50 Cent, Rick Ross Sex Tape Trial: Attorneys Request 50 Be Ordered to Pay at Least $20 Million in Damages
Attorneys for the Florida woman accusing hip-hop star 50 Cent of violating her civil rights by posting her private sex tape on his website without her consent told a Manhattan jury he should be forced to pay her at least $20 million in damages.
The New York Daily News reports attorney Philip Freidin urged the panel of four women and two men to slap the rap star with the exorbitant penalty because he used his act "as the finale of a well-orchestrated campaign to get people to his website by dissing rival Rick Ross."
Ross is the father of one of the two daughters of Lastonia Leviston, the woman featured in the video and now suing the "in Da Club" rapper. Freidin hinted to the jury that 50 Cent, born Curtis Jackson, reaped a huge financial windfall by doctoring the tape and superimposing his "Pimpin Curly" alter ego onto it to make it look like he was the man being intimate with Ross' ex, instead of her ex-boyfriend Maurice Murray.
The rapper did not testify during the trial, but in a videotaped deposition used by Leviston's team of attorneys he can be heard claiming he didn't feel he needed to get her permission to use the tape because Murray had assured him she was "cool with it."
Jackson's attorneys also told jurors their client never meant to harm Leviston by posting the tape and had never even met her.
Still, in seeking such a huge payout, Freidin told the court the ordeal of it all will linger with Leviston forever. Earlier in the proceedings, Leviston testified she lost her dignity after learning the tape had been posted and had gone viral.
"This will be with her for the rest of her life," said Freidin.
Leviston later added she agreed to make the tape with Murray because at the time they lived in different cities, and he told her he wanted to be able to see it and feel close to her when they were separated.
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