous decision by jurors who found that Vann’s version of events was the correct one and that nothing that occurred on the night in question was racially-motivated.

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