Black mother, attorney ginned up hate hoax that turned white teen's life upside down. Now Texas judge makes them pay.



A white Texas student's life was turned upside down by a hate hoax perpetrated by a black acquaintance's mother, Summer Smith, and her lawyer, Kim Cole.

Smith and Cole were at last visited by consequence on Jan. 22, when a Texas judge awarded the student, Asher Vann, $3.2 million in attorneys fees and damages from the duo.

A mother's hate hoax

Smith, of Plano, Texas, came forward in March 2021 with allegations about her black son's supposed bullying by a white acquaintance and other classmates.

'They knowingly and intentionally launched a crusade of false facts, allegations, and narratives to create a social media and public outrage.'

After lobbing various accusations and sharing images of minors from the Plano Independent School District online, Smith held a press conference where she alleged that her then-13-year-old son, SeMarion Humphrey, was subjected to racially charged abuse, forced to drink urine from a plastic cup, shot with BB guns at a sleepover, and threatened so that he would not speak out.

"This is not a prank. This is beyond bullying. You are evil. They are evil," Smith said at the press conference.

Cole — a lawyer who briefly represented Karmelo Anthony, the man accused of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a track meet last year — claimed that the supposed abuse at the sleepover was "pre-calculated" and "racially motivated" and alleged further that Humphrey's peers used racial and "homophobic" slurs against him.

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Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The duo's claims were not only gobbled up by Dominique Alexander, the founder of Next Generation Action Network, and other leftist activists who demanded "justice" and marched with the supposed victim but amplified by the liberal media and in a viral petition that secured over 182,000 signatures.

The school district, faced with intense scrutiny after Smith's press conference, launched an investigation into the matter. The Plano Police Department similarly indicated that it was looking into the matter.

Facing similar pressure, then-Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere joined other officials in condemning the alleged "abhorrent behavior" and spoke of the need to "end bullying and racial abuse in our school and certainly in our community."

The false victim narrative that prompted all this hand-wringing initially proved lucrative for Smith.

With Cole's help, Smith was able to raise nearly $120,000 on GoFundMe in the name of therapy, private schooling, and "justice for SeMarion."

The Washington Free Beacon, citing court records, reported that less than $1,000 of the money raised went toward Humphrey's schooling. The rest was blown on luxuries including dining, travel, beauty products, liquor, cell phones, car payments, rent, and a designer dog.

While Smith raked in the cash, Asher Vann, the white student accused of organizing the alleged attack on Humphrey, was vilified and attacked.

"I was getting death threats from thousands of people on social media," Vann told the Free Beacon. "People leaked my address and my name. During one of the protests, they walked all the way to my house and threw bricks through my house."

"It was scary," continued Vann, whose family apparently often looked after Humphrey. "These were adults, and I was in middle school at the time. Full-grown adults were rushing my house and causing harm to it. What if I was home and they saw me? They could have ripped me from my home and beaten me. It was very scary."

In addition to bricks and vitriol, Vann was slapped along with some of his friends with criminal charges — charges that a grand jury declined to accept and a Plano Police Department officer admitted last year likely lacked probable cause, the Free Beacon reported.

A father's justice

Aaron Vann ultimately sued Cole and Smith on behalf of his son, Asher.

The lawsuit accused the duo of:

  • creating an "outrageously false narrative for the purposes of raising money and garnering attention, at the expense of children's privacy";
  • invasion of privacy, noting that Smith and Cole apparently publicized the teen's name and address "with the express purpose of causing humiliation, public ridicule, and inspiring public hatred and harassment" of the teen; and
  • acting "intentionally and/or recklessly, when they knowingly and intentionally launched a crusade of false facts, allegations, and narratives to create a social media and public outrage designed to torment [Asher] and subject him to intense ridicule, hatred, embarrassment, and fear – all based on facts Defendants knew to be false."
Vann's complaint, which also suggested that Cole helped manufacture the controversy in order to gain exposure and "free publicity for her law firm," emphasized that Humphrey wasn't the victim of a "sadistic racist fantasy" but rather one among a group of boys who "acted stupidly by playing with BB guns and playing gross pranks on each other."

