A woman from Texas has been awarded a massive US$1.2-billion settlement (over C$1.6 billion) after a jury found she was the victim of revenge porn. The large settlement “sends a message” to deter others from posting explicit photos of people online without their consent, the woman’s lawyers said Friday.
The woman, who was identified only as D.L., was in a four-year-long relationship with a man named Marques Jamal Jackson before the pair broke up in 2021.
According to a harassment lawsuit filed by D.L. in 2022, Jackson posted intimate images of her to the internet after they split up “with the intent to embarrass, harass, torment, humiliate, and publicly shame” her.
He then sent links to the explicit materials to D.L.’s friends, family and co-workers, which were posted to Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox and even Pornhub, her lawyers said. The materials included information that identified both D.L.’s legal name and her home address.
The lawsuit also accuses Jackson of tapping into D.L.’s mother’s home security system to spy on her and hacking into D.L.’s Zoom account.
Trial evidence showed that one of the last messages Jackson sent to D.L. read: (Y)ou will spend the rest of your life trying and failing to wipe yourself off the internet. Everyone you ever meet will hear the story and go looking. Happy Hunting.”
Following a jury trial, D.L. was awarded US$200 million for past and future mental anguish as well as US$1 billion in exemplary damages. Exemplary damages, also known as punitive damages, are awarded to punish defendants and deter others from engaging in similar conduct.
D.L.’s lawyers say it’s unlikely the woman will collect the full amount awarded to her, but the settlement goes a long way in clearing her reputation.
“We are grateful the jury took a strong stand against the defendant’s abhorrent behavior and against imaged-based sexual abuse. While a judgment in this case is unlikely to be recovered, the compensatory verdict gives D.L. back her good name,” lead trial lawyer Bradford J. Gilde said.
Gilde characterized revenge porn as a “tech-fueled national epidemic,” and hopes the verdict raises awareness about the non-consensual sharing of intimate materials.
In an interview with Houston outlet KHOU-11, D.L. said the road to justice has “been painful and scary.”
“I feel like I have been holding my breath for 3 years,” she said.
As of Monday, Jackson has not made any public statement regarding the decision.
“We will forever admire D.L.’s courage in fighting back,” Gilde said. “We hope the staggering amount of this verdict sends a message of deterrence and prevents others from this engaging in this despicable activity.”
Nearly all 50 states in the U.S. have passed laws banning revenge porn, except for Massachusetts and South Carolina, CBS reports.
In Canada, revenge porn is criminalized under the Criminal Code of Canada, which states that anyone who “publishes, distributes, transmits, sells, makes available or advertises an intimate image of a person knowing that the person depicted in the image did not give their consent to that conduct” can be imprisoned for up to five years.
Last November, a man from Saskatchewan was ordered to pay $160,000 in damages to a woman after he distributed intimate photos of her without her consent.
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