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Bo Jackson was awarded $21 million in a civil suit after his niece and nephew attempted to extort him.
The two-sport legend filed a complaint last April against siblings Thomas Lee Anderson and Erica M. Andrews, accusing his niece and nephew of “relentless harassment and intimidation.
According to the lawsuit filed by Jackson, the pair attempted to extort $20 million from Jackson in exchange for not publicly revealing information that cast him “in a false light” and caused “severe emotional distress,” according to AL.com.
The Andersons continued to harass and intimidate Jackson by contacting his immediate family via social media, “publicly disclosing and threatening to continue public disclosures of allegations,” as well as threatening to appear at locations near Jackson’s home to intimidate him, according to court records obtained by WSB-TV.
The cumulative actions and “relentless harassment and intimidation” from the Andersons reportedly caused Jackson “severe emotional distress.”
Jackson was awarded the case after the Andersons failed to appear in court on Jan. 31 to contest a temporary protective order the case judge issued last May.
“Defendants have acted with malice, wantonness, oppression, with a conscious effort of indifference to circumstances and with the specific intent to cause Plaintiff harm,” Cobb County judge Jason Marbutt wrote in the ruling obtained by AL.com.”
Jackson was awarded just over $1 million in compensatory damages and to offset attorney fees, with an additional $20 million for punitive damages. Jackson has also been awarded a permanent protective order against the Andersons, forbidding them from contacting him or his family, barring them from coming within 500 yards of the Jacksons and their homes, schools, or workplaces, and prohibiting them from posting about Jackson on social media.
The former Raiders running back and Kansas City Royals outfielder has experience defending his character in the past. In 2005, Jackson sued the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin after the newspaper quoted a dietary specialist claiming a hip injury Jackson suffered playing in the NFL was the result of steroid use. The paper eventually retracted the story, issuing a public apology to Jackson.
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