A jury has awarded more than $1.1 million to an Idaho drag performer who accused a far-right blogger of defaming him when she falsely claimed that he exposed himself to a crowd, including children, during a Pride event in June 2022.
The Kootenai County District Court jury unanimously found Friday that Summer Bushnell defamed Post Falls resident Eric Posey when she posted a doctored video of his performance with a blurred spot that she claimed covered his “fully exposed genitals,” the Coeur D’Alene Press reported.
In reality the unedited video showed no indecent exposure, and prosecutors declined to file charges.
“The judicial system did what needed to be done,” Posey said after the verdict.
Posey, who uses the stage name Mona Liza Million
I fucking love that the settlement matches the stagename.
She might have to change it to 1.1 Million now
Mona Liza Million Point Won
Liza Broke Ass Bitch
I suppose that Mona Liza Ha Ha Fuck You Summer Bushnell would be too long for a drag name…
jurors asked the court if they could direct Bushnell to take down her posts about Posey and publicly apologize to him. First District Judge Ross Pittman, who presided over the trial, indicated they could not do so.
What? Why?
I would think that was a given!!!Compelling an inauthentic apology?
It’s all about the symbolism of being forced by court to apologize. It’s a very strong thing for the victim to have as a defense against further slander and libel.
Compelling speech is a violation of the first amendment.
Yeah, I wish they could force it, but they can’t. They might be able to come to an agreement between both parties that if the defendant did XYZ, the plaintiff would reduce damages by X amount.
I don’t see that happening, though.
So could they not just push it to state that every additional view that it gets on any platform will require $50,000 of further defamation payments. Thereby making it a much wiser decision to not defame the people?
But it’s libel, usually if you are judged guilty of libel, it follows it must be taken down. Otherwise she can be sued again, because it’s still libel.
Not libel.
How is it not libel when theres a court verdict confirming it is in fact libel?
Libel - letter Slander - spoken Defamation - something else.
Libel needs to be written and published. Slander needs to be said and broadcast. And depending on who it’s against, there are different levels of evidence needed. Like if you are a public figure, the person doing it needs to be doing it with the expressed purpose of injuring you name/actual malice.
Is it not written in a blog?
Do you really expect people to believe someone who describes defamation as “something else”?
Also, at no point in that article does it say libel.
noun noun: libel; plural noun: libels 1. LAW a published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; a written defamation.
From Merriam Webster, you should crack open a book even if that’s new and scary to you.
I was gonna say you might not have to sue again for taking down the post, you could just ask in judgement phase that you get x amount of money for every day the post was and is up since it was created. Should do the trick.
IANAL tho.
“Jurors awarded Posey $926,000 in compensatory damages for defamation. Because Posey proved that Bushnell knew her allegations were false when she made them or that she made the accusations with reckless disregard for the truth, the jury awarded $250,000 in additional punitive damages.”
What?
The compensatory damages are to compensate for lost revenue and such that the defamation may have caused, while punitive damages are additionally to punish for the willful wrongdoing.
Mr Posey will never see that money. At least he rightfully won the case.
I’m naïve. Where does the money go?
The person he sued has no money to give.
I’m not savvy with law, but I would’ve thought in cases like this the payment is worked out in instalments that need to be paid over a very long time?
He has the judgement against her, so he could try and garnish wages and such. But it’s a pain in the ass to jump through the hoops.
I’m dealing with a similar situation. I’m owed about 30k in attorney fees that they tell me I will likely never see. I will have to keep tabs on that party and if they ever get a windfall of money I’ll have to sue the bank for them to transfer the funds to me. It sucks.
I was in the same boat, but for not nearly that same amount of money. After I talked to a lawyer I realized it was going to cost me more to recover the money so it wasn’t worth it.
$1.1 million - $100 a/month = $1200 a year, assuming they can even force them to pay that much. Unless the person that lost the case is wealthy, barely any money will be paid to the victim.
They could cal JG Wentworth if they have a structured settlement
I see. Thank you.
