Jury Awards Ventura $1.8M In Defamation Case

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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- A jury has awarded former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura $1.8 million in his lawsuit against the estate of "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle. The federal jury in St. Paul found Tuesday that the 2012 best-selling book libeled Ventura in describing a bar fight in California in 2006. Kyle wrote that he decked a man later identified as Ventura after the man allegedly said the Navy SEALs "deserve to lose a few."

Congrats Jesse!

Many here on ATS called him disgusting for going through with his lawsuit but a jury of peers saw differently.

So now a widow has to come up with 1.8 million dollars?
did the book even make that much money?
the person who did the crime is six feet underground.
Maybe next he will dig up the grave and challenge him to another bar fight?

a reply to: dashen
You should really read the article.

As the executrix of the Kyle estates she is on the hook.
she has to pay for someone else's crime.
After taxes the revenue from the book is maybe less than half of what is stated.
then you have to consider the publishers rates and all.
am I missing something?

originally posted by: dashen
So now a widow has to come up with 1.8 million dollars?
did the book even make that much money?
the person who did the crime is six feet underground.
Maybe next he will dig up the grave and challenge him to another bar fight?

"come up with?"

She is the widow of the man who wrote the book, she is in charge of all the profit that (very profitable) book has (and will) bring in.

Why do you feel she is entitled to profit from lies?

Drop the emotional BS, please. "Oh, poor widow" the only reason she is the person dealing with this lawsuit is because she is in charge of the book. If she wanted to simply be done with it, she could give up her rights to the book and not deal with it.

She wants to profit from the book, which contains lies, then she needs to compensate the victim of those lies.

What type of crazy world are we living in where it's seen as BAD by some people to correct lies told about them?

Emotional children!

Mr Ventura was not mentioned in the book at all. The fight scene referred to a gentleman known as scruff face. Only in a few promotional interviews did he suggest it was in fact Jesse Ventura.
So no, I do not believe someone should profit from lies.
Neither do I believe that the book directly called out the plaintiff.
this all started because of some bad promotional stunt perpetrated by the deceased.

originally posted by: dashen
Mr Ventura was not mentioned in the book at all. The fight scene referred to a gentleman known as scruff face. Only in a few promotional interviews did he suggest it was in fact Jesse Ventura.
So no, I do not believe someone should profit from lies.
Neither do I believe that the book directly called out the plaintiff.
this all started because of some bad promotional stunt perpetrated by the deceased.

It was made very clear in all of the news interviews that Jesse Ventura was in fact the person spoken of in the book. Therefore it is very relevant to the lawsuit! After all, the news appearances by Kyle, were to what? Promote his book!

a reply to: dashen

so then whats the problem. she's now responsible for him. thats what responsibility is.... taking care of what needs to be done. a jury decided that this was Mr. kyle's responsibility AKA his wife's responsibility now.

no one cried poor poor widow when she was "responsible" for mr. kyle's interests when they were wholly profitable. why now? you said it your self the words came out of her husbands mouths... its her responsibility she's the executor.

congratulations Mr. Ventura! use the money to make a movie!!!

originally posted by: dashen
Mr Ventura was not mentioned in the book at all. The fight scene referred to a gentleman known as scruff face. Only in a few promotional interviews did he suggest it was in fact Jesse Ventura.
So no, I do not believe someone should profit from lies.
Neither do I believe that the book directly called out the plaintiff.
this all started because of some bad promotional stunt perpetrated by the deceased.

When he pointed the finger at Jesse during those interviews is when he screwed up. He could have kept his mouth shut and not named anyone but had he done that then he wouldn't have been the media darling of the right wing MSM. After he named Jesse they couldn't get him on tv fast enough.

a reply to: buster2010

my thoughts exactly. he wanted to publicly advertise his book and call ventura by name so there ya have it. shoulda kept his mouth shut indeed. you can't say "oh he wasn't mentioned in the book specifically" while the author had gone out there telling people it WAS ventura. poor widow my ass. the book will probably sell even more copies now after all this press.

Good for Jesse! He had every right to defend himself and his name. I have never once, read, seen, or heard of him ever talking bad about our troops, and i don't think he would have started to in a bar surrounded by service men and women.....Just doesn't make any sense.

Congratulations to Mr. Ventura!

a reply to: Swills

HOORAAAAAAY!

Now Jesse has potentially LOADS of dosh we can get this site privately funded again and GET RID OF ALL ADVERTISING (for those that suffer). Think of all the extra content space we'd get back.

originally posted by: Swills
Congrats Jesse!

Many here on ATS called him disgusting for going through with his lawsuit but a jury of peers saw differently.

I'd like to echo those remarks.

Governor, if you see this thread, I wish you the best of luck in fully repairing the damage done to your reputation in the Spec OPs community. Many here who chastised your pursuit of honor may not fully grasp the value a vet places on his good name.

After some thought i think id like to retract my earlier statement. Mostly fear of a surprise elbow off the top rope, or a sudden unexpected gubernatorial suplex

originally posted by: Swills

Many here on ATS called him disgusting for going through with his lawsuit but a jury of peers saw differently.

Wellllll.......not quite. 10 out of 12 jurors did; two didn't. Normally a civil case requires 11 out of 12 to agree. The "standard" of guilt is lower than at a criminal trial. In this case the jurors reported an impasse and said they could not come to an agreement. This would have resulted in a "hung jury" and the entire case would either (a) have to be dropped, or (b) a new trial would have to be done.

