A jury in Texas has ordered a mother and her lawyer to pay $3.2 million to a teen they accused of being a racist after he and other teens allegedly forced her son to drink urine.
Per WFAA, Asher Vann, now 19, and other teenagers were having a birthday sleepover in Plano in February 2021 when they allegedly forced Summer Smith’s son to drink a cup of urine. The jury established that Smith and her attorney, Kim Cole, deliberately subjected Vann to emotional distress and publicly shared the teen’s private information.
The February 2021 incident was shared on Snapchat, and it drew backlash across the country. Smith and her son received over $100,000 in donations through a GoFundMe.
In an interview with the news outlet, Vann claimed that the February 2021 incident was not a reflection of his current personality.
“It was immature. It was stupid. It was nasty. But that’s not who I am and that’s not me today,” Vann said on February 12.
“This wasn’t me doing a racist act,” he added. “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 also said that the public backlash that was directed at him took a toll on his life.
“Things are getting better,” he said. “But I don’t feel like I am who I should’ve been at this age because of that.”
Cole and Smith said that they intend to file an appeal against the verdict, WFAA reported.
“Defending my son was what I should have done. And I would defend my son still,” Smith said. “I feel that the acts were vile. And I feel like that was my opinion of the act. The urinate in a cup, to put it to someone’s lips to have them drink it, is vile.”
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Smith also said that her son underwent counseling for years, and he’s fine at the moment. She said she has since put in effort to get over the incident adding that hearing about Vann having to endure the harassment made her “saddened.”
“I never wanted anyone to threaten anyone at the school or anything. I simply wanted them to be held accountable in the proper way,” Smith said.
Responding to the verdict, Cole said, “To me, the entire ruling runs afoul of anything decent or just.”
She also claimed there was nothing to show that she publicly shared Vann’s private information. Besides that, Cole said she had not even mentioned Vann’s name before.
“For him to now try to rewrite history and act like this never occurred is ridiculous,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going on in Collin County, but it’s not justice.”
Smith said that the February 2021 incident was “something that happened.” “It was something that my son was deeply affected by and we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the actions that happened to my son,” she added.
Vann touched on the $3.2 million awarded to him, saying that he feels he wouldn’t be receiving the money. And though the jury ruled in his favor, the 19-year-old also said that what occurred has altered his life.
“There was no winner in the end,” Vann said.
