Hard Rock Bristol Incident Leads to Police Filing Defamation Lawsuit Against VIP
Posted on: December 31, 2025, 10:11h.
Last updated on: December 31, 2025, 10:11h.
- A police officer in Virginia has filed a defamation lawsuit against a Hard Rock guest
- The guest claims the police officer wrongly removed her from a VIP area
- The guest posted videos claiming she was assaulted by the police officer who filed the suit
An incident on Sept. 6, 2025, at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol in Virginia has led to a local law enforcement officer filing a defamation lawsuit against a popular TikTok influencer.
Plaintiff Lilly-Kay Tomlinson, an officer with the Bristol Police Department, alleges in a federal complaint filed in Virginia’s Western District Court that defendant Stephanie Bates defamed her through social media videos following the September 2025 incident at the casino. Tomlinson was working as an on-site police officer at the Hard Rock property when she was asked to investigate a woman’s unauthorized access to a VIP lounge.
Tomlinson alleges that upon seeking information regarding Bates and her husband, Josh Williams, credentials for the lounge, Bates became unruly and uncooperative. In body camera footage shared by the Bristol PD, Bates can be heard telling Tomlinson and the other security officers that they had the wrong person.
You’re here for me? What the f***? You ain’t here for me, baby,” Bates says. “Go run your cameras.”
Bates was later heard telling Tomlinson to tell the Hard Rock staff to “go get f***ed, and run them cameras back, because I’m about to lose my s***.”
Bates and her husband ultimately left the lounge, where a host confirmed to Tomlinson that she indeed was credentialed to have access to the VIP lounge, which includes free drinks and a complimentary buffet.
Bates can then be heard saying that Tomlinson “needs to get f***ing fired, f***ing piece of trash.”
TikTok Influencer
Following her removal from the Hard Rock Bristol VIP area, Bates took to her TikTok, where she posted a video on the incident to her nearly 300K followers. Bates’ many videos have accrued more than 4.6 million likes.
In one video titled “Violent Cop Who Wrongly Assaulted Me,” Bates details how Tomlinson allegedly “assaulted” her by yanking her arm. Bates went to a hospital, but the medical staff determined that she had not suffered any physical injury.
“The lady cop kept trying to argue with me, kept arguing with Josh, so did that male officer. I guess they didn’t like the fact that I called him a rent-a-cop, okay?” Bates said in the video. “They were in the wrong. I hadn’t done anything, and they literally told me they were going to arrest us for disorderly conduct because they didn’t like the way we were speaking to them.”
Bates goes on to say that the police “better get your facts straight,” before calling Tomlinson a “dumb b***h.”
Lawsuit Damages
Tomlinson’s lawsuit seeks $200K in damages for “a libelous video falsely alleging” that she is a “violent cop.” Bates’ video of the incident racked up over 1.2 million views and was liked 58K times.
The complaint charges three counts of defamation, with Tomlinson requesting $75K in compensatory damages and punitive damages of $125K. The litigation also seeks that Bates cover all reasonable attorneys’ fees and court costs.
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