£3m defamation action against musician Phoebe Bridgers is dismissed
A $3.8m (£3.26m) action for defamation filed against Los Angeles indie rock musician Phoebe Bridgers by producer Chris Nelson late last year has been dismissed, MyNews LA reports.
Nelson had alleged that Bridgers had “intentionally used her high-profile public platform … to publish false and defamatory statements”.
The lawsuit was dismissed on Wednesday by Los Angeles superior court judge Curtis A Kin. Bridgers’ lawyers had filed a dismissal motion in February under California’s “anti-Slapp” law, which attempts to stop people using the threat of legal action to suppress free speech.
“We feel vindicated that the Court recognized this lawsuit as frivolous and without merit,” a spokesperson for Bridgers wrote in a statement provided to The Guardian. “It was not grounded in law, or facts, but was filed with the sole intention of causing harm to our client’s reputation and career. This victory is important not just for our client but for all those she was seeking to protect by using her platform.”
Nelson filed his original suit after Bridgers posted on Instagram that she had “witnessed and can personally verify much of the abuse (grooming, stealing, violence) perpetuated by Chris Nelson”, and pointed her Instagram followers to the page of Emily Bannon, Nelson’s ex-girlfriend, who had made a separate post accusing Nelson of “beat [ing] a young Latinx man to death” and “defraud[ing a] neighbor out of an estimated $100,000-$130,000.” Nelson alleged that Bridgers had a “vendetta to destroy [his] reputation” owing to her romantic relationship with Bannon.
In their dismissal motion, Bridgers’ lawyers said that Nelson’s lawsuit was “seeking to chill Ms Bridgers’ allegations of abusive conduct”, that her allegations were protected by the First Amendment and that “[Nelson] is a limited purpose public figure who must prove that Ms Bridgers acted with actual malice, which he cannot do.” Bridgers defended the allegations she made in her Instagram post in a sworn declaration: “My statements were made based on my personal knowledge, including statements I personally heard Mr Nelson make, as well as my own observations. I continue to believe the statements that I made were true.”
This is Nelson’s second lawsuit to be dismissed on First Amendment grounds this year. In December 2020, he sued another ex-girlfriend, actor Noël Wells, for alleged defamation, “false light” (a misleading portrayal), intentional infliction of emotional distress, intentional interference with prospective economic relations, and negligent interference with prospective economic relations, after she privately emailed the band Big Thief saying that Nelson had acted in a “predatory” manner towards her.
On 6 January a Los Angeles County judge dismissed the action, saying that Wells’ email was free speech.