Todd Chrisley, the disgraced actuality TV star who’s at the moment incarcerated for financial institution fraud and tax evasion, has been hit with contemporary authorized and monetary points, experiences mentioned.
The 54-year-old Atlanta-based businessman and tv character, greatest recognized for showing on the USA Community actuality present “Chrisley Is aware of Greatest,” has been ordered to pay $755,000 to a former Georgia Division of Income investigator for making defamatory statements towards her.
A Georgia decide on Thursday discovered Chrisley liable for 2 claims of libel and slander towards Amy Doherty-Heinze, in accordance with a number of experiences.
In accordance with paperwork obtained by The Los Angeles Occasions and Individuals, Doherty-Heinze was awarded $350,000 in compensatory damages, $170,000 in punitive damages, and $235,000 in lawyer charges from Chrisley.
Chrisley, who’s 15 months into his 12-year sentence, testified remotely from FPC Pensacola through the trial.
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In accordance with the investigator’s go well with, Chrisley shared a number of defamatory statements about Doherty-Heinze on his podcast and social media accounts after the Georgia Division of Income started their investigation into him and his spouse, Julie Chrisley, in 2017.
On a 2020 episode of the couple’s now-defunct weekly podcast, “Chrisley Confessions,” the true property mogul accused Doherty-Heinze of corruption and of “illegally accessing” a authorities program to tug info on his spouse and kids, the lawsuit mentioned.
The plaintiff initially requested Chrisley to retract his defamatory statements, which he declined. She filed her lawsuit the next yr in July 2021, alleging that Chrisley had accused her of “a large number of crimes and wrongdoing,” per authorized paperwork.
Doherty-Heinze mentioned that Chrisley “repeated false accusations” about her “felony misconduct in her submit as an investigator for the Georgia Division of Income’s Workplace of Particular Investigations.”
In accordance with the legislation go well with, Chrisley continued to “defame” Doherty-Heinze in a September 2021 episode of their podcast after he tried to have the case thrown out.
On the weeklong trial, which concluded on Thursday, an eight-person jury discovered Chrisley chargeable for the 2 claims of libel and slander made in 2020 and 2021 however not chargeable for a 3rd declare of slander made in a 2022 podcast episode as they did not consider he acted with “malice” on that event.
In response to the ruling, Chrisley’s lawyer, Leesa Guarnotta, mentioned in an announcement to USA As we speak: “Though we’re happy the jury acknowledged that not all of Mr. Chrisley’s statements have been defamatory and awarded the plaintiff a fourth of the damages she requested, we’re involved in regards to the state of the First Modification the place such a case might make it to trial within the first place.”
USA Community
In accordance with his lawyer, Chrisley shall be submitting an enchantment, and he’s “optimistic” about its consequence.
Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in federal jail in 2022 after he and his spouse have been discovered responsible of defrauding banks out of greater than $30 million by offering pretend monetary statements, giving the looks they have been wealthier than they have been.
In the meantime, His spouse was handed a seven-year sentence. They’re serving their sentences at two separate services in Florida and Kentucky.
As Enterprise Insider reported in September, the pair have already had time shaved off their sentences.
In accordance with federal jail data, Chrisley is scheduled to be launched on October 9, 2032. In the meantime, Julie’s launch has been moved to July 6, 2028.