According to Plano Police Department Officer Patricia McClure's 2025 testimony cited by the Beacon, the boys attending the sleepover apparently went outside with airsoft rifles and BB guns in search of frogs during a winter storm. Absent any sign of amphibian targets, the boys reportedly took turns shooting one another. Later, they pranked one another.

Vann suggested to the Beacon that there was no ill will between him and Humphrey after the sleepover but that Smith later caught wind of the events and pushed an alternate version in the press.

The case was called to trial in late October, and a jury — which included four black members — found that Smith and Cole effectively blew up Asher Vann's life with a false narrative.

Judge Benjamin Smith of Texas' 380th Judicial District Court ruled late last month that for their "intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy" against the young man, Smith and her lawyer must each pay $1,599,000, accruing interest at a rate of 7.5% per annum. The judge also ordered both women to each pay several thousand dollars more for Vann's attorney fees.

Smith told the Beacon she plans on filing an appeal and maintains that her preferred narrative is the truth. Cole did not return Blaze News' request for comment.

This is not the Vann family's first court victory in recent years.

The Vanns took the Plano Independent School District to court after it suspended Asher Vann for three days and placed him in an off-campus disciplinary program for 75 days amid Smith's hate hoax campaign. In 2022, a U.S. district court found that the district had indeed violated the boy's substantive due process rights.

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Florida teen accused of abduction hoax faces justice — and alleged ruse appears even more elaborate than initially thought



Late last month, Blaze News reported about a Florida teen who authorities said carried out a jaw-dropping hoax featuring his own supposed kidnapping as well as texts to his family claiming he'd been shot and was being followed by four Hispanic men.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office and surrounding agencies pulled out all the stops, committing personnel and resources over the course of about 24 hours to find 17-year-old Caden Speight.

'While continuing the investigation, detectives additionally learned that Speight had mentioned running away before, and they located ChatGPT searches on his laptop about collecting his blood without causing pain and Mexican cartels.'

But things began looking suspicious with every update, and finally the kid was found. But it was far from a happy reunion.

Turns out authorities said Speight shot himself in the leg. And his claim about Hispanic men following him? Made-up. But that was just for starters.

It now appears that his alleged hoax was even more elaborate than authorities first thought.

How it began

An Amber Alert was issued on the night of Sept. 25 stating that Speight was last seen about four hours earlier in the 12800 block of SW Highway 484 in Dunnellon, which is about an hour south of Gainesville.

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Image source: Marion County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office

As time wore on and the crisis heightened, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods noted that he had dedicated all of his available resources in an effort to find the teen, and his personnel worked through the night of Sept. 25 and through most of the next day on the case. In fact, Woods later said "federal agencies" as well as reinforcements "from around the state" turned out to help.

Many observers also were worried; one replied to the alert on Facebook with the following: "Oh, dear Jesus, please bring this young man back to his family safe and unharmed."

But after the Hispanic men claim was debunked, authorities combed the scene where both Speight's truck had been found and a shooting had been reported. The teen wasn't there — but a bullet hole in the truck reportedly was.

The dominoes kept falling. An updated alert added that it was possible Speight "left the incident location on a black bicycle with a red and grey tent, which he purchased at Walmart on SW 19th Avenue Road in Ocala just prior to this incident being reported." Ocala is about 40 minutes northeast of Dunnellon.

Finally the sheriff's office said on the afternoon of Sept. 26 that Speight had "been located safe in Williston," which is about 35 minutes northwest of Ocala.

Authorities say it was a hoax

Sheriff Woods a few days later announced in a video update that Speight made it all up.

Woods said, "We had witnesses that contradicted the initial information. Caden simply rode away towards Williston while the rest of us were left to think the worst, and my team was working in overdrive to solve this case."

As for the teen's claim that he'd been shot, the sheriff said, "Content to continue the ruse, Caden — who had a handgun with him since the beginning of all of this — chose to shoot himself in the leg, causing a non-life-threatening injury just prior to walking out to the roadway where he would be located by citizens in Williston. There is zero chance that Caden's gunshot wound came from any type of an assailant."

Woods added that numerous people asked if Speight would face consequences, and this week that has come to pass.

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Facing justice

The sheriff's office said Major Crimes Detective Jason Williams on Tuesday arrested Speight for presenting false evidence, shooting into a conveyance, making a false report of a crime, and possession of a firearm by a minor.

