What is the economic value of damages caused by revenge porn?
Yes, only a lawyer would ask such a question, but it requires a jury to answer it. A July 2018 verdict from the Superior Court of Monterey County, California, in the case of Melgoza v. Pompey, 16-cv-003617 provides one answer to that question.
The facts are simple, a 35 year-old woman discovered that her ex-boyfriend had secretly recorded them having sex and had posted on Facebook still pictures extracted from those videos. The ex-boyfriend also tagged the woman’s profile, ensuring that she and her friends and family would see the photographs. Apparently, the impetus for the ex-boyfriend’s behavior was the woman telling him she did not want to move in with him or spend her birthday with him.
The woman sued for intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of privacy for intrusion into private affairs, use of a concealed recording device, and distribution of sexually explicit materials.
At trial, the woman testified that when she saw the images she threw up, felt numb, and was shaking. She became suicidal. She continues to suffer emotional breakdowns and nightmares. She is embarrassed to see people she knows saw the pictures.
So, what is this woman’s suffering worth?
The jury awarded $150,000 in punitive damages and $5 million in pain and suffering. With this verdict, it seems that the jury was sending a message: If you ruin someone’s life, justice will ruin yours.
If you have any questions about the contents of this article or if you have been the victim of revenge porn,
call Matthew Racine at (858) 755-5666 or him an email at mracine@daleyheft.com