Posted on 08/01/2014 4:29:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
There were two things Jesse Ventura was never supposed to win: the 1998 Minnesota Governor’s race, and his just-ended trial seeking a big payday from a hero’s widow.
But he was indeed a one-term Governor of an actual state, and now he has prevailed in another improbable arena— a courtroom where he asserted that one of America’s most admired war heroes lied about him on purpose.
The $1.8 million dollar judgment from a ten-person jury voting 8-2 is a direct raid on the family budget of Chris Kyle’s widow Taya and their two children. The first half-million will be covered by insurance from the publisher of “American Sniper,” which contained the story that Ventura has now turned into a lottery ticket. The remaining $1.3 million goes straight from the Kyle family’s bank account into Ventura’s on the foggy premise of “unlawful enrichment,” a concept that says Kyle’s estate is enjoying dirty money because a sliver of the book struck a jury as intentionally malicious.
Ventura’s determination was not even slowed by the death last year of Kyle, whose repeated deployments and successful takedowns of terrorists had become the stuff of legend. He died from a gunshot wound in Texas, shot at a gun range helping a fellow soldier battling PTSD.
The resulting Ventura legal strategy: full speed ahead. The logic: Kyle’s death does not change the reputational damage to a man who had already done plenty to damage his own reputation with loudly expressed views like the complicity of the Bush administration in 9/11.
The average 9/11 truther is a harmless chowderhead. But Ventura’s wandering mind found a megaphone in his “Conspiracy Theory” TV show that logged three seasons on truTV, giving credibility to old foil-hat favorites like weather control and martial law internment camps. He is free to embrace any poppycock he likes, even publicly, but it is hard to argue that the Kyle book had stained a sterling reputation.
So if you are gathering that my starting block defines Chris Kyle as a hero and Jesse Ventura as a buffoon, you are correct.
But here’s the rub: none of that matters.
The jury’s job was to determine whether the Kyle book spun intentional lies about Ventura intended to damage him. That’s a very high bar, but it is wholly separate from what anyone thinks of the parties involved.
So the testimony began almost a month ago. Kyle’s side offered testimony that Ventura, unidentified in “American Sniper” but named in book tour interviews, demeaned Navy SEALs at an actual wake for one of their fallen ranks in 2006. Kyle’s story is that he could not let this go, confronted Ventura and decked him.
Navy SEAL testimony should be a compelling thing. Drunk Navy SEAL testimony loses a little of its impact, though, and many of the evening’s accounts drip with high blood alcohol levels.
For Ventura’s part, he does not mind so much a story of losing a bar fight. The engine of his quest is to defuse the account that he spoke ill of Navy SEALs, whose number he once occupied. The Kyle book places in Ventura’s mouth a quote that they “deserve to lose a few.” I can imagine Jesse Ventura saying a wide variety of incendiary, baseless and just plain stupid things. But even as an avowed non-fan, I have to say it’s hard to imagine those words coming out of his gravelly mouth.
So is that what led the jury to hand him a pile of Kyle family money?
If it is, I am still bewildered. The jury did not find that Kyle’s story seemed a little suspect, or that they think Ventura might have a reason for taking offense. They found that Chris Kyle absolutely made up this story on purpose with the specific intent of defaming him.
I scoured each day of trial stories and spoke to two reporters who covered it from start to finish. I find no compelling evidence that a case was made for a concrete finding that Chris Kyle sat at a keyboard and plotted to destroy what is left of Ventura’s image.
This was a trial filled with “I don’t know.” At least that’s my personal bottom line. I know I hope Chris Kyle, whose memorial service I proudly attended, did not have such a vicious streak. But I don’t know.
But nor could the jury know that Kyle did in fact act so maliciously. In the face of such uncertainty, there is only one decision, and that is against Ventura— not because they think he is lying, but because the burden of proof of Kyle’s malfeasance was not met.
After the jury struggled through a week of deadlock, both legal teams agreed to let an 8-2 margin settle the case. Ventura’s side was even willing to settle for 6-4. There were indeed two people on the panel unwilling to say yes, we believe Kyle sought to bring Ventura down with punishable lies.
Taya Kyle’s attorneys’ decision to accept an 8-2 conclusion looks profoundly dumb in hindsight. This would have been a mistrial, and even Ventura probably would have balked at reviving an expensive monster he was paying the full fare for. No contingency fee arrangement here.
But what’s done is done. Ventura can say his name has been cleared, but I don’t have faith in the eight jurors who were sufficiently swayed to deliver his big payday.
If he is so concerned about his image, he should have considered the unseemly sight of a man dragging a grieving widow into court. Twitter did not exactly explode with congratulations for him when his victory was announced.
But to the extent that he says Kyle’s death does not change the basis for his complaint, he is correct. He had every right to pursue the matter, and I wonder in some future case if it is the hero suing the scoundrel for defamation, if we would not support pressing forward if the scoundrel were to meet an untimely end.
So, to Jesse Ventura, a suggestion: Keep the half-mil that is the award for being wronged in the pages of “American Sniper.” But refuse to take the rest. Harper Collins is editing out the offending story, which was never more than a few pennies’ worth of the book’s cover price. Taya Kyle and her children have never done you a speck of harm. Allowing them to benefit from the proceeds of a fallen husband and father’s work, which is largely a gesture of love from a grateful nation, would give you a moment of public approval that would far exceed any image boost from this courtroom victory.