In its announcement, the sheriff's office added that during the all-out search for Speight, crime scene technicians noticed a bullet hole through the windshield of his vehicle, suspected blood, Speight's severely damaged cell phone, drag marks in the dirt, and bicycle tracks leading away from his truck.

But authorities soon said he went much further than that in an attempt to solidify the hoax:

Further investigation and testing revealed that Speight had fired the shot through the windshield, splattered a mixture of blood in the truck, and destroyed his cell phone. Speight then fled the area on a bicycle with camping supplies he purchased at Walmart just before reporting this incident. An eyewitness also advised that he saw Speight leaving the area on a bicycle.

While continuing the investigation, detectives additionally learned that Speight had mentioned running away before, and they located ChatGPT searches on his laptop about collecting his blood without causing pain and Mexican cartels. On September 26, 2025, Williston Police Department (WPD) officers located Speight during a call for service at 727 W Noble Avenue in Williston. Speight was found with a handgun and the bicycle still in his possession. He attempted to continue the ruse and had a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his leg, which shattered his femur and required medical treatment.

The sheriff's office said that after Speight's arrest, he was taken to the Department of Juvenile Justice.

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Missing Florida teen texted family that he got shot, was pursued by 4 Hispanic men — but cops say nothing was what it seemed



Law enforcement in Florida went into overdrive mode late last week when it was reported that 17-year-old Caden Speight was missing.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office issued an Amber Alert Thursday night stating that Speight was last seen around 4 p.m. Thursday in the 12800 block of SW Highway 484 in Dunnellon, which is about an hour south of Gainesville.

'Oh, dear Jesus, please bring this young man back to his family safe and unharmed.'

The alert also stated that "law enforcement believes he may be with four unknown men, possibly Hispanic, who are driving a light-colored van. If you have any information about his whereabouts, or if you see him, please do NOT approach and call 911 immediately."

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Image source: Marion County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office

As time wore on and the crisis heightened, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods noted that he had dedicated all of his available resources in an effort to find the teen, and his personnel worked through Thursday night and into Friday on the case. In fact, Woods later said "federal agencies" as well as reinforcements "from around the state" turned out to help.

It was a big operation, indeed.

Many observers also were worried; one replied to the alert on Facebook with the following: "Oh, dear Jesus, please bring this young man back to his family safe and unharmed."

But the original story soon got a bit hinky.

In an updated alert Friday, the sheriff's office said that "detectives obtained information and collected evidence that are unsupportive of the initially reported facts" and that "there is no evidence to indicate that he was taken by four Hispanic men in a light-colored van."

Officials added that they arrived at this determination after an initial investigation of the teen's disappearance as well as a shooting reported in the 12800 block of SW Highway 484 around 4:10 p.m. Thursday. It was the same time when — and place where — the teen was last seen.

The updated alert added that it was possible the teen "left the incident location on a black bicycle with a red and grey tent, which he purchased at Walmart on SW 19th Avenue Road in Ocala just prior to this incident being reported." Ocala is about 40 minutes northeast of Dunnellon.

"Since Caden is still a missing endangered juvenile, MSCO is asking anyone who may have seen a male matching his description with a dark-colored mountain bike and a tent to call 911," the sheriff's office added.

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WESH-TV reported that when deputies arrived at the scene of the reported shooting, they found a car belonging to Speight, but he was not there. A separate WESH video report indicated that a bullet hole was found in that vehicle.

But a witness named Jackson McClure also spoke to the station Friday morning, and WESH reported he had the following to say: "I passed by here around 4 o'clock, and there was a boy, young man, believed to be the guy they're looking for, getting something out of the truck and shoving it into a book bag, and then about 10 to 15 [minutes] later, I believe he drove by my house on a bicycle. I called [the] Marion County non-emergency line and told them what I had seen, and they said, 'Thank you very much, that's very helpful.'"

WESH noted that McClure also said police "did ask me if he was bleeding as he went by, and I told them no, he looked normal, and he wasn't struggling to ride his bicycle."

Finally, by late Friday afternoon, the sheriff's office said Speight "has been located safe in Williston," which is about 35 minutes northwest of Ocala.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave

Sheriff Woods soon announced in a video some major developments in the case — but they cast a decidedly negative light on the teen whom law enforcement worked so hard to find.

