⚖️COURT UPDATE⚖️ Milagro Cooper has filed her APPELLANT REPLY BRIEF in her Eleventh Circuit appeal against Megan Pete.
Cooper, who is proceeding PRO SE, is asking the appellate court to reverse major portions of the $75,000 Amended Final Judgment.
Her reply focuses on SIX main areas👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾
• Rule 60(b)(6) and the reinstated defamation verdict
• Whether Cooper was “commissioned” by the Peterson family
• Actual malice
• Florida’s Anti-SLAPP statute
• The altered sexual depiction claim under Fla. Stat. § 836.13
• Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
On the DEFAMATION issue, Cooper argues that Rule 60(b)(6) should NOT have been used to override the jury’s finding that she should be treated as a media defendant.
She argues that the jury heard the same evidence later relied upon by the District Court and nevertheless found in her favor on media status.
According to Cooper, there was
• No newly discovered evidence.
• No intervening change in law.
• No new evidence unavailable to the jury.
Cooper also directly attacks Megan’s “COMMISSIONED SURROGATE” theory. She argues the evidence must be analyzed STATEMENT BY STATEMENT rather than treating her overall relationship with the Peterson family as proof that all three statements were commissioned.
On Statement 1, Cooper argues that a one-way text from Daystar Peterson telling her to contact him does NOT establish that he directed the statement.
On Statement 2, Cooper argues that the Akademiks interview had already been recorded and broadcast BEFORE a communication from Sonstar Peterson that Megan’s team relied upon.
On Statement 3, Cooper argues there is an even larger gap because the August 2024 post concerned Emilio Garcia’s separate lawsuit and she says Megan identified NO communication, payment or instruction from the Peterson family connected to that post.
Cooper also disputes the significance of approximately $3,000 in prior payments from Sonstar Peterson.
She says those transfers occurred between 2020 and 2022 and were NOT payments for the three statements at issue.
On ACTUAL MALICE, Cooper argues that Daystar Peterson’s criminal conviction does NOT automatically establish that every later criticism she made about Megan’s credibility was knowingly false.
She says the appellate court must independently review whether she subjectively knew each challenged statement was false or recklessly disregarded its truth.
On ANTI-SLAPP, Cooper acknowledges that she did NOT raise Florida’s statute in her original motion to dismiss or plead it as an affirmative defense.
BUT she argues successor counsel later asked for additional time to evaluate and file dispositive motions, including anti-SLAPP, and that the Court denied that extension.
She now asks the Eleventh Circuit to leave the anti-SLAPP issue available for consideration on REMAND if any speech-based claim is vacated.
On the ALTERED SEXUAL DEPICTION claim, Cooper argues that Fla. Stat. § 836.13 requires more than simply directing viewers toward a video.
She contends the statute also requires proof of a culpable mental state and argues that her contemporaneous statements questioning whether the video was AI and warning others not to repost it undermine a finding that she knowingly or maliciously promoted an altered depiction.
And on INTENTIONAL INFLICTION OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, Cooper argues that Megan cannot simply combine years of commentary, the deepfake dispute, offensive remarks and her relationship with the Peterson family into one “campaign” and automatically satisfy Florida’s extremely high outrageousness standard.
Cooper ultimately asks the Eleventh Circuit to👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾
• REVERSE the reinstated defamation verdict.
• REVERSE the Fla. Stat. § 836.13 judgment for insufficient evidence.
• REVERSE the IIED judgment for insufficient evidence.
• Require the District Court to address Florida’s Anti-SLAPP statute on remand if any speech-based claim is vacated.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
REPLY BREIF -
drive.google.com/file/d/1gob…