Fresno gamer was accused of sex harassment. Now he’s suing the woman who made the allegation
A Fresno man with thousands of followers on a live-streaming gaming platform is suing a fellow player for defamation after she blasted him on social media for allegedly sexually harassing her and others.
Travis Mellon, who goes by HJTenchi in the gaming world, filed a civil lawsuit on July 16 in Fresno County against Danica Rockwood, of Alachua County, Florida.
Rockwood, a 28-year-old gamer, cosplayer and model, has accused Mellon of sexual abuse, harassment and sending inappropriate photos of himself. She declined to comment for this story.
Mellon, 35, has denied the allegations, saying Rockwood’s online attack on him has damaged his reputation and his ability to earn a living on the gaming platform Twitch. He is seeking punitive damages to be determined at trial.
Mellon, a 2009 Fresno State graduate with a degree in business, has risen up the ranks of the live-streaming gaming industry. Analysts estimate Twitch averages 1.1 million viewers per day. And the best players in the world can earn millions of dollars through subscriptions, sponsorships and ads.
Mellon has nearly 40,000 Twitch followers who regularly watch him play video games and chat with him, if they chose.
But Mellon has also become one of the players accused of sexual harassment. Online publications, including Wired and the Daily Beast, have written about the issue with the Wired story mentioning Rockwood’s allegations about Mellon.
Mellon, who declined comment, alleges in his lawsuit that he and Rockwood were in an “online and in-person intimate relationship between the years of 2016-2018.”
They traveled together to gaming conventions, spent time in California and communicated daily, including video chats, and explicit text messages, according to the lawsuit.
Mellon’s attorney Mark Coleman, of Nuttall & Coleman in Fresno, said he reviewed the messages between the two and they were consensual.
“In the context of their relationship the text messages were appropriate and reciprocated,” Coleman said in an interview.
But on June 20, Rockwood posted on her Twitter page that Mellon took advantage of their friendship by asking for “lewd pictures” and “sexting texts.” She also started a Google document to compile the testimonies of other alleged victims and called him her “sexual abuser” during a live stream.
Coleman wrote in the lawsuit that “She (Rockwood) urged women to turn on Mr. Mellon in an attempt to ruin his livelihood.”
Rockwood’s supporters also are accused of harassing Mellon online while he was live streaming on Twitch.
“Mr. Mellon was attacked multiple times in his Twitch broadcast’s chat for hours by people calling him a sexual assaulter, predator, etc.” according to the lawsuit.
A case management hearing is set for Nov. 19 in Dept. 501.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
