I called it. Grateful for a sane outcome of this trial:
A jury in Boise awarded $10 million in damages Friday to a University of Idaho professor who sued a Texas woman for defamation over fabricated claims she repeatedly made on social media that the academic was responsible for the Moscow college student murders.
The jurors deliberated for just under two hours before handing down their decision, which awarded professor Rebecca Scofield 10 times what her attorneys asked for in their closing statement.
Scofield, 40, testified this week during a four-day federal trial over monetary damages that she developed severe anxiety, PTSD and intense nerve pain throughout her body as a direct result of the false public accusations. The Moscow resident said the physical and emotional impacts have made it difficult for her to work in her position as chair of the U of I’s history department, and also caused irreversible reputational harm.
About two weeks into the investigation of the four students’ stabbing deaths in November 2022, defendant Ashley Guillard, 41, of Houston, created a series of videos she posted to TikTok in which she blamed Scofield for the murders. Guillard — who made her first visit to Idaho and represented herself at trial — believes herself to have psychic abilities and testified that she read tarot cards to try to help solve the shocking homicides that upended the rural college town and generated international attention.
Guillard’s readings led her to Scofield, she said, and her videos continued with similar unsubstantiated accusations all the way up until August 2025. Without evidence, Guillard posted photos and contact information for Scofield with claims she had an affair with one of the female victims and tried to cover it up by ordering her death.
Via the Spokesman Review.