Key Takeaways:

• A decide dominated in favor of Megan Thee Stallion, ordering sanctions in opposition to blogger Milagro Gramz.
• Gramz deleted hundreds of textual content messages and eliminated WhatsApp regardless of being legally required to protect them.
• The ruling highlights the authorized dangers of erasing digital proof in defamation lawsuits.

Megan Thee Stallion scored one other small victory in her ongoing defamation lawsuit in opposition to Milagro Gramz. On Thursday (Oct. 9), Judge Lisette M. Reid imposed sanctions on the blogger for deleting “thousands of text messages.”

According to the ruling, the defendant — née Milagro Elizabeth Cooper — was below a authorized obligation to “retain and preserve paper and electronic communications” associated to the case. It additionally confirmed that Gramz was formally notified of these “retention and preservation duties” by Megan’s authorized staff the day earlier than the go well with was filed.

“Despite this written notice, and these underlying legal duties, Defendant deleted thousands of text messages and removed the WhatsApp app from her phone that potentially contained messages and chats,” legal documents acknowledged. While the “Whenever” rapper will “likely never be able to prove” what these messages contained, the court docket allowed the jury to imagine the data would have been damaging to Gramz’s protection.

In her original filing, Megan alleged that Gramz acted as a “mouthpiece” for Tory Lanez — who’s presently serving a 10-year sentence for capturing her within the foot — and collaborated with the Canadian rapper’s father, Sonstar Peterson, to launch a “campaign of harassment” in opposition to her.

Judge Reid additionally dominated that, because of this, Gramz should pay the “reasonable amount of fees and costs incurred to bring the spoliation issue to the court’s attention,” together with bills associated to the evidentiary listening to. Both the blogger and Megan’s authorized staff have been ordered to “meet and confer” inside 5 days to find out what these prices can be.

Just a number of months earlier, in July, Gramz had already been ordered to pay $5,000 in Megan’s attorney fees to cowl the price of “forcing the disclosure” of the YouTuber’s textual content messages. She was given 30 days to make the fee.

Especially within the years following the capturing incident involving Lanez, Megan has been continuously focused on-line by his supporters. In 2024, the Grammy-winning rapper had had sufficient and filed a defamation go well with in opposition to blogger Gramz, who allegedly circulated a deepfake pornographic video of her, amongst different claims.