If it is your reputation you care about, you are entitled to say for the rest of your life that a jury found for you. And in returning the Kyle family’s money, it can then be said that you responded to a slight not with revenge but with kindness and generosity. There are few better image-enhancers than that.
Janos is Ventura’s real name. And even though both Naval Special Warfare and the head of the group that uncovered fake SEALs have said on the record that Ventura was a SEAL and that the UDY/SEAL distinction is meaningless, some people nonetheless insist that Jesse isn’t a SEAL “just” a UDT (underwater demolition team) member.
This will no doubt go to appeal.
Ventura's real name.
What is UDT?
Underwater Demolition Team. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_Demolition_Team
There is a disagreement as to whether or not UDT were equivalent to SEALs at the time Ventura was a member. Some say yes, some say no. Either way, he was never officially part of a SEAL team. The wiki post states that in 1983, after additional SEAL training, the UDTs were rolled into SEAL teams.
I stand by my point. What point are you making?
Travis McGee (Matt Bracken) maintains that Ventura was not a SEAL by the definition/classification of the time.
That’s good enough for me.
Thanks, I did not know that was Ventura’s real name and thanks for the clarification of UDT
The point I’m making is that a group of citizens did their duty, sat through all the evidence including Chris Kyle’s videotaped deposition, took their job seriously went through several days of deliberation and found that Kyle had indeed defamed Ventura and harmed his reputation, and they don’t deserve to be insulted just because someone dislikes Ventura.
Me, too, but thought I would mention that even folks in-the-know disagree.
I hear you. Whatever, ol’ “Jesse” didn’t make himself any friends with this (not that he probably has many to begin with).
Yep, now there are even more movies from my youth I can no longer enjoy.
Good. You stepped right into my trap. Allow me to deconstruct your points. FIRST: to assume that a judge is smart enough or moral enough to even determine that the jury is a good one is to place waaaaaay too much faith in judges. Most I have seen are academia nuts with no common sense. Second, to assume that I dislike Ventura is both a stretch, and not relevant. My only opinion of Ventura to this point was only that he was a political idiot, who never even understood why he won the governorship of Minnesota in the first place.
Now, as a result of this case - suing a widow and someone who can no longer defend himself - because he's dead - is simply proof that he's a despicable human being. But I did not reach that conclusion UNTIL this action. I did not bring it into the discussion.
And third, I've heard a discussion of the merits of the case - and none of the panel could understand what the jury was possibly thinking.
So your turn to try and again defend this jury, this judge, or this verdict. BAD verdicts are reached all the time.
Posted on July 31 2014 - 7:27 PM - Posted by: Steve Flesher
Over at the Sarah Palin Channel, Governor Palin thankfully gives an effective smack-down to the often-bloviating Jesse Ventura over his lawsuit involving Chris Kyle’s family.
Hey tough guy, Jesse Ventura, your feelings were hurt because you perceived your reputation was besmirched by words in a book? So you turn around and sue, expecting $2 million from a military widow and her fatherless children? Yeah, like that is going to help your reputation, jackass.
Chris Kyle was a true American patriot — the soldier who stood up for his country and saved so many lives by doing the job his Commander-in-chief gave him, taking out the bad guys. For his extraordinary work, Chris was known as "The American Sniper." He was senselessly murdered on our own soil while helping a military brother. His widow and young children will forever feel a lot more "hurt" than you will, Jesse, after a sad verdict in your ridiculous lawsuit against Chris.
You can watch the video and join in on the discussion here.
Minnesota voters not only elected Ventura as their governor, but also elected Hollywood clown Al Franken as their Senator so there would be no shortage of nitwits to be jurors.
I would like to point out that both of these events occured in a state that also chose Al Franken as a senator.
The judge in the case was never an academic. He is a former attorney appointed to the bench by President Bush.
The jury watched Chris Kyle’s deposition, where he admitted that several parts of the account were false. They saw him admit that he tried to remove the story from the book after a friend warned him if it wasn’t true he could be sued. They saw him admit that he agreed to leave it in only if Ventura wasn’t named.
They saw emails from Kyle to the publisher expressing concern that Ventura’s name had been leaked and asking them to ask interviewers not to bring up the incident.
They saw Kyle in his deposition admit that he sent those emails because he was afraid he would be sued.
They heard his widow testify that his repeated claims that all proceeds from the book would be donated to veterans charities and his claims that the book had already raised significant funds were not true.
They saw the witnesses Kyle’s lawyers put on wildly disagree with each other and with Kyle’s account, and from that they concluded that what Kyle said was false.
If what he really wanted is to clear his name, that would add significant weight to the idea that his reputation was the issue, and not the money.
Ventura is not going to give up a single penny of that money. He wants it all.
I hope this shuts up all the freepers who were on here the other day spouting that it was OK because the insurance company would pay the award and Kris Kyles’ widow would not be harmed. Wrong!
There’s pond scum and then there’s Ventura.
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