Bo Jackson receives $21 million after winning an extortion case against relatives.
In a civil lawsuit alleging extortion by his niece and nephew, Bo Jackson was granted $21 million by a court in the Atlanta region last week.
The Bessemer native Jackson, 61, accused his niece and nephew Thomas Lee Anderson and Erica M. Anderson of “relentless harassment and intimidation” in an April complaint. Jackson played baseball and football at Auburn before rising to prominence as one of the world’s most famous athletes. In addition to the monetary award, a Cobb County judge found in favour of Jackson on February 2 and issued a permanent protective order against the Andersons.
Cobb County judge Jason Marbutt stated in his decision that the defendants had “acted with malice, wantonness, oppression, with a conscious effort of indifference to circumstances and with the specific intent to cause Plaintiff harm.
A protective order prohibits the Andersons from communicating with Jackson or his immediate family and mandates that they keep a minimum of 500 yards between the Jacksons’ residences, places of employment, and educational institutions. They must also take down any social media posts that mention Bo Jackson and refrain from posting about him on those platforms.
Jackson received a settlement that included $20 million in punitive damages in addition to slightly more than $1 million in compensatory damages to cover legal costs.
