A self-proclaimed TikTok psychic named Ashley Gillard spent roughly three years making more than 100 videos falsely accusing University of Idaho history professor Rebecca Scofield of orchestrating a quadruple homicide and having an inappropriate relationship with a student. Her only evidence was tarot cards and what she described as spiritual intuition. A federal jury in Boise, Idaho has now ordered her to pay $10 million in damages.
The story traces back to the 2022 m*rders of four University of Idaho students in Moscow, Idaho. When the case captured national attention, internet grifters rushed to fill the void of information. Gillard saw an opportunity.
She began posting videos naming Scofield, a professor who had never taught any of the vi*tims, had no connection to them, and was out of state in Oregon with her husband the night the m*rders occurred. None of that mattered to Gillard, who kept posting.
Scofield sent cease and desist letters. Gillard responded by posting a video announcing she would wipe herself with the demand letter. She continued uploading content even after law enforcement arrested Brian Coberger, a Washington State University graduate student who later admitted to committing the m*rders and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms with no possibility of parole. Even with someone behind bars for the cr*me, Gillard kept insisting Scofield was involved.
The defamation lawsuit moved through federal court for years. In June 2024, a judge ruled that Gillard had in fact defamed Scofield, finding her claims had a complete lack of corroborating support. As the court stated, intuition, even summoned by one’s spirituality, does not make a legal claim plausible. The only remaining question heading into trial was how much Gillard would owe.
The damages trial itself became a spectacle. Gillard represented herself, listed herself as every single witness in her own filing, and took the stand to interview herself in third person. When asked directly whether she had a single fact linking Scofield to the murders before posting, she admitted she did not verify anything because her tarot cards had already told her the answer. She also acknowledged under oath that she looked for evidence only after she had already made the accusations.
The jury returned a unanimous verdict of $10 million, including $5 million in punitive damages.
Rather than accept the outcome, Gillard went straight back to TikTok. She called the verdict ridiculous, accused the jury of bias, questioned the impartiality of a juror she claimed had professional ties to Scoffield’s law firm, and argued that the professor was not actually damaged because she had received support from colleagues and a GoFundMe.
She also threatened to sue YouTuber Atozy, who covered the trial in person, claiming he had been harassing her, after he asked her a single question outside the courthouse on camera.
As Atozy noted, Scofield’s therapist testified that the professor developed PTSD and chronic anxiety from years of being publicly accused of planning the murders of students at her own university. Her mother testified to watching her daughter deteriorate. Gillard’s response was to pull out the DSM-5 in court and argue the diagnosis was invalid.
Gillard is now pursuing an appeal while posting from beaches in Thailand and announcing she is already back to solving new cases. The professor, meanwhile, is still in treatment.
