MIAMI — A federal jury sided with Megan Thee Stallion on Monday and agreed that a blogger defamed and harassed the rapper — but limited damages to less than six figures.
The federal panel of five men and four women came down in favor of the artist born Megan Pete in her lawsuit against blogger Milagro Gramz, whose real name is Milagro Cooper.
The civil suit was over material the defendant posted after the plaintiff was shot five years ago by R&B musician Tory Lanez.
Jurors initially awarded the plaintiff $75,000 before U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga knocked it down to $59,000.
The rapper declined to answer any questions from reporters as she left court.
The defendant didn’t appear to be particularly pleased or distressed by the panel’s findings.
“I’m not ecstatic,” Cooper said. “Of course you want things to go your way but like I said I respect the jury and what they decided.”
The blogger’s attorney, Jeremy McLymont, said he’s grateful that jurors didn’t award seven digits of damages.
“We respect the jury’s verdict you always have to right?Whether we agree with it or not, we respect it,” he said.
“At the end of the day it was not a complete win for any side.”
The musician accused the blogger of being a “mouthpiece,” “puppet” and “paid surrogate” for Lanez, who shot Megan on July 15, 2020, in Los Angeles.
Jurors found that Cooper willfully encouraged her thousands of followers on X and Instagram to view a sexually explicit deepfake video of Pete that had been circulating on social media.
Lanez shot Pete in the foot after the pair left a party at Kylie Jenner’s home in 2020.
A Los Angeles jury found Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, guilty of three felony charges on Dec. 23, 2022: assault with a semiautomatic firearm, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
He was sentenced to up to 10 years behind bars.
Pete said she’s been struggling with mental health issues since the shooting and harassment from the blogger.
Juliette Arcodia reported from Miami, and David K. Li from New York.
