Jury Awards $10M to Idaho Professor in Defamation Suit

A federal jury in Boise, Idaho, awarded University of Idaho history professor Rebecca Scofield $10 million in damages on Friday against Texas-based social media creator Ashley Guillard, who falsely accused her in TikTok videos of involvement in the 2022 stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students.

The verdict stemmed from a defamation lawsuit Scofield filed in December 2022, shortly after Guillard began posting videos in late November that year. Guillard, who described herself as a psychic relying on tarot card readings, alleged without evidence that Scofield orchestrated the murders to cover up an inappropriate romantic relationship with one of the victims. The claims, which garnered millions of views and were shared widely online, continued through August 2025 despite cease-and-desist letters from Scofield's attorneys and public statements from Moscow police confirming Scofield was not a suspect. Scofield, who chaired the university's history department, testified that she had never met the students and was out of state visiting friends in Portland, Oregon, at the time of the killings.

Jurors allocated $6.5 million of the award to the false murder-related allegations...