Bristol Police officer awarded $150k in damages after defamatory social media posts

20 minutes of deliberation is all it took for a jury to award Officer Lilly-Kay Tomlinson $150,000 in damages, after Stephanie Bates-Williams knowingly made defamatory posts on her social media. In September 2025, Officer Tomlinson was asked by casino staff to approach Williams about her access to an exclusive lounge in the Hard Rock casino. In the following days after the encounter, Williams released a series of TikToks calling Tomlinson violent, claiming she was injured, and calling for the officer to be fired. The jury decided the claims were defamatory and awarded Officer Tomlinson $75,000 in compensatory and $75,000 in punitive damages.