GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - Jesse Ventura wins $1.8 million in defamation suit against 'American Sniper'

directfiesta · 07-29-2014, 02:18 PM

Jesse does it

Quote:

The jury reconvened on Tuesday, and both sides agreed to split the verdict 8 to 2, the New York Times reported. The panel then awarded the former professional wrestler and governor $500,000 for defamation and $1.3 million for what they termed the author?s unjust enrichment.

The jurors were tasked with definitively determining whether Ventura was defamed, whether the statements made in the book are true, and whether Kyle made the statements with actual malice. Because Ventura is a public figure, his legal team had to prove a higher standard of defamation than ordinary citizens.

In ?American Sniper,? former SEAL Kyle wrote that he knocked a man identified as "Scruff Face" - later identified as Ventura - down to the ground with a punch to the face during a 2006 incident at a California bar after the individual said during a barroom conversation that the SEALs ?deserve to lose a few,? and that the American military was "killing innocent men, women and children."

Ventura insists the altercation never occurred, however, nor did he speak disparaging remarks about then-President George W. Bush and the Navy SEALS, as attributed to him by Kyle, that sparked the alleged altercation.

?Being level-headed and calm can last only so long,? Kyle wrote in his book. ?I laid him out. Tables flew. Stuff happened. Scruff Face ended up on the floor.?

During media appearances related to the book?s release, Kyle claimed that ?Scruff Face? was a pseudonym he used for Ventura, who was a member of the Underwater Demolition Teams, a predecessor of the SEALs.

Attorneys for Ventura responded to the release of Kyle?s book with a defamation suit. The former pro-wrestler says his reputation was tarnished with the release of Kyle?s book and the subsequent statements that linked him to the ?Scruff Face? character.