First off, the sheriff's office on Tuesday told Blaze News that Speight was the one who made the claim about the four Hispanic men. In fact, the sheriff's office added to Blaze News that Speight in a text message "claimed that four Hispanic men in a white van were following him, and that he was shot."

Woods addressed this issue and didn't hold back, revealing that "the initial details that Caden texted to his family were proven to be false. Completely made up."

Woods added that evidence indeed was found "of a single gunshot where Caden left his truck. However, his claims that he had been shot and abducted were quickly disproven. We then learned that he had purchased a bicycle, tent, and camping supplies just prior to him reporting this."

The sheriff's office on Tuesday added to Blaze News that "based on the information he provided to his family and the evidence located on scene, MCSO was working his disappearance as a possible shooting and abduction. It was clear that Caden made an effort to leave the scene in such a state that, in the context of his last text, it would appear he was shot and kidnapped."

Woods added that "we had witnesses that contradicted the initial information. Caden simply rode away toward Williston while the rest of us were left to think the worst, and my team was working in overdrive to solve this case."

Then came the kid's outrageous coup de grace, which Woods detailed: "Now, content to continue the ruse, Caden — who had a handgun with him since the beginning of all of this — chose to shoot himself in the leg, causing a non-life-threatening injury just prior to walking out to the roadway where he would be located by citizens in Williston. There is zero chance that Caden's gunshot wound came from any type of an assailant."

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Woods added in his video update that many people have wondered if Speight will face any charges and what the cost to taxpayers will be after this "large-scale investigation and search."

"Trust me," the sheriff said. "It is on my mind. I can tell you those items are not off the table at this point. Right now, we are still processing all of the evidence in this case. I don't want to make any statements on that until we have fully examined it all."

However, despite detectives having "a lot of questions for Caden," the sheriff added that "his parents refuse to allow my detectives to speak with him so that we could come to a true, final conclusion in all this."

"Again, thank you citizens for your tips and information that you sent in," Woods concluded, "and when we do have any updated information on this case, I promise you, we will provide it to you."

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Disgraced Russiagate hoaxer Peter Strzok gets some bad news regarding his federal case



Peter Strzok, the former FBI agent who launched the bureau's Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the Trump campaign, was fired in 2018.

This termination took place several months after his removal from special counsel Robert Mueller's team over Strzok's damning text messages to then-FBI lawyer Lisa Page, which denigrated the very people the bureau was investigating, including President Donald Trump.

'The Court finds that there is no genuine dispute of material fact that would preclude the entry of summary judgment in the defendants' favor.'

When Page texted Strzok ahead of the 2016 election for assurance that Trump was "not ever going to become president," the FBI agent replied, "No. No he's not. We'll stop it."

The bureau noted at the time of his termination that Strzok, whom President Donald Trump has labeled a "fraud" and a "sick loser," "was subject to the standard FBI review and disciplinary process after conduct highlighted in the IG report was referred to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility."

While his firing appeared to be justly deserved, Strzok nevertheless filed a lawsuit in August 2019, challenging his dismissal and claiming that the Department of Justice and FBI violated his rights to free speech and privacy — even though his damning messages were exchanged on his FBI-issued device.

An Obama judge just delivered Strzok some bad news.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in a ruling Tuesday that after a review of years-worth of evidence and testimony, "The Court finds that there is no genuine dispute of material fact that would preclude the entry of summary judgment in the defendants' favor and that [Strzok's] motion for summary judgment should be denied."

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Jackson noted that it was not up to her to decide "whether it was unnecessarily harsh to end plaintiff's career after a long, unblemished record of outstanding service to the agency, or whether a severe sanction was necessary to address the lack of professionalism and appearance of bias in the messages."

The question before her was instead whether the bureau's firing of Strzok "comported with the Constitution."

When considering Strzok's First Amendment claim, Jackson noted that the Russiagate hoaxer's "interest in expressing his opinions about political candidates on his FBI phone at that time was outweighed by the FBI’s interest in avoiding the appearance of bias in its ongoing investigations of those very people, and in protecting against the disruption of its law enforcement operations under then-Director Wray's leadership."

Jackson noted further that Strzok proved unable to point to evidence that the DOJ and FBI treated him any "more harshly than they would have treated employees in similar circumstances because the viewpoint expressed in the texts was critical of President Trump."

