Former Donkey Kong Champion Billy Mitchell Wins $275,000 For Defamation Over YouTuber's Death
A long-time competitive gamer, Mitchell was made famous in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong for his high scores in several old arcade games, including the original Donkey Kong, for which he at various points held the champion title. But Twin Galaxies and The Guinness World Records vacated Mitchell's scores following a 2017 investigation into whether he used emulated software to achieve them, though Guinness later reinstated them.
It wasn't the broad claims Jobst made about Mitchell's controversial cheating saga that landed him in court for defamation, but specifically suggestions that Mitchell had contributed to the suicide of fellow YouTuber Benjamin 'Apollo Legend' Smith. Jobst said the following in a May 2021 video about Mitchell:
He also sued YouTuber Apollo Legend for $1,000,000. I haven't spoken about this publicly but this lawsuit ultimately ended with Apollo giving in and settling with Mitchell. He was forced to remove all his videos about Mitchell's cheating and paid him a large sum of money. This left him deeply in debt, which required him to find extra work, but with his ongoing health issues this was all too much of a burden and he ultimately took his own life. Not that Billy Mitchell would ever care, though. In fact, when Billy Mitchell thought Apollo died earlier he expressed joy at the thought. The lawsuit against Apollo was just as frivolous as the rest and Apollo definitely would have won in court, but again he was extremely ill and couldn't handle the ongoing stress.
It has since been revealed that no money changed hands as part of Mitchell's settlement with Smith. The YouTuber was forced to remove several videos about the cheating saga, but only had to pay potential damages if he published on the subject again. Jobst ended up retracting the claim about Smith going into debt as a result of the settlement, but the court found that Jobst's ongoing behavior around the topic continued contributing to reputational harm against Mitchell. (The former world champion previously claimed his doctor would no longer see him on account of the cheating accusations.)
The judge in the defamation case, Ken Barlow, concluded the following:
Mr. Jobst defamed Mr. Mitchell by making all the imputations that Mr. Mitchell alleged; (b) Mr. Mitchell has suffered significant personal and reputational harm as a consequence; (c) although he had the previous reputations alleged by Mr. Jobst, and the defamatory video raised other substantially true contextual imputations about him, Mr. Mitchell suffered substantially more personal and reputational harm as a consequence of Mr. Jobst's imputations about which Mr. Mitchell complains; (d) Mr. Jobst's conduct since the first publication of the video, including during this proceeding, has been aggravating and has caused additional personal hurt and reputational damage to Mr. Mitchell.
As a result, Jobst has been ordered to pay the former Donkey Kong champion $300,000 in non-economic damages, $50,000 in aggravated damages, and over $40,000 in interest, which amounts to roughly $275,000 in U.S. dollars. 'Nothing like the smell of victory in the evening air,' Mitchell wrote on X. 'Billy Mitchell always has a plan. Thank you to everyone who supported me. I am grateful.'
Jobst, however, is now facing scrutiny by some who were confused that the judge's verdict ultimately didn't come down to claims about whether Mitchell cheated. 'I lost,' Jobst wrote on X. 'The judge found Billy to be a credible witness and believed his entire testimony. From that point on unfortunately there was really nothing that could have saved me. I will now obviously consider my options. I know many of you will be upset with this and I am sorry for that. Thank you again for all the support I have received and I will endeavor to work as hard as I can to repay all that you are owed.'
A gofundme campaign to pay for Jobst's defense after a second lawsuit from Mitchell had been filed against him raised over $200,000 AUD. 'Last year, Billy Mitchell, star of The King of Kong and proven video game cheater, sued me for defamation,' reads the description. 'These lawsuits are unhinged and it is highly likely Billy will ultimately lose, but until we go to trial it requires a lot of money to deal with. I would appreciate any help that you are able to provide, as this affects not only me but my family as well. Obviously it's bad enough to attack me when I've done nothing wrong, but to injure them as well takes things to another level.'
But some now feel the way Jobst repeatedly talked about the lawsuit on his YouTube channel, including one video titled 'Cheater Billy Mitchell Just Keeps Losing,' misled viewers into thinking the trial was primarily about the cheating allegations. The videos include comments of people donating to his channel specifically over Smith's death. 'There are a lot of lies being spread that I falsely claimed Billy sued me because I said he cheated,' Jobst continued on X after losing the lawsuit. 'I never claimed this, I only claimed it was relevant as part of my defense.'
He added that his total legal fees 'are well over $600k,' and that he hadn't used the court case to try to drum up donations. 'But the criticism that I should have been more transparent is valid and I'm sorry,' he added. 'Truthfully I didn't want to repeat or mention any claims regarding Apollo Legend because it may have jeopardized my defense. I never intentionally lied regarding Apollo Legend either. I relied on incorrect information from multiple sources. I retracted the statements once I confirmed it was inaccurate but apparently it was not sufficient.'
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