Judge Chucks Sex Offender's $4M Lawsuit Against Victim

He sued over being called a rapist on Facebook
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 4, 2016 3:52 AM CDT
Judge Chucks Sex Offender's $4M Lawsuit Against Victim
Yee Xiong, 24, sits for a photo at her attorney's office in Sacramento, Calif., on Aug. 12, 2016. She has spoken publicly about her ordeal.   (AP Photo/Darcy Costello)

A sex offender serving time in a California jail can't sue his victim for calling him a rapist, a judge in California has decided. The Sacramento Bee reports that the judge took less than 30 minutes to throw out a $4 million defamation lawsuit from Lang Her, a 26-year-old former University of California, Davis, student who stood trial twice for allegedly assaulting fellow student Yee Xiong at a party in 2012. Instead of going to trial a third time after the first two resulted in hung juries, he pleaded no contest to assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury—but also sued Xiong and three of her siblings for calling him a rapist in Facebook comments.

Her claimed the Facebook posts caused him "mental and emotional distress." McGregor Scott, who represented Xiong, says the lawsuit is part of a trend of men found guilty of sexual assault trying to sue their victims, the Guardian reports. Xiong has previously called the lawsuit a "slap to the face," per AP. "This was all about causing her additional grief and causing her additional stress and revictimizing the victim for no purpose," says Scott, who believes Monday's decision will deter similar lawsuits from other sex offenders—especially since the judge ordered Her to pay attorney's fees. Scott actually worked pro bono, and he plans to donate any fees he receives to an organization that supports rape victims. (More California stories.)

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