LOS ANGELES — The California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, found that the trial court correctly denied performer Nikki Benz’s anti-SLAPP motion in the libel lawsuit that adult director Tony T had filed against her for a series of tweets she posted following an alleged incident on a Brazzers set.
The court found that Tony T successfully established his “prima facie case of libel per se” regarding Benz’s accusatory tweets. Anti-SLAPP motions are meant to prevent frivolous or merely strategic litigation attempting to curtail criticism.
The court's opinion described "the crux of this matter" as "whether [Benz]’s string of Twitter posts truly accused [Tony T] of raping her."
As XBIZ reported at the time, “Tony T directed and produced two shoots involving Benz in December [2016], according to the suit filed at Los Angeles Superior Court. After the second shoot, Benz published an extensive social media feed alleging the assault and implicating Tony T by name.”
Benz is currently suing Brazzers regarding the events during that second shoot.
Tony T’s suit, as XBIZ reported, targeted Benz, as well as MindGeek along with its Brazzers division and 50 John Does, charging libel and infliction of emotional distress. The tweets are now part of the public record and are quoted in whole in the appellate court’s opinion.
On December 19, 20 and 21, 2016, Benz posted a series of tweets that Tony T alleges are libelous and emotionally distressing to him:
December 19, 2016: “I guess rape scene[s] are in now huh?,” “I’ll go on CNN and tell the truth. I have zero to hide,” “I guess when I’m signing out and I tell you I’m not ok with the scene, you make me say I’m ok so I get paid.”
December 20, 2016: “[T]he director himself put his hands on me and was choking me. . . never in a million years did I think @Brazzers would allow it.”
The same day, Benz posted screen captures of text messages between unknown parties prefaced by “Hey @Brazzers” and a waving hand emoji.
Someone texted “I said to Nikki other day it was wrong to put her in that kinda scene… Tony especially.”
Someone else replied: “It’s not good [crossed out] she’s so upset[.] They really fucked up this isn’t over with her they’re so fucked” and “I’ve never seen her this upset and we have been friends for over 10 years. She can’t eat, her hand is black and blue, she still has a headache from getting her stomped on [sic], and y’all director actually choking her himself ?????? If that happened to me I would have punched him in the face[,] that is wrong on so many levels[.]”
“Tony choked her? Why[?] Yes he did several times this is after she got her head stomped on [.] who does that? And Nikki kept yelling cut and they kept going. This is just so upsetting to even me like how anyone could do that. It’s not [further text not visible].”
Benz followed these screen captures with “I’m trying my best to enjoy my birthday trip with my girls. I’m disgusted, traumatized, upset with @Brazzers and Tony T. I’m overseas but. . . [o]nce I’m back in L.A., I will properly handle my business. No girl should have to go through what I went through on @Brazzers set.”
“#NoMeansNo #CutMeansCut and me telling you I’m not ok with any of this should be taken seriously. I should not be beat down.”
“In my 13 years in porn, this was the first time I went into shock on set & cried. #Brazzers.”
“I’m standing up for myself, and every girl who’s afraid to speak up. This needs to end. Porn should be fun not violent. Sick.”
The same day, Brazzers announced they were taking Benz’s accusation seriously and firing Tony T. On December 21, Benz took to Twitter to comment on the firing.
“Please don’t let @Brazzers PR stunt fool you. They have yet to apologize to me. They may think letting Tony T go will make me silent, but no,” she tweeted, adding that “[scene partner] Ramon [Nomar], Tony T and everyone on that set is guilty of letting this violent behavior happen for the sake of their paycheck.”
One more tweet, pinned by Benz to her page six months later, is also included in Tony T’s lawsuit: “On set bullying, rape, & violence should never happen. #NoMeansNo on camera, off camera. Just NO!”
The appellate court's opinion is that "as a matter of law, one reasonable interpretation of this record is that [Benz]’s tweets did accuse [Tony T] of raping her."
"Taking the string [of tweets] as a whole," the court continued, "the objective reader understands [Benz] was angrily complaining about how one key person treated her. The tweets name Tony T five times and include his photograph. No other person draws this focus. The tweets mention 'rape' twice. A reasonable interpretation is [Benz] was using Twitter to accuse Tony T of raping her."
The court conceded that "this interpretation is not the only possible one," but also pointed out that even though Benz's declaration asserted that she had not explicitly "posted that Tony T had raped her," she did give "her 862,000 Twitter followers access to that feed and not to her declaration."
According to a rep from the legal firm representing Tony T, “the court found that a reasonable interpretation of Benz’s tweets is that she was accusing Tony T of rape, and that her own ‘self-serving declaration about how to interpret her tweets cannot control.’ In her appeal, Nikki argued that her “statements were substantially true” and that her tweets were ‘mere opinion.’ The court disagreed with that reasoning and consequently affirmed Tony T’s superior court victory, and awarded him costs.”
“This has been a crazy experience and has been brutal for me. I want to get back into court and show all the evidence about the shoot to the judge and jury,” said Tony T.
Both the Tony T v. Nikki Benz and the Nikki Benz v. Brazzers trials were stayed pending the appeal, but now they both can proceed.