Apparently, there was no point of comparison as the FBI officials deposed said the situation was unprecedented.

Jackson's full opinion was filed under seal "because it contains references to materials, such as deposition transcripts, that were filed under seal in an abundance of caution at the request of at least one of the parties at the time."

While Strzok lost this battle, the DOJ under former Attorney General Merrick Garland entered into a $1.2 million agreement with the Russiagate hoaxer in the final months of the Biden administration to settle his privacy-invasion claims.

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed earlier this month that Garland and former FBI Director Christopher Wray decided to give Strzok the money.

Politico indicated that Strzok's attorney did not respond to its request for comment.

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Al Gore wrong again: Study delivers good news for Arctic ice trends, bad news for climate hucksters



Failed presidential candidate Al Gore claimed in his 2007 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech that the previous year, "as the Northern Hemisphere tilted away from the sun, scientists reported with unprecedented distress that the North Polar ice cap is 'falling off a cliff.' One study estimated that it could be completely gone during summer in less than 22 years."

Two years later, the climate alarmist told the Copenhagen Climate Conference that new research indicated there was "a 75% chance that the entire north polar ice cap during some of the summer months could be completely ice free within the next five to seven years."

It turns out Al Gore, whose fearmongering reportedly nets him $200,000 per speaking engagement, was not only wrong about a 20-foot rise in the global sea level "in the near future," polar bear drownings, and the snows of Kilimanjaro, but also about the future of Arctic ice.

A paper published this month in the American Geophysical Union's biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters indicated that over the past 20 years, "Arctic sea ice loss has slowed considerably, with no statistically significant decline in September sea ice area since 2005."

This slowdown in the loss of Arctic sea ice was pronounced across all months of the year and could "plausibly" continue over the next decade.

The researchers behind the paper — from Columbia University and the University of Exeter — indicated that even with relatively high global temperatures, "climate modeling evidence suggests we should expect periods like this to occur somewhat frequently."

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Photo by PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP via Getty Images

Natural factors, variations in ocean currents in particular, have a tremendous impact in this arena — accelerating, slowing, or reversing ice loss — and have apparently served in recent decades to offset the impact of relatively high global temperatures.

This natural corrective is all the more critical as humans reduce their emissions.

'Now the [natural] variability has switched to largely cancelling out sea ice loss.'

While the authors take for granted that ice loss over the past 50 years has been driven in part by "human-induced climate change," they acknowledged that there was actually significant Arctic sea ice expansion during at least one other period of increasing anthropogenic greenhouse emissions — from the 1940s to the 1970s.

An increase in industrial aerosol emissions from North America and Europe reportedly helped cool the Arctic in the mid-20th century. The very phase-out of exhaust — particularly sulfur emissions — from ships that some environmentalists advocated for appears to have "contributed to enhanced global and Arctic warming since 2020," said the paper.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Program Office indicated that in 2020, new international shipping regulations "drastically" cut sulfur emissions from ships. The exhaust they previously created — reflective clouds called "ship tracks" — had long reflected sunlight back into space, thereby cooling the planet.

"It is surprising, when there is a current debate about whether global warming is accelerating, that we’re talking about a slowdown," Mark England, the researcher who led the study, told the Guardian.

While willing to admit the alarmism of yesteryear was bunkum, England still was sure to tinge his forecast with pessimism.

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Photo by Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

"The good news is that 10 to 15 years ago when sea ice loss was accelerating, some people were talking about an ice-free Arctic before 2020," said England. "But now the [natural] variability has switched to largely cancelling out sea ice loss. It has bought us a bit more time, but it is a temporary reprieve — when it ends, it isn't good news."

England emphasized the need to maintain a sense of urgency and alarm, stating, "Climate change is unequivocally real, human-driven, and continues to pose serious threats. The fundamental science and urgency for climate action remain unchanged."

While Arctic ice loss has slowed, the Antarctic has been gaining ice in recent years.

According to a 2023 study published in the European Geosciences Union's peer-reviewed journal the Cryosphere, the Antarctic ice shelf area grew by 2048.27 square miles between 2009 and 2019, gaining 661 gigatonnes of ice mass "with 18 ice shelves retreating and 16 larger shelves growing in area."

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