Defamation Claim Proceeds Against YouTuber’s Denialism–Robertson v. Upchurch

This case involves Ryan Upchurch, who Wikipedia describes as “an American rapper, singer-songwriter, and comedian.” He has 3M+ followers at YouTube.

For unspecified reasons, Upchurch started discussing the tragic and highly publicized disappearance of Kiely Rodni on his YouTube channel. (For a recap of Rodni’s story, see, e.g., this article). Kiely disappeared on August 6, 2022, and authorities claimed to have discovered her body on August 21, 2022. On August 21, Upchurch offered prayers for her family, and on August 22, Upchurch offered condolences to the Rodni family.

The court summarizes: “On August 23, 2022, authorities confirmed the identity of Kiely Rodni’s body.” For reasons not made clear by the opinion, Upchurch launched a campaign denying this on his YouTube channel. (I poked around the Internet and found other conspiracy discussions…none worth linking to). The court summarizes the allegations:

On August 28, 2022, Upchurch posted a video in which he accused the sheriff’s office that identified Kiely Rodni of being a “fake police department” and stated that Kiely Rodni’s disappearance was fake and that the police were involved in faking her existence and death. On August 29, 2022, Upchurch posted a video that Kiely Rodni and her family were “not real” and that her death was a “scam” to raise money on GoFundMe.

On September 1, 2022, Upchurch posted a phone number and address for Daniel Rodni [Kiely’s dad]. Plaintiffs allege that a result of this video and the ensuing negative attention he received, Daniel Rodni went into hiding and made substantial investments in home security, surveillance, and cameras. On September 3, 2022, Upchurch posted a video stating that “Kiely Rodni is not Kiely Rodni. Kiely Rodni is Callie Ross. Callie’s Ross’s dad is fake Kiely Rodni’s grandpa…”. On that same date, Upchurch posted a video stating “I would not say this unless I was 100% confident. Kiely Rodni is not real. Her grandfather is not real. Her dad is not real. Her mom is not real…All the pictures and videos you’re seeing of this Kiely Rodni person are actual pictures and videos from someone else named Callie, that are five to seven years old.”

On October 13, 2022, the coroner’s office declared that Kiely died in a drowning accident. Upchurch allegedly continued his denialism. The court summarizes the allegations: “On December 22, 2022, Upchurch posted a video stating “[l]et’s be honest with ourself [sic], at this point in the video, there is nothing to lead me to believe that this person is real. The Kiely Rodni person. There is nothing that shows me she’s real yet.”” Despite the pending lawsuit, Upchurch apparently continues to double-down on the denialism theories, posting videos expressing his continued doubts within the past few weeks.

It’s not hard to imagine the pain that Kiely’s family was feeling about her tragic death, and how that might be compounded by a high-profile YouTuber claiming that her death was being faked for the money. Family members sued Upchurch for defamation and the usual related claims. The court denies Upchurch’s motion to dismiss.

Everyone appears to agree that the family members are private figures, not public figures, so the actual malice standard doesn’t apply. Upchurch claimed his remarks were his opinions because “he made the statements without personal knowledge and formed his opinions based on reports, statements, photographs, interviews, and information that he disclosed to his audience.” The court disagrees because “Upchurch’s statements were expressed in terms of absolute certainty and are objectively capable of being proven false.” Also, Upchurch had previously acknowledged Kiely and the family before flipping to denialism. The allegation that the Rodni family was scamming on GoFundMe could support defamation per se.

Often, people untrained in the law will get excited about discovery, as if it’s where the truth, or least the hot goss, will finally be revealed. In this case, now that it’s ready to proceed to discovery, the Rodni family will be revictimized as they attempt to show, to a court’s satisfaction, that their daughter is in fact dead. And they will go through these additional heart-wrenching efforts because a YouTuber with millions of followers “made the statements without personal knowledge.” 💔

Case citation: Robertson v. Upchurch, 2024 WL 2303893 (M.D. Tenn. May 21, 2024)

UPDATE: Ryan Upchurch is involved in another defamation lawsuit, and it’s not going great. Cedeno v. Upchurch, 2024 WL 3609079 (M.D. Tenn. July 30, 2024)