Alyssa Mercante Sues Smash JT For Stochastic Terrorism, Defamation, And More
Former Kotaku Senior Editor Alyssa Mercante filed a lawsuit against Smash JT in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York for stochastic terrorism, defamation, bias related violence or intimidation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and tortious interference.
Mercante shared the lawsuit to social media which was filed by her lawyers Lane A. Haygood, Don McGowan, and J. Remy Green.
She and her lawyers specifically allege that Smash JT defamed her by claiming she sucks “d***s for money.”
The lawyers accuse that Smash JT “made factually false statements about her with actual malice. Because Tarzia’s quoted statements are statements which impugns the chastity of Alyssa Mercante and accuse her of the commission of a crime of moral turpitude, to wit: prostitution under N.Y. Penal Law § 230, under New York Civil Rights Law § 77, is they are defamatory per se and special damages need not be plead.”
They add, “Nevertheless, as a direct and proximate result of the false statement by Tarzia, Alyssa Mercante has suffered the following non-exclusive list of damages: injury to her professional reputation; loss of status and goodwill at her job; loss of status and goodwill in the industry she covers; injury to her personal reputation; loss of economic opportunity; loss of income; and mental anguish.”
Next, Mercante claims that Smash JT harassed her “by engaging in a course of conduct that has reasonably put her in fear of physical injury. Under New York Civil Rights Law § 79-n, Alyssa Mercante states upon information and belief that his selection of her for harassment is based upon Jeff Tarzia’s belief or perception regarding Alyssa Mercante’s race, color, gender, age, and/or sexual orientation.”
From there, they accuse Smash JT of intentionally inflicting emotional distress on Mercante.
The lawsuit alleges, “Tarzia has engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct. Not only has he committed individually the torts set forth in this Complaint, but his conduct has touched off a firestorm that has resulted in Alyssa having to daily face unwanted attention online from malefactors, both in public and private messages.”
“This has always been Tarzia’s intent. He knew before making a single statement about Mercante that some of his viewers would take it too far, and he made the statements he did understanding and believing that this type of conduct would result,” it adds.
It then asserts, “The direct and proximate result of Tarzia’s actions and words is that Alyssa Mercante suffered compensable damages within the jurisdictional limits of this Court.”
The fourth accusation is that Smash JT engaged in tortious interference with contract. It states, “Jeff Tarzia’s harassment campaign, detailed above, intentionally sought to run Alyssa Mercante out of the video games journalism industry. Jeff Tarzia’s harassment was unlawful and tortious. Jeff Tarzia’s unlawful harassment was intended to interfere with Alyssa Mercante’s employment. Jeff Tarzia promoted the commentary by streamer Destiny related to Mercante’s support of Hasan Piker, which led to people accusing Mercante of antisemitism.”
“As a direct and proximate result of Tarzia’s unlawful harassment, Alyssa Mercante lost her job and had her contract bought out by her now-former employer. Tarzia intentionally and knowingly tortiously interfered with Alyssa Mercante’s contract with her employer,” the suit accuses.
Finally, it accuses Smash JT of common law stochastic terrorism and/or prima facie tort.
It claims that Smash JT “stoked harassment by his followers. That stoking is by design. … New York and this Court should recognize a residual liability tort for stochastic terrorism where a person engaged in a targeted pattern of harassment directed at one person, with the express goal of otherwise tortiously interfering in that person’s life or livelihood.”
It later states, “This Court should impose new tort liability for stochastic terrorism, in accordance with its sister court in Washington, so that Jeff Tarzia’s wrongs do not go unpunished. In the alternative, the Court should use the elements of prima facie tort here: Tarzia has engaged in (1) intentional infliction of harm, (2) causing special damages, (3) without justification or excuse, (4) by otherwise lawful acts.”
“Alyssa Mercante has undeniably suffered compensable damages within the jurisdiction of this court, including, but not limited to: lost wages, loss of business opportunity, loss of business goodwill, damage to reputation, loss of employment, mental anguish, and punitive damages, for which demand is now made,” it concludes.
Smash JT responded to the lawsuit on X. He wrote, “You are as annoying as you are irrelevant.”
He later shared a gif from Predator of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch character putting on war paint.
What do you make of Mercante’s lawsuit against Smash JT?
NEXT: Kotaku Journalist Alyssa Mercante Threatens To Sue Kiwi Farms
Smash JT showed HER tweets and HER posts. He didn't defame her. All it will take is to show HER tweets and HER posts (and videos) and the suit is squashed (and hopefully the court will make her pay for JT's costs.)
IF she deletes ANYTHING now, after the suit has been filed, such an act will cause LOTS of bad things legally to happen. She probably (if she's smart, I'm guessing she's not) scrubbed before the suit, but TOO close to the filing which can be brought up as destroying evidence... and a default judgement will go to Smash JT.
She has got an ambulance chaser (and not a good one) or a slip-and-fall charlatan convincing her that she has a case. She doesn't. Defamation is REALLY hard to prove in court. Just saying "he's a meanie! Make him stop!" is not a solid legal defense.
I hope she has some savings... she's gonna blow through them just getting TO court. And the simps who follow her don't look like they can muster enough money between them to buy a Happy Meal.
Ms. Mercante has nothing to worry about. Nobody would want that crazy anywhere around their equipment.
I think Ms. Mercante needs to sit in her safe space and get off the internet, because the internet is not safe space for fragile egos.