Dragon Ball Z Voice Actor Accused Of Sexual Harassment Loses Defamation Case Appeal, Ordered To Pay Thousands
Dragon Ball Z and Fullmetal Alchemist voice actor Vic Mignogna has lost an appeal on his defamation case. Mignogna may now have to pay thousands more to the parties he attempted to sue for defamation, as their legal fees exceed what he was previously ordered to pay.
This comes after Mignogna was accused of sexual harassment in 2019, and quickly lost his work with Funimation and Rooster Teeth. Mignogna attempted to sue Funimation and numerous voice actors for spreading the allegations, but was unsuccessful in both the initial trial and on appeal.
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As a result of this failed appeal, Mignogna will have to pay further court fees. As reported by Kotaku, he may also have to pay an even larger sum of money to voice actor Monica Rial and her fiancé Ronald Toye, since the appeal put their own legal fees above the $125,000 he was previously ordered to pay them.
Mignogna had been accused of sexual harassment for over a decade before he faced any repercussions. However, it all came to a head in 2019 with the release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, a movie centred around the character he voices in the English dub.
When the allegations resulted in him losing work - including the Dragon Ball Z role he had played for 16 years - he quickly sued his former employer and other voice actors for defamation. However, the Court of Appeals in the Second Appellate District of Texas has now ruled that Mignogna has no evidence that the allegations made against him were false, or were made with malice. This supports the initial October 2019 ruling, which also found that he did not have enough evidence to disprove the 17 claims he contested in court.
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