DALLAS - A Black mom who jurors found acted with “extreme and outrageous conduct” toward a white teen is appealing the $3.2 million judgment levied against her and her attorney.
Back in March 2021, Summer Smith held a press conference in Plano and described Asher Vann, one the youths who tricked Smith’s son, SeMarion Humphrey, into drinking pee during a sleepover.
Smith was accompanied by her attorney, Kim Cole, who called it a “racially motivated hate crime.”
After investigations failed to result in arrests or expulsion from school, litigation ensued and Vann’s father, Aaron Vann, countersued, alleging that Smith and Cole led a campaign to ruin the life of his son and other boys involved.
Last fall, a jury found that Smith and Cole equally sought to intentionally inflict emotional distress upon Asher Vann, awarding millions for his medical care, mental anguish, and injury to his reputation.
A final judgment was entered last month and the case is now up on appeal, court records show.
Attorney and author Jonathan Turley wrote about the case earlier this month, criticizing the media for “eagerly spreading” the “alleged hate crime hoax” and then falling silent after the jury award.
“Major media outlets from NBC to CBS to the Daily Mail published the account of how Humphrey was tortured, shot with BB guns, and forced to drink urine during a sleepover,” Turley wrote. “After the jury found that the allegations constituted the intentional infliction of emotional distress, the same media that spread the story remained conspicuously silent. Crickets.”
Turley also wrote about a GoFundMe account that helped Smith raise $120,000 for therapy and private schooling. However, less than $1,000 of the donated funds went toward her son’s schooling, while money was spent on items including a designer dog, dining, travel, beauty products, liquor and vapes.
