Gist of the Case
A gay man, Eric Vaughn, and his husband had a baby via surrogacy. Vaughn published about it on his TikTok. A far-right political activist, Lauren Witzke, viewed the TikTok video and responded on her social media using language referencing pedophilia and human trafficking. Vaughn has sued Witzke arguing that her comments have defamed him.
Main Legal Question
Was Witzke’s language defamatory against Vaughn so that he is entitled to damages?
Why I Find This Case Interesting
When I first started practicing law in 2011, I was somewhat surprised by how many people would call asking about defamation cases. I was never interested in taking them, so I never did. Most often, it was people who had their feelings hurt, but there was not any actual monetary damage done.
In 2017, I started my solo law practice. As I was looking for work, a woman came with a potential defamation claim. As before, I was not particularly interested in the case, but she did have at least some evidence of actual loss of business due to defamatory allegations of criminal conduct. She could at least link that clients of hers had canceled contracts due to the accusations. So I ended up taking the case (which we won).
It also seems that there is an uptick in interest in defamation cases. Recently, the Dominion case against Fox News settled for $787.5 million. And this is only one of several defamation lawsuits related to the 2020 election (which I’m not interested in covering). The Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard case was also all about defamation. Depp was awarded substantial damages and his attorneys became celebrities, at least for a time. There was also the Elon Musk “pedo guy” trial. If nothing else, these cases show that defamation lawsuits can be quite interesting.
I’m wondering if these types of cases and results are encouraging more people and attorneys to bring defamation claims.
This case is also very interesting because it involves polar opposite political views. One side is progressive on LGBT rights, while the other side thinks surrogacy in this situation is evidence of the moral decay of the nation.
It will be interesting to see how this case plays out.
I first read about this case here: https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2023/03/27/lauren-witzke-sued-defamation-parents-surrogate-twins-human-trafficking/70037086007/
Case Details
Filing Information
Court: Texas District Court, Harris County
Case No.: 2023-17749
Date filed: March 20, 2023
Caption: Vaughn v. Witzke
Online docket: https://www.hcdistrictclerk.com/edocs/public/search.aspx (A login is required but is free. All court filings are available in the “images” tab of the docket.)
The Parties
Eric Vaughn, Plaintiff
According to the lawsuit, Vaughn is a professional hair stylist and owns a salon in Houston, Texas called REV Salon. He has a substantial Instagram and TikTok following, where he posts about his life. He is married to an individual named Tony Trainor.
In February 2023, Vaughn and Trainor had twins via surrogacy and posted about it on his social media accounts. I’m not going to speak on anything about the babies other than their limited involvement in the case.
Lauren Witzke, Defendant
Witzke is a far-right political activist and a Christian. In 2020, she ran for US Senate in Delaware but was unsuccessful in the general election.
According to her Linkedin profile, she is currently the President of a company called Stew Peters Network and/or CEO of a company called TLM Global Production. These companies appear to manage right-wing media programs and projects. She specifically references a film called “Died Suddenly,” the premise of which is: “5 billion vaccinated worldwide, and many are dying suddenly. Is this the greatest orchestrated die-off in the history of the world?”
The point is that Witzke is entrenched in the far-right spectrum and is pushing those views politically and professionally and frequently on Twitter.
The Legal Causes of Action
Vaughn asserts the following causes of action (which are all fairly similar):
- Common law libel
- Statutory libel
- Per se libel
“Libel” is the act of defaming another person through writings, such as newspapers, other publications, articles, blogs, or social media postings.
I will get into the details of these claims and the differences between them in a later post.
Damages Claimed
Vaughn is seeking a maximum of $75,000 in damages. I’m sure he is asking for this because it makes it so that Witzke cannot remove the case to federal court (more on that later).
Jury demand?
Yes, Vaughn has requested a trial by jury.
The Story of the Case
Based on the allegations in the lawsuit, the story goes like this:
Vaughn and Trainor wanted to start a family. Efforts to adopt had fallen through, so they opted for surrogacy. Vaughn regularly posted about the experience on his social media, including TikTok (@mrvaughtrainor).
The babies were born and placed in NICU. When Vaughn was first able to hold the babies, he posted this video online:
Witzke caught wind of the video. On March 15, 2023, she posted the video to her Twitter where she made the statements giving rise to the defamation claim.
Her post reads:
A new fetish with pedophiles consists of robbing babies from their mothers straight out of the womb.
This is human trafficking and would be illegal in a sane society.
I believe she has since deleted that tweet. I searched her Twitter feed and did not find it.
Vaughn also asserts that Witzke “doubled down” on the defamatory statement in two subsequent posts:
The first post states:
First of all, You’re not a real Christian if farming infants off to gay men sits well with you.
Second of all, they’re public figures and therefore open to criticism. I’m [sic] fact, i hope they sue me too. I’d LOVE to bring national attention to issue of gay pedophiles using the means of surrogacy to have unlimited access to defenseless children.
The second follow-up post states: “*fast forward 4 years*” with a link to an article that reads:
Adoptive gay couple charged with sodomizing their adopted sons also ‘pimped them out to local men and sent out videos of them raping the boys’: Full horror of mysteriously wealthy couple’s sordid lives revealed in jay-dropping court docs.
Vaughn alleges that these three statements by Witzke have defamed him and caused him damages in an amount not greater than $75,000.
Read the Lawsuit for Yourself
The above is my rendition of the story as I understand it. You can read the lawsuit yourself.
What Happens Next
Now that the lawsuit has been filed, Vaughn will have to have it personally served on Witzke. Once that occurs, Witzke will have a certain amount of time to file a response (generally 21 days–I’m not sure about Texas rules).
If you want to learn more about how lawsuit flow, you can read about the Five Phases of Civil Litigation. This case is currently in the Pleading Stage.
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