A jury recently awarded US$1.2bil (RM5.57bil) in damages to a Katy woman after her ex-boyfriend allegedly uploaded intimate pictures of her to the Internet and shared them across social media as an act of image-based sexual abuse, commonly referred to as “revenge porn”.
The woman, who is referred to as “Jane Doe” in the documents, filed a civil lawsuit in April 2022 in Harris County. The lawsuit alleged her ex-boyfriend, Marques Jamal Jackson, breached her personal and work computer accounts, impersonated her in fraudulent financial activity and shared intimate images and videos of her online after they broke up in 2020.
The jury ordered Jackson to pay Doe US$200mil for past and future damages, and US$1bil in exemplary damages – an amount Doe’s attorney said in a statement is unlikely to be recovered and is more than they asked for, but serves to raise awareness of what he called a “tech-fueled national epidemic”.
“As for (Doe), she is grateful for the verdict. It validates the courage and sacrifice she made in bringing the lawsuit. It also gives voice to other victims and gives (Doe) back her good name,” Bradford Gilde of Gilde Law Firm wrote in a statement to the Chronicle. “This trial was not about the money or the number, it was about the message.”
Although the court documents show he was successfully served, Jackson did not appear in court or have any listed representative in the lawsuit, did not respond to court summonses, nor appear to represent himself. Jackson was not criminally charged in the lawsuit.
‘Unlawfully tortious’
According to the lawsuit, Jackson and Doe began officially dating in 2016. Shortly after, Doe moved to Chicago with Jackson after he was offered a job and continued their relationship until early 2020 when they first began their breakup. They officially ended their relationship around October 2021, according to court documents, and Doe moved back to Harris Countyto live with her mother.
Between 2020 and October 2021, Doe alleged Jackson had access to her private information, including the security system login information to her mother’s home, which included the home’s security cameras, and Doe’s personal phone, email and social media login information.
Doe also gave Jackson private, intimate photos and videos during their relationship but said she did not consent to Jackson sharing the material with anybody and was told to delete them after they broke up, according to the lawsuit.
After their breakup in 2020, the lawsuit alleged Jackson began logging into Doe’s mother’s home security system to “spy” on her. It was after their official October 2021 breakup that the lawsuit alleged Jackson became paranoid Doe was having an intimate relationship with one of their mutual close friends.
“It was around this time Mr. Jackson’s behavior went from childish to unlawfully tortious,” according to the lawsuit.
Between October 2021 through March 2022, the lawsuit alleged Jackson unlawfully gained access to Doe’s work computer and changed her Zoom information. He also allegedly emailed Doe’s loan officer, stating she submitted a fraudulent loan application. Jackson also allegedly shared intimate material of Doe on several social media platforms. The material allegedly contained personal identifying information of Doe, including her legal name, home address and face.
Jackson allegedly created a public website, a public Dropbox folder, an impersonation page on a pornographic website and multiple fake social media pages to share the material. The lawsuit alleged Jackson sent friend requests from the fake social media pages and sent emails and online messages with links to the material to Doe’s friends, family and co-workers, and tagged her place of employment and personal gym online.
The lawsuit goes on to allege Jackson of accessing Doe’s personal bank account to pay his rent without her consent and pay for services and created fake email accounts impersonating Doe to harass her friends, family and co-workers.
According to the lawsuit, Jackson told Doe on March 5, 2022, “You 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.”
What is ‘revenge porn’?
According to Texas law, it is a misdemeanor to post someone’s intimate photos online without their consent and is punishable by up to a year in jail and a US$4,000 fine.
Jacob Schiffer, Doe’s co-council for the lawsuit, refers to Doe’s case as image-based sexual abuse instead of “revenge porn” because the term “porn” implies the images and videos were taken consensually. However, Schiffer said many of the intimate photos, videos and audio shared were not taken with her consent, such as video of her sleeping, or audio of them having sex.
Doe’s lawyers say the US$1.2bil is a warning to others who engage in image-based sexual abuse.
“If you engage in image-based sexual abuse, you will spend the rest of your life with an excess judgment over your head,” Gilde said. “We hope this verdict gives strength to victims, encourages law firms to pursue justice on behalf of these victims, and stands as a deterrent to the would-be (Jacksons) of the world.” – The Houston Chronicle/Tribune News Service
Credit: The Star : Tech Feed
