TikTok personality files countersuit against U. of Idaho professor she accused of Moscow killings

A Texas-based TikTok user who accused a University of Idaho professor of the quadruple homicide in Moscow, and faces a defamation lawsuit, has filed a countersuit against the professor.

Ashley Guillard filed 11 counterclaims against Rebecca Scofield and her legal team: Wendy Olson, Elijah Watkins and Cory Carone. Scofield’s lawyers aim to have the counterclaims dropped at a court hearing Friday.

The initial defamation lawsuit was against Guillard, who has made false allegations against Scofield on TikTok and claimed that the professor was responsible for the stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21; and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20.

In a 61-page counterclaim, Guillard asserts that her “spiritual intuition” led her to Scofield and accuses the professor of being the mastermind behind the homicides. Scofield’s complaint said that Guillard uses tarot cards to “solve” crimes, according to previous Idaho Statesman reporting.

The Moscow Police Department publicly said in December that Scofield was not involved with the homicides. Bryan Kohberger, the suspect facing four first-degree murder charges, will face a trial scheduled for Oct. 2. Prosecutors said they intend to pursue the death penalty.

In Scofield’s defamation lawsuit, she said she was in Portland, Oregon, visiting friends with her husband when the homicides took place on Nov. 13. Scofield also said she has not taught any of the four students in her classes and has not met them while at the university.

Scofield’s attorneys in a memorandum said Guillard’s countersuit was made to purposely delay the trial and increase her legal expenses.

“Guillard has relentlessly attacked Professor Scofield’s reputation and made a spectacle of the tragic loss of four young lives, and she cannot even allege, let alone provide, any actual facts to back it up,” attorneys said in the memorandum.

The countersuit added more legal fees for Scofield, said Stefanie Ramirez, an associate professor of economics at the University of Idaho and Scofield’s close friend. Ramirez has set up a GoFundMe to raise funds for the professor. Another GoFundMe, set up by professors in the spring, raised over $25,000, Ramirez told the Statesman.

The current GoFundMe has raised over $13,000 with a goal of $100,000. Any extra funds raised will be donated to a student scholarship the university has set up to honor the four victims.

“I’m glad that she can see now that the public is generally on her side, that nobody is putting stock into these accusations, even if they don’t know her,” Ramirez said. “To see such public support I think has been really good for her.”

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