Rapper 50 Cent has been ordered by a judge to pay Lavonia Leviston $5 million for posting her sex tape online without her permission.
The legal battle originated when 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, was accused by Rick Ross, the father of Leviston’s baby, of looking at him the wrong way at the 2009 BET Awards. In response to the ongoing feud between the two rappers, Jackson uploaded the video of Leviston having sex with her ex-boyfriend Maurice Murray.
According to the New York Daily News, jurors in the civil suit deliberated for just over an hour before reaching their decision, and that Leviston broke down in tears when she first heard that the jury had decided in her favor. Her $5 million is being broken down into $2.5 million for violation of civil rights and using her image without her permission and the other $2.5 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress. If the jury decides to press punitive charges against Jackson, he could be ordered to pay even more.
50 Cent’s lawyers, according to an article on tv3.ie, argued that he received the sex tape directly from Murray and that he told Jackson that Leviston was, “cool with it,” when asked whether he could publish it online. Leviston, however, argued that Jackson never received her permission and that it was so emotionally crippling she even contemplated suicide.
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