Lawyer Awarded at Least $10M for Secret Videotaping
Lawyer Mark Geragos was awarded at least $10 million—and possibly as much as $18 million—in his invasion of privacy suit against an air charter company for secretly videotaping him while traveling with pop star Michael Jackson.
Geragos’ colleague, Pat Harris, will receive between $1.25 million and $2.25 million, the Associated Press reports. The tape was recorded as the lawyers flew with Jackson to turn himself in on child molestation charges.
Most of the award represents punitive damages. The AP story says the amount will be at the high end if the defendant XtraJet and its owner Jeffrey Borer are separately responsible for punitive damages, and at the low end if only the owner is liable. The issue is a matter of dispute.
Superior Court Judge Soussan Bruguera ordered damages in a 21-page judgment. “Defendant Borer was the mastermind behind a scheme to desecrate and exploit sacred attorney-client communications for personal profit,” she wrote.
Borer’s lawyer, Lloyd Kirschbaum, told the Los Angeles Times that he would appeal the decision. He says the tape could not have violated the lawyer-client privilege since it contained no audio, and there are no actual damages because the tape was never released.
The recording came to light when Fox News revealed it had been approached to buy tapes of Jackson conferring with Geragos.
