ATLANTA (AP) — Former skilled baseball and soccer participant Vincent “Bo” Jackson, a working again who gained the Heisman Trophy at Auburn, has gained a $21 million verdict in his civil case in opposition to his niece and nephew for attempting to extort him.
The Feb. 2 choice included a everlasting protecting order barring Thomas Lee Anderson and his sister, Erica M. Anderson Ross, from additional bothering or contacting Jackson and his speedy members of the family. The Andersons additionally should keep no less than 500 yards from the Jacksons and take away from social media any content material about them, information retailers reported.
The lawsuit, filed in April, alleged that Jackson’s kin tried to extort $20 million from him via harassment and intimidation.
“Sadly for these making an attempt to extort $20 million {dollars} from Jackson and his household, Bo nonetheless hits again exhausting,” Jackson’s attorneys — Robert Ingram and David Conley — stated Monday in a information launch concerning the case.
Jackson, 61, claimed the harassment began in 2022 and included threatening social media posts and messages, public allegations that put him in a false gentle, and public disclosure of personal data meant to trigger him extreme emotional misery, WSB-TV reported. He stated Thomas Anderson wrote on Fb that he would launch images, textual content and medical data of Jackson to “present America” that he wasn’t enjoying round, the lawsuit alleged.
The Andersons, with assist from an Atlanta legal professional, demanded the cash in trade for ending their conduct, Jackson stated. He stated they threatened to look at a restaurant close to his dwelling and disrupt a charity occasion he hosted in April in Auburn as a way of harassment and intimidation.
Jackson feared for his security and that of his speedy household, the lawsuit states. It sought a stalking protecting order in opposition to the Andersons in addition to unspecified compensation for intentional infliction of emotional misery and invasion of privateness. Jackson additionally introduced a civil conspiracy declare in opposition to the siblings.
The courtroom discovered that there was no official function for these actions and that even after receiving a stop and desist letter from Jackson’s attorneys, the intimidation and harassment continued.
Cobb County Superior Courtroom Choose Jason D. Marbutt stated in his order that neither the Andersons nor their attorneys rebutted Jackson’s claims or participated within the case after a Might 2023 listening to, once they consented to a brief protecting order, The Atlanta Journal-Structure reported. The choose discovered the Andersons to be in default, accepting as true all of Jackson’s allegations, the newspaper stated.
“Affordable individuals would discover defendants’ habits excessive and outrageous,” Marbutt wrote. “The courtroom noticed proof that an legal professional representing defendants claimed his shoppers’ conduct would stop for the sum of $20 million.”
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