TikTok Psychic Lawsuit: $10M Verdict, Appeal, and Tarot Defense

A federal jury in Boise ordered Houston TikTok tarot reader Ashley Guillard to pay $10 million to University of Idaho professor Rebecca Scofield on February 27, 2026, closing out a defamation case Scofield filed after Guillard spent more than three years posting videos falsely accusing her of orchestrating the November 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students. The TikTok psychic lawsuit, Scofield v. Guillard, produced $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $7.5 million in punitive damages. Guillard has appealed to the Ninth Circuit.¹

What Guillard Posted About Scofield

Starting around November 17, 2022, days after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were found stabbed to death in an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, Guillard began posting TikTok videos claiming Scofield, a history professor at the University of Idaho, had planned the killings to conceal a romantic relationship with one of the victims.² Guillard, who described herself as a “psychic crime solver” and “intuitive tarot reader,” cited tarot card readings as her evidence.

Her videos included statements such as “REBECCA WAS THE ONE TO INITIATE THE PLAN” and “Rebecca Scofield is going to prison for the murder of the 4 University of Idaho Students whether you like it or not.” She posted personal photos and contact information for Scofield and also accused Jack DuCoeur, victim Kaylee Goncalves’s ex-boyfriend, of being Scofield’s partner in the plot, even though police had cleared him.² Guillard’s audience of more than 100,000 followers pushed her Scofield content to millions of views.³

Scofield said she had never met any of the victims. She was in Portland, Oregon, at the time of the killings. Bryan Kohberger, a criminology graduate student at Washington State University, was arrested on December 30, 2022, later pleaded guilty in July 2025, and was sentenced to life in prison.⁴ Guillard kept posting through all of it, producing 112 videos targeting Scofield between November 2022 and August 2025.⁵

How the Court Found Guillard Liable

Scofield’s attorney sent a cease-and-desist letter seven days after the murders. Guillard posted the letter on TikTok with the comment, “I made NO FALSE STATEMENTS… [KISS MY ASS].”⁶ On December 21, 2022, Scofield filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, citing fear for her family’s safety.⁷ The case landed with U.S. Magistrate Judge Raymond E. Patricco Jr., with both parties consenting to his jurisdiction. Scofield was represented by Wendy J. Olson of Stoel Rives LLP, a former U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho.⁸

On June 6, 2024, Judge Patricco granted partial summary judgment for Scofield, finding Guillard liable on both counts: falsely accusing Scofield of orchestrating the murders, and falsely claiming she had a romantic relationship with a victim. The court ruled the statements were “defamatory per se” because they imputed both a serious crime and sexual misconduct incompatible with Scofield’s profession.⁶

The court noted the “complete lack of any corroborating support” for the accusations. Scofield’s declaration, along with University of Idaho records showing no connection to any of the victims, went unrebutted. Guillard’s defense rested on her use of her “spiritual brain, intuition, and investigative skills,” which the court held could not create a genuine factual dispute. The same order gave Scofield leave to seek punitive damages, with the court finding a “reasonable likelihood” that Guillard’s conduct was “oppressive, fraudulent, malicious, and/or outrageous.”⁹

The Damages Trial and the $10 Million Verdict

With liability resolved, a four-day trial on damages was held in Boise in late February 2026. A seven-member jury heard testimony only on how much Guillard owed.⁵

Scofield, chair of the University of Idaho’s history department, testified that she had developed severe anxiety, PTSD, and intense nerve pain, and described losing “ownership of my face and my name.” She said the harassment made it difficult to run her department.¹⁰ Her mother, Margie Scofield, testified that the family skipped a campus vigil for the murdered students in November 2022 to avoid unwanted attention. Scofield’s therapist of two years confirmed the PTSD diagnosis, and a public relations expert testified about the reputational damage.¹¹

Guillard represented herself and was her only witness, questioning herself in a Q&A format. She maintained her accusations were true, described her posts as part of a “spiritual journey” using tarot cards to help solve the case, and argued she was not required to hold factual documents to “exercise speech.” She characterized her accusations as “opinion at best.”⁵

After deliberating for just under two hours, the jury unanimously awarded $10 million: $2.5 million in compensatory damages for medical expenses and non-economic harm, and $7.5 million in punitive damages. Scofield’s attorneys had asked for $1 million in compensatories in closing and left the punitive figure to the jury. Her legal team separately sought about $165,000 in fees and costs.¹

“The jury’s decision sends the clear message that false statements online have consequences in the real world for real people and are unacceptable in our community,” Scofield said after the verdict.¹⁰

The Appeal and Post-Verdict Motions

On April 6, 2026, Guillard filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, which the court recorded on April 9. She also asked Judge Patricco to set aside the verdict, calling the case “fraudulent” and alleging that Scofield lied about her damages, presented “fabricated medical records,” and that witnesses committed perjury. She invoked her Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to a fair trial. In a separate motion, she asked the court to deny the attorney fee request, arguing Scofield’s lawyers had acted in “bad faith.”¹

The Ninth Circuit set a briefing schedule extending into July 2026. As of April 2026, no rulings had been issued on either the appeal or the motion to set aside the verdict.¹

Why the Tarot and Free Speech Defense Failed

Guillard’s central defense, both in her filings and at trial, was that tarot readings are a form of protected opinion, not fact. The court rejected that framing. In denying her motion to reconsider the liability ruling, Judge Patricco wrote that the court took no position on her spiritual beliefs, but the law does not immunize defamatory statements that lack any factual basis. Her posts were framed as factual assertions to a mass audience, not as clearly labeled opinion, and they caused real harm to a real person.¹²

The persistence weighed heavily. Guillard kept posting after the cease-and-desist letter, after the Moscow Police Department publicly stated on December 27, 2022 that detectives did not believe Scofield was involved,¹³ after Kohberger’s arrest, after the lawsuit was filed, after summary judgment was entered against her, and after Kohberger pleaded guilty. She also expanded to YouTube, where court filings documented interview-style videos attacking Scofield’s attorneys while repeating the underlying accusations. In one October 2023 video, she said: “I am in court because I told the truth and that person, Scofield, is threatened by me.”⁶

1
Idaho Statesman. Scofield Awarded $10M Jury Verdict
2
CBS News. University of Idaho Murders Professor Sues TikToker
3
The Nightly. Ashley Guillard TikTok Tarot Reader Ordered to Pay $10M
4
The Guardian. University of Idaho Murders TikTok Psychic
5
Idaho Statesman. Professor Awarded $10 Million in Defamation Case
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GovInfo. Scofield v. Guillard, Memorandum Decision and Order
7
CourtListener. Scofield v. Guillard Docket
8
Stoel Rives LLP. Wendy J. Olson
9
Reason. Plaintiff’s Idaho Murder Libel Claim Continues to Beat Defendant’s Psychic Intuition
10
Inside Higher Ed. Professor Accused of Murder by TikToker Awarded $10M
11
East Idaho News. Tarot TikToker Must Pay $10M to Professor She Accused in Moscow Murders
12
GovInfo. Scofield v. Guillard, Order on Motion to Alter Judgment
13
City of Moscow. Moscow Homicide Update