Vic Mignogna’s Case Against Monical Rial, Ronald Toye and Funimation Completely Dismissed

We’ve been following the lawsuit brought by Vic Mignogna against Jamie Marchi, Monica Rial, Ronald Toye and Funimation since the beginning. For those who haven’t been keeping up with this, a number of women came forward (including Rial and Marchi) with stories of sexual harassment from Mignogna earlier this year.

In response, a lot of conventions cancelled Mignogna’s appearances (though a few either invited or re-invited him afterwards). Mignogna was also let go from US anime dubbing studio Funimation (owned by Sony) and from his role in Rooster Teeth’s RWBY. After some encouragement from (and a GoFundMe run by) Minnesota based lawyer Nick Rekieta, Mignogna filed a defamation suit against Rial, Marchi, Toye, and Funimation.

There’s really a lot that happened in the middle, but importantly the defendants challenged the suit under Texas’s Anti-SLAPP law (the TCPA), and a hearing was held on the matter about a month ago.

At that hearing, Judge John Chupp dismissed the case against Jamie Marchi entirely, along with most claims against the other defendants. A week and a half after that, Judge Chupp ordered both parties to attempt mediation to attempt to settle any remaining issues.

As that settlement resulted in an impasse, Judge Chupp has now issued his ruling on the TCPA motions. In it he has dismissed all remaining claims against the defendants under the TCPA. You can read the full dismissal here.

While Mignogna has raised plenty of money via his GoFundMe, it will likely not be enough to cover what happens next. Dismissal under the TCPA requires the plaintiff to pay the defendants’ attorney’s fees and may also include additional sanctions. Considering how many parties are involved, that is easily a six figure sum.

It should also be noted that Mignogna may try to appeal this dismissal (though that wouldn’t occur until after the TCPA sanctions are ruled on). If this occurs, we will continue to follow this story.