Convention News

Vic Mignogna Ordered to Pay Almost a Quarter of a Million to Defendants in Final Judgement

One of the biggest stories we’ve been following over the last year has been the defamation case filed in Texas by frequent convention guest Vic Mignogna against Monica Rial, Ron Toye, Jamie Marchi and Funimation. Rial and Marchi (along with quite a few other women) had come forward with stories of sexual harassment and assault, and Sony owned anime dubbing studio Funimation announced that they would no longer be contracting Mignogna after conducting its own internal investigation.

Those paying attention to this entire mess know that the entire case was thrown out under Texas’s Anti-SLAPP law almost two months ago, and part of that law dictates that the plaintiff must pay the defendants’ legal fees upon dismissal. Last week a hearing was held on sanctions, and yesterday, the judge issued his final order.

You can read the entire order here, but it boils down to Mignogna being required to pay almost $250k to the defendants. While this is significantly less than the amounts asked for by the defendants (which was a sum roughly around $800k), it’s still a significant chunk of change. Mignogna’s representatives already attempted to file an appeal prematurely, and it is highly likely that they will attempt to do so again (or amend the existing appeal). If Mignogna’s potential appeal fails, he will be required to pay significantly more to the defendants as well.

Some of you may recall that this whole case started after Minnesota based YouTuber Nick Rekeita started a GoFundMe to raise funds for Mignogna’s legal fees to file the case. And while that GoFundMe has raised over $263k, all of that money has already likely been paid to Mignogna’s lawyers.

We will continue to track this story if anything else develops.

Trae Dorn

Trae Dorn has been staffing conventions for over twenty-five years. They also wrote and drew the now completed webcomic UnCONventional, and produce the podcasts BS-Free Witchcraft, On This Day With Trae, Stormwood & Associates, The Meatgrinder, and The Nerd & Tie Podcast. This leads many to ask how the heck they have the time to get it all done. Trae says they have the time because they β€œdo it all quite poorly.”

16 thoughts on “Vic Mignogna Ordered to Pay Almost a Quarter of a Million to Defendants in Final Judgement

  • Kengi Stargazer

    You forgot to mention his case is on appeal waiting for appeals court to hear it. Unless he loses the appeal process he has to pay NOTHING. It’s also worth mentioning that the appeals court is a panel of 3 judges 2 of them already have a track history or overriding judge Chupp on more than one occasion for him making bad judicial decisions. It would be nice if your going to write a article to honestly include those facts. Or the fact that the Accusers have had their claims debunked by their star witnesses and lack of evidence for months.

    Reply
    • 1. The appeal that was filed prematurely is likely to be dismissed. Vic’s lawyers didn’t even file a response to the Defendant’s motion to dismiss it.
      2. Vic can still appeal the ruling properly.
      3. That WAS mentioned in the article, so I didn’t forget. Read before commenting.
      4. Chupp’s record on appeals is fairly typical. You don’t appear to understand the appeal process at all.
      5. The claims have not been debunked, if anything they’ve been reaffirmed by the courts.
      6. If Vic appeals properly, he’ll still lose and just end up owing WAAAAAY more. πŸ˜†

      Reply
    • Tsis Tvarka

      Who are these Judges?

      Also, it doesn’t help that you stated blatantly false information about the accusers claims being debunked, which is a obvious lie, mind you.

      Reply
    • Alex Garcia

      Most likely Kengi can’t respond as trae is banning anyone who disagrees with him to prevent responces.

      Reply
      • Jessica Reese

        You’re just upset that you were caught breaking commenting policy as if it wouldn’t be noticed on such a young article.

        Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

        Reply
      • Centresimo

        You waste your time signing up with numerous emails, disregard the rules, then blame others for your poor actions. Sorry, but the onus is on you to argue within the rules. If you cant to that without violating said rules, then no one is going to take you seriously.

        Reply
  • Alex Garcia

    It wasn’t filed prematurely. Under the rules of procedure, a case filed early is considered filed when the final order is filed. So this is already under appeal. We’ve got 6 months to go on this. Anyone talking about victory is really jumping the gun

    Reply
    • Alex Garcia

      Also: at this point the Defendants have been punished just by the process. The $350,000 the judge denied Funimation and MoRon has to be paid out of pocket. Their attorneys testified in court they were true costs and they would be billing them.

      Reply
      • Consider how much more Vic must have paid Ty than the Gofundme raised then

        Reply
        • Alex Garcia

          Doubtful. I’d expect he’s spent about what Funimation did. And the GFM increases every day. When this is over, we’ll get a full accounting because the remainder is going to charity. So we’ll really know then.

          Also, good job banning me to create an echo chamber I couldn’t respond too. You’re not smart. You’re just rigging the game. πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€

          Too bad for you there are 1000000000000000 free email services out there. You should actually try having a discussion instead of wimping out. But I know you’ll ban this email too.

          Reply
    • That hasn’t actually been established in this jurisdiction, and anyone who tells you the premature appeal verifiably counts has been lying to you (or misunderstands Texas law)

      Reply
    • Loken

      Hardly, pretty clear Vic is screwed, lost at trial and it won’t change on appeal.

      Reply
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