A federal judge has thrown out a defamation lawsuit filed by the 2025 winner of the Miss Pennsylvania contest, a Back Mountain native who alleged a former competitor falsely portrayed her in a tabloid media report as being the aggressor during a heated backstage rivalry.
In a ruling handed down earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Julia K. Munley dismissed the suit filed by Shavertown resident Victoria Vespico, who claimed she was defamed in a Daily Mail article in which competitor Robyn Kass-Gerji accused her of harassing and threatening behavior.
The judge — who noted that “truth is an absolute defense” to a defamation claim under Pennsylvania law — opened her 33-page memorandum by quoting a message from Vespico to Kass-Gerji: “I swear, if you don’t drop out of Miss Pennsylvania, I will come to your home and set it on fire. I don’t even care if you or your mom are inside. I actually hope you are. You both deserve to die. I am going to kill you, Robyn. I don’t understand why you don’t get that. I will burn you. You will die.”
Vespico won the Miss Pennsylvania title last year, allowing her to move on to represent the state at the Miss America 2025 Contest in Orlando, Florida.
Her lawsuit, filed in March 2025 via her attorneys with the Philadelphia law firm Marino Associates, alleged she was defamed while competing a year earlier in the 2024 Miss Pennsylvania contest, in which she finished as second runner up.
The lawsuit targeted Kass-Gerji as well the Daily Mail and its journalist Laura Collins.
Last May, Vespico voluntarily dropped her allegations against Collins and the Daily Mail, but persisted with her suit against Kass-Gerji. The complaint alleged that Kass-Gerji falsely accused Vespico of harassment and making threats in an effort to gain “a competitive advantage in the 2024 Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Competition.”
In July, Kass-Gerji’s attorneys sought dismissal of the complaint, arguing that Vespico’s claims were meritless and had already been litigated by a judge in Washington, D.C.
Vespico “cannot manufacture a second bite at the apple through procedural gamesmanship and baseless fraud allegations,” wrote Kass-Gerji’s attorneys with the Scranton law firm Myers, Brier & Kelly and the firm Litson PLLC of Nashville, Tennessee.
According to Munley’s memorandum dismissing the case, the superior court judge from Washington previously sided with Kass-Gerji following a two-day hearing and issued an anti-stalking order against Vespico.
“The judge concluded that Vespico was not believable and that she had sent the threatening texts,” Munley wrote. “He determined that Kass-Gerji was not lying or fabricating evidence.”
The judge noted that Vespico nevertheless continued to maintain Kass-Gerji fabricated her claims to get attention. As evidence, Vespico noted that Kass-Gerji talked about the situation with the Daily Mail, which in July 2024 published an article headlined: “Miss Pennsylvania runner-up Victoria Vespico called rival Robyn Kass-Gerji ‘piggy (expletive)’ and texted her: ‘Are u ready to die now?’ — before landing a job mentoring America’s kids.”
The job referenced in the article was a position as a program partner coordinator with the Girl Scouts of America. Munley noted that Vespico filed suit “after seeing her image run through the filter of a British tabloid.”
“The Mail used full names, referenced body shaming and death threats, and hinted at children being at risk, and that was only the headline,” Munley wrote.
Part of the lawsuit involved an allegation that Kass-Gerji falsely told the Daily Mail that Vespico had vandalized Kass-Gerji’s car on the eve of the 2024 competition.
However, the judge noted that truth as a defense to defamation does not require “literal accuracy in every detail.”
“The gist of Kass-Gerji’s media statements, taken as a whole, is that Vespico engaged in a pattern of harassment, threats, and stalking directed at (Kass-Gerji),” Munley wrote. “A court determined that such conduct occurred after a contested two-day evidentiary hearing. The car vandalism allegation, even if unproven, does not alter the gist or sting of Kass-Gerji’s statements.”
Munley went on to opine that a false light allegation similarly failed because the vandalism claim was part of a larger portrayal of Vespico engaging in “harassing, threatening and intimidating conduct” — a portrayal the judge determined was “substantially accurate.”
As a result, Munley ordered the case closed with prejudice, meaning Vespico cannot refile another suit based on her claims.