Previous PageThe Charleston Group lawyers win $3.21 Million for “Revenge Porn” victim
North Carolina Lawyers WeeklyBy: Bill Cresenzo September 18, 2019
https://nclawyersweekly.com/2019/09/18/revenge-porn-victim-gets-3-21m-revenge/
A Cumberland County woman has won a $3.2 million verdict against her ex-husband and his girlfriend after a jury found that the girlfriend had broken up their marriage and her former spouse had libeled her by creating a fake personal ad and posted her nude photos online.
In August 2018, Elizabeth Ann Clark sued her ex-husband, Adam Clark, and his girlfriend, Kimberly Rae Barrett, alleging that after Barrett broke up her marriage, she and Adam coordinated a campaign to harass and humiliate her.
The Clarks moved to Fayetteville in 2010 and had two children. Elizabeth testified that they had a strong marriage and were sexually intimate, except when Adam was travelling, in which case they would exchange nude photographs and texts. In 2016, Adam, a major in the Army, traveled to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, for several months of training. There he met Barrett, an Army lieutenant colonel, and they stayed in the same coed barracks.
Elizabeth said Adam had changed upon his return home, and was distant and showed less affection to his wife and their children and would disappear without saying why. In September 2016, Adam admitted he was having an affair with Barrett and said he wanted a divorce. The couple divorced in 2018.
In the meantime, Adam and Barrett began a campaign against Elizabeth, allegedly because they wanted to pay less in child support. They posted an ad on Craigslist, with Elizabeth’s name and work address, which claimed that Elizabeth had an STD and wanted people to contact her for sex. They also posted her nude photos on social media, called her “white trash” and a “whore,” and said she had an eating disorder, according to her attorneys.
After a five-day trial that concluded Aug. 28, the jury was out for only 55 minutes before coming back with the verdict in Elizabeth’s favor. It ordered Barrett to pay a total of $1.2 million, including $450,000 for alienation of affection, $500,000 for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and $250,000 in punitive damages. It ordered Adam to pay a total of $2 million, including $1 million for libel, $500,000 for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and $500,000 in punitive damages.
Judge Mary Ann Talley also awarded Elizabeth $10,000 in liquidated damages allowed under North Carolina’s so-called “revenge porn” statute for disclosure of private images.
Jonathan Charleston and Jose Coker of the Charleston Group in Fayetteville and Michael Porter of Fayetteville represented Elizabeth. The attorneys presented hundreds of pages of electronic communications and data into evidence that led directly back to Adam and Barrett, they said.
“The egregiousness of their behavior was overwhelming,” Porter said. He said that after the verdict, a juror phoned him and told him that the jury had reached a unanimous verdict after just 10 minutes of deliberations, and the remaining time was spent trying to calculate the damages.
Charleston said that the jury deliberated for only such a short period of time because the evidence was so “compelling and shocking in a sense of what is right and wrong.”
One of the biggest challenges that the attorneys faced was the timing of the trial, which took place just a year after the lawsuit was filed. They filed motions to continue the trial and to extend the discovery deadline, and the trial court administrator agreed to both, but the defense appealed and the senior resident superior court judge agreed to continue trial, but not to extend the discovery deadline.
“At that point, it was a question of whether we move forward,” Charleston said. “We decided we had an effective reservoir of compelling evidence. It made no sense to file a dismissal, but made every sense to try the case.”
Their client agreed and felt confident in proceeding with the case, they said.
“They believed they had all the power,” Charleston said. “One of the defendants is a lieutenant colonel and a medical doctor. The former husband was a major. They are really educated people. Our client was a bartender. They tried to intimidate her and believed they had power over her and that she would just walk away.”
The attorneys said that Adam Clark and Barrett testified that they are under investigation by the military.
Renny Deese of Lewis, Deese, Nance, and Ditmore in Fayetteville represented Adam Clark and Lamar Armstrong in Fayetteville represented Barrett. They could not be reached for comment.
VERDICT REPORT — HEART BALM LAWSUIT AND LIBEL
Amount: $3.21 million
Injuries alleged: Emotional distress, alienation of affection, libel
Case name: Elizabeth Ann Clark v. Adam Clark and Kimberly Rae Barrett
Court: Cumberland County Superior Court
Case No.: 18-CVS-5727
Judge: Mary Ann Talley
Date of verdict: Aug. 28
Special damages: $1 million for libel; $1 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress; $750,000 in punitive damages; $450,000 for alienation of affection; and $10,000 in liquidated damages for disclosure of private images
Attorney for plaintiff: Jonathan Charleston and Jose Coker of the Charleston Group in Fayetteville and Michael Porter in Fayetteville