Prison calls show Tory Lanez harassing Megan Thee Stallion w/ sued blogger, lawyers say
Megan's lawyers obtained recordings of Tory Lanez's phone calls from California state prison as part of a defamation and cyberstalking lawsuit against a YouTube podcaster.
Lawyers say rapper Daystar “Tory Lanez” Peterson is running a harassment campaign against shooting victim Megan Thee Stallion from prison, and they’re suing a woman they believe has been paid by him to spread misinformation online.
Lanez and his father, Sonstar Peterson, discuss Milagro Cooper in prison phone calls obtained by Megan’s lawyers, according to a new court filing, and their comments show Lanez “is still orchestrating” Megan’s harassment from behind bars while using Cooper “as his mouthpiece.”
“In one phone call, the Petersons confidently asserted that Ms. Pete would be unable to prove that Mr. Peterson paid Defendant for attacking Ms. Pete,” Megan’s lawyers wrote in an amended complaint filed Tuesday, referring to Megan’s legal name, Megan Pete.
The complaint adds a defamation claim to the case against Cooper, a Houston, Texas, resident known as Milagro Gramz who hosts a podcast on YouTube and Stationhead called Mob Radio. It includes the original claims of promotion of an altered sexual depiction, intentional infliction of emotional distress and cyberstalking.
Pete also signed a petition for an injunction to prohibit Cooper “from committing any acts of stalking and providing any terms the court deems necessary for protection of a victim of stalking,” including possible law enforcement involvement.
The amended complaint moots a dismissal motion Cooper’s lawyers filed on Nov. 26, so U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga, the chief judge in the Southern District of Florida, denied the motion on Wednesday. Cooper’s lawyers can seek dismissal again based on the new complaint.
The original motion said Pete failed to state a claim against Cooper and said her lawsuit is an attempt “to intimidate and silence” Cooper from “exercising her First Amendment rights.” It also said the lawsuit aims “to serve as a warning to other critics that if the Plaintiff does not like what you say about her, you will likely have to deal with a federal lawsuit.”
First filed on Oct. 30, the lawsuit alleges Cooper coordinated with Lanez’s attorneys, including by obtaining DNA information before it was disclosed in court, then falsely telling her followers that Lanez’s DNA was not found on the firearm.
“In reality, the DNA results from the firearm were ‘inconclusive,’ meaning that Mr. Peterson could not be excluded or included as one of the possible contributors of the mixed genetic material,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit also accuses Cooper of working with Lanez and his father to employ automated social media robot or “bot” accounts “to attack Ms. Pete and her supporters with hateful, derogatory, and malicious statements on social media.” It says Cooper knew or should have known that false information about the case can cause Pete severe distress because Cooper was in the courtroom when Pete testified in Lanez’s trial about the harm she suffered from online harassment.
A jury in December 2022 convicted Lanez of assault with a firearm, negligent discharge of a firearm and possession of an unregistered firearm, and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Herriford sentenced him to 10 years in prison in August 2023. Prosecutors cited Lanez’s “campaign of misinformation” against Pete after the shooting, and Herriford agreed it should factor into his prison sentence.
Lanez, 32, is currently at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, and is eligible for his first parole hearing in September 2029.
Pete’s lawyers apparently obtained recordings of Lanez’s prison phone calls through a subpoena to the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation. In one, he discusses Cooper with his father and “the two confidently asserted that Ms. Pete would never be able to prove that Mr. Peterson pays or paid Defendant for attacking Ms. Pete,” according to the amended complaint.
“By consciously coordinating with Ms. Pete’s convicted assaulter to amplify Mr. Peterson’s disproven and baseless theories to help him seek retribution against Ms. Pete, Defendant engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct that has caused, and continues to cause, Ms. Pete severe emotional distress,” the complaint reads.
The promotion of an altered sexual depiction claim is based on a new law the Florida Legislature passed this year that imposes civil and criminal penalties on people who “willfully and malicious” promote a sexual depiction of an identifiable person that has been altered.
In June, Cooper liked a post on X that included a video of Megan made with artificial intelligence. She then posted, “Go to my likes”, which the lawsuit says she intended “for this statement to encourage her followers and other members of the public to watch the Deepfake Video, which had been added to her ‘Likes’ page around the same time.”
Cooper also told her Stationhead followers in a livestream to visit her “likes” on X. She also said, “If y’all want to be mad at something, this is what I’ll give you: be mad that I drew attention to it.” The next day, Cooper said on YouTube that she “told whoever follows me on social media to go to my likes to see what it is that we’re discussing,” referring to the video.
Much of the complaint focuses on Cooper’s statements online that Pete lied in her testimony and is falsely accusing Lanez of shooting her, as well as her statements that Pete is an alcoholic who is mentally incapacitated and may need a guardian.
Cooper’s “malice in defaming Ms. Pete is also evident from the fact that she has admitted to spreading misinformation and falsehoods about Mr. Peterson’s criminal act of gun violence against Ms. Pete,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit references an Oct. 28 statement on X in which Cooper said the gun and bullet fragments “have gone missing,” which a property officer with the Los Angeles Police Department says is untrue.
The state Attorney General’s Office filed a declaration in Lanez’s criminal appeal on Nov. 19 affirming the gun and bullet fragments are in police possession. Later that day, Cooper said on social media, “from this day forward today is November 19th and the public has been made aware of this form, I have to acknowledge that the gun, the bullet fragments […] the magazine and the bullet casings are with the LAPD.”
Pete’s lawsuit seeks at least $75,000 in damages, which is the minimum in federal court. That includes for the altered sexual depiction claim “$10,000 or actual damages, whichever is greater, as well as an award of Ms. Pete’s reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, and a permanent injunction barring Defendant from any future use or publication of intimate visual depictions of her.”
Pete is represented by Olga Vieria and Daniel L. Humphrey of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, in Miami, as well as Mari Henderson and Julian Schoen of Quinn in Los Angeles.
Cooper is represented by Michael Pancier of Pembroke Pines, Florida, and Michael Hayden, of Long Beach, California. Hayden is a staff attorney for Unite the People, a legal services nonprofit that has Lanez on its board of directors. Hayden also is representing Lanez as he appeals his three felony convictions and 10-year prison sentence for shooting Pete on July 12, 2020, in Los Angeles.
I’ll discuss Pete’s lawsuit against Cooper live on YouTube on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT. Subscribe to my channel and ask your questions in the chat.
Court documents:
Dec. 11 dismissal motion denied as moot
Dec. 10 petition for injunctive relief
Jay-Z lawsuit update
I discussed the new rape lawsuit against Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter this morning on YouTube with former CNN anchor Don Lemon.
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What are your thoughts on the blogger’s commentary? Do you think that some of the alleged defamatory statements will actually be considered defamatory despite them being framed as questions?
Looking forward to the Live today! Thanks Meghann