Jury rules Black mother and lawyer must pay millions to teen they accused of racial bullying

Summer Smith plans to appeal the ruling, which stems from a 2021 incident involving her then middle school-aged son being forced to drink urine at a child’s sleepover.

A jury has ordered a Black mother and her attorney to pay $3.2 million to one of the teenagers they accused of racially motivated bullying towards her son.

According to WFAA, a Texas jury found that Summer Smith and attorney Kim Cole intentionally caused emotional distress and publicized the private information of now 19-year-old Asher Vann. The two accused him of forcing Smith’s son to drink a cup of urine at a birthday sleepover in Plano, Texas, five years ago. The incident was recorded and uploaded to Snapchat, sparking headlines and national outrage.

Following the incident, Cole launched a GoFundMe to benefit Smith and her son. It ultimately raised more than $100,000.

Vann says he wants the public to consider him based on his words and actions as a 19-year-old, rather than on his mindset when he was in middle school.

“It was immature. It was stupid,” Vann said. “It was nasty. But that’s not who I am and that’s not me today. This wasn’t me doing a racist act. 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.”

Cole and Smith are planning to appeal the jury verdict. Vann does not expect to receive the $3.2 million judgment, but says the incident and public outcry over it have become the defining chapter of his life.

“Defending my son was what I should have done. And I would defend my son still,” Smith told WFAA. “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.”

Smith says her son has improved over the years following the incident, thanks to counseling. Smith admitted she was “saddened” to hear about the various levels of harrassment Vann said he experienced following the public outcry in 2021. Cole says there was zero evidence presented during the civil trial that confirmed disclosure of Vann’s private information and she never used his name.

Vann’s lawyers argue that how Smith used the nearly $120,000 raised through GoFundMe was one of the key reasons the jury sided with them.