But wait! For Jesse Ventura there is a Special Deal! That's right! American jurisprudence decided that it would be OKAY if suddenly the 11 of 12 rule was eliminated and a new rule, the 10 of 12 was implemented! BOTH sides had to agree to this and WHY, in Heaven's name did they?

I don't know the answer to that, but basically two jurors completely disagreed with the verdict, which is something like 16% (2 out of 12, 1/6th, whatever that is.)

So yeah, your hero Jesse got his guilty verdict all right. All that had to happen was change the rules in the middle of the trial. American Justice: If you don't like the way it's going, just change the rules.

Seems like a ruling destined to be appealed, but what the hey. I'm not a lawyer and very glad of it.

I highly doubt profits from this book reached anywhere near 1.8
million to the author, and, if so, yes, poor widow. Where she did
stand to profit, she will now have a bankrupt estate to administer.

That being said, I'm still on Jesse's side on this. He proved defamation
which is no easy task--lawyers are loathe to take on defamation
cases because they are so hard to win for their clients.

So congrats to Jesse. Not for winning 1.8 million--because I'm sure
a large chunk of that went to the lawyers and other costs
related to the case. But congrats to him for clearing his name.

Although I still see you, Mr. Ventura, in large part, as a caricature
of yourself--one/half bombast and hyperbole aimed at turning
a profit, the other half has certainly paid the dues to earn my respect,
and CERTAINLY earn the respect of the veterans you served with, and
for.

So congrats again...you still have my vote for president!

The widow won't be paying the fine, it will come out of the publisher's insurance. The book was on the best seller list for quite a while, in no small part due to the sensationalism that was created out of Chris Kyle LYING about his imaginary encounter with Ventura. And by the way, the profits were supposed to have gone to veterans. Only about 50K so far has managed to make it there, out of over 3 million in profits on book sales, not counting the movie deal on killer hero but hapless karma victim, Chris Kyle.

Kyle was also supposed to have talked about how he shot and killed two carjackers in Texas (the sheriffs in the towns implied said it never happened, and they would have known about it, and there was no police report, coroner report or anything else about it; Kyle also said that he 'had a card' that he gave to the police when the arrived at the scene which, when you called the number, told them that 'they were in the presence of the greatest sniper of all time' and pretty much to let him go without question, even if he goes around killing people... which other people in the military said was BS.

Then there's the tale Kyle told about taking another unnamed sniper buddy to New Orleans after Katrina, going up on top of the damaged King Dome, and shooting looters.

That never happened either; good thing or it would have been murder.

In short, Chris Kyle liked to lie and he thought violence solved everything. He called his victims subhuman, even though all they were doing was protecting their 'homeland'.

Good for Jesse in coming out on top of this ridiculous thing. His reputation has, in the minds of lots of hero worshipping numbskulls, been irreparably harmed. As he said himself, either Chris Kyle was lying or he had committed assault against a former governor. He gave the guy ample time to retract and pay the (then low) legal fees. He refused to man up. So much for being such a hero. Chris Kyle was one of the most disgusting things to ever come out of Texas, barring the Bush family. I'll never understand a country that loves war and killing as much as this one does to the point of calling mass murderers heroes.

a reply to: schuyler

So you're saying the laws changed just for Jesses?

BTW, I've watched this case very closely ever since I saw the Opie and Anthony interview with Chris Kyle and it was obvious to me that he was lying through his teeth. That would be a good training video for people to watch to learn what a sociopathic liar looks like when he's being 'humble' and 'telling the truth'.

It was fascinating that Jesse's lawyer presented a barroom map of where each 'witness' said the altercation took place. Some put it inside the bar, others outside on the patio and still others outside on the sidewalk. All of them were in different shades of inebriation. The only 'witness' to say that he saw and heard the whole thing was some guy who admitted to having had 15 to 17 drinks that night, and apparently had to call up Kyle afterwards to get his facts straight. It appears that after this parade of 'mourners' left McP's bar, they headed out to another place, had still more booze, and things went from fantasy to shared memories of reality after much discussion between the few people who ended up either being 'witnesses' or 'had heard about its'. Meanwhile in his deposition, Chris Kyle said even though it was included in his book that 'chairs flew', that that never happened... several other things included in the book 'never happened', either. I guess being under oath made him a tad more circumspect than yabbering with a bunch of yahoos on a radio show. Ventura's lawyers also submitted conclusive photographic proof that Ventura had never been hit or 'hit his head on the sidewalk' in any manner; the man is on blood thinners for his hip replacement and even the smallest bump would cause severe bruising. And, even though Kyle said, either 'the police were there', 'the police had been called', or 'the police were outside' (it changed with time), no police report was ever filed.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Kyle said Chris never told her about the 'incident' at the time and the first she heard about it was the lawsuit; if you had decked Jessie Ventura in a bar fight, wouldn't you have mentioned it to your wife?

Good on the jury - it's not easy standing up for what's right, when the person in question is 'different'. Jessie Ventura, while colorful, is an honorable man.

I'm sure the reaction to this verdict down in Texas will be much different, which only goes to show how many damage was done to his reputation and how far we have to come as a country to understand right from wrong.