Richard Simmons ordered to pay $130,000 after transgender lawsuit

NBC News ^ | March 12, 2018 | Brooke Sopelsa

[Republican Wildcat]

More than six months after dismissing Richard Simmons’ defamation lawsuit against the National Enquirer and Radar Online, which ran articles alleging that Simmons had undergone sex reassignment surgery, a judge ordered the fitness guru to pay nearly $130,000 in attorneys’ fees to the media outlets and their publisher, American Media, according to court documents.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gregory Keosian issued his ruling on Friday. The defendants had filed a motion in January seeking $220,000, which Simmons' lawyers criticized as a "billing fiesta."

Simmons sued the media outlets in May 2017 after they ran articles claiming he is transgender. A June 2016 cover of the National Enquirer, for example, read: “Richard Simmons: He’s Now a Woman.” In his lawsuit, Simmons claimed the outlets published the stories with “calculated malice.”

[Republican Wildcat]

So these publications are being awarded damages for running a false story about someone. They lied, and are getting paid for lying by the victim of their lies, by order of a judge. What a country.

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...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $87.00 dollars to 90.00%

[DoughtyOne]

This guy always gave me the creeps...

[Red Badger]

Printed lies about Politicians are exempt................

[humblegunner]

So basically you object to calling a queer.. a queer?

What about cows and baseballs and firetrucks?

Should we call them ferrets and rocks and starships
just because somebody has got their little feelings hurt?

[DannyTN]

"This guy always gave me the creeps..."

He did me too, but I have to agree with Wildcat. If the publications ran lies on the creep, the creep should have been entitled to damages. The creep shouldn't have to pay the liars.

[forgotten man]

The California judge ruled that in California being called transsexual is a badge of honor, therefore Simmons has to pay for the National Enquirer’s lawyers

[WayneS]

I know. It’s baffling.

[WayneS]

Richard Simmons may or may not be homosexual, but he has not undergone “sex reassignment surgery”, and therefore the articles were false and, in a normal state, would most likely be considered libelous.

[WayneS]

It would not surprise me at all if that did not play at least some part in the judge’s decision.

[al baby]

I worked for a Car Stereo place to the stars way back in the day we did his MB 6.9 he had a stuffed animal pig riding shotgun and his vanity plate was YRUFAT he was beyond creepy

[Ciaphas Cain]

Maybe so.

But in the days following Hurricane Katrina, Richard Simmons was on Larry King's show and a lot of other outlets discussing VERY seriously the various crises and what needed to be done. He wasn't asking for government handouts, but was articulating about the most immediate needs so far as infrastructure and emergency housing was concerned along with logistics of medicine and food.

Say what you will of his eccentricities, but Richard Simmons showed more REAL leadership and initiative in that dark hour than did Mayor Nagin and the entire New Orleans government. It was surreal.

[knarf]

THAT was the way I read that also ..... WTF ??!!

[humblegunner]

he has not undergone “sex reassignment surgery

How do YOU know? Had your hand down his pants lately?

[WayneS]

I know because he says he hasn’t. The burden of proof is on the accuser - unless you support tyranny.

[TigersEye]

According to the judge that was the whole part of his decision.

In his tentative ruling, issued in August 2017, Keosian stated that being misidentified as transgender does not inherently expose someone to "hatred, contempt, ridicule or obloquy," and therefore does not rise to the level of defamation.

"While, as a practical matter, the characteristic may be held in contempt by a portion of the population, the court will not validate those prejudices by legally recognizing them," Keosian ruled.

[WayneS]

Wow.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Bet Simmons isn’t feeling rosily sweet about California gays now.

He’s a liberal who got mugged.

[TigersEye]

Yeah.

Judge Gregory Keosian has parties at his house for transgender minors on a regular basis and has some of them buried in his back yard. He’s into coprophagia too. Dog stool. Keeps a jar under his desk in court.

[HiTech RedNeck]

But wait! What about the tranny’s “rights” to be identified according to the feelings du jour? If Simmons, feeling manly, doesn’t have that right, why do they?