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Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:11 am
by Bob Of Burleson
Jesse Ventura arrives in court
Ex-Governor, Suing Over Book,
Is Back in Minnesota’s Spotlight
By MONICA DAVEY
The New York Times
ST. PAUL — Jesse Ventura, the blunt-talking former governor with the outsize reputation, has always been hard to define. The same man who upended Minnesota’s political establishment more than a decade ago with a third-party candidacy was once better known as a professional wrestler who wore a feather boa and went by the nickname “The Body.” He has been an author, a member of a special unit of the Navy and a television host.
Now he is a plaintiff in a defamation suit in which jurors in a federal courtroom here must decide whether his reputation was harmed by a best-selling book by a former member of the Navy SEALs.
Mr. Ventura, 62, who on Tuesday sat quietly at the plaintiff’s table in a sedate gray suit, his hair in a modest silver ponytail, has sued the estate of Chris Kyle, the former SEALs member, who alluded to Mr. Ventura in his book, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History.”
The case is likely to test the higher legal standard a public figure must meet to prove defamation. The proceeding is also complicated by Mr. Kyle’s death in a shooting in Texas in 2013, about a year after the suit was filed. The death left Mr. Kyle’s widow, Taya, as the defendant on behalf of his estate. And in a state where Mr. Ventura’s legacy is still a matter of debate, the trial is also returning the former governor, who had largely faded from the political landscape, to the spotlight.
In a way, the trial here comes down to a single night. Deep into Mr. Kyle’s book, he described a confrontation on Oct. 12, 2006, at a California bar where Mr. Kyle and his friends were mourning the death of a fellow SEALs member. There, Mr. Kyle said, he argued with a man — a veteran and celebrity who, he said, criticized the nation’s policy in Iraq and suggested that the Navy SEALs “deserve” to lose a few people. Mr. Kyle wrote that he punched the man. While Mr. Kyle called the man only “Scruff Face” in his book, he later confirmed during interviews about the book that Mr. Ventura had been the subject of the passages.
But Mr. Ventura’s lawyer, David B. Olsen, said that no such confrontation had occurred, and that Mr. Ventura had since been “publicly ridiculed and publicly humiliated” within the military ranks for comments that he never made, nor would have made. “There was no incident,” Mr. Olsen said. “There was no altercation.”
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Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:40 am
by Sangersteve
Jessie is not likely to win. He's is just looking for some pub, and costing the widow money.
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:51 am
by BigTex
He could win if the defense doesn't produce witnesses to the alleged altercation.
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:04 am
by GFB
He looks a lot older than 62.
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 11:13 am
by Bob Of Burleson
The way that suit fits, it looks like it's left over from his bodybuilding days.
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 6:41 pm
by BillB
BigTex wrote:He could win if the defense doesn't produce witnesses to the alleged altercation.
The defense doesn't have to prove anything.
Ventura has to prove that it DID NOT happen. That's hard to do.
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:43 pm
by BigTex
If Kyle stated publicly that he was writing about an encounter with Ventura, then the defense has to prove that the encounter actually happened. Otherwise Ventura can make the case that he was maliciously defamed (but then the anus is on him to show that he was damaged in some way from what was written.)
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:47 pm
by Red Oak
The Anus is definitely on Ventura.
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:50 pm
by BillB
BigTex wrote:If Kyle stated publicly that he was writing about an encounter with Ventura, then the defense has to prove that the encounter actually happened. Otherwise Ventura can make the case that he was maliciously defamed (but then the anus is on him to show that he was damaged in some way from what was written.)
I disagree.
Ventura is the plaintiff. He has the burden of proving he was defamed. The only way he can prove that is to demonstrate that the encounter described by Kyle did not happen.
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:55 pm
by BigTex
How do you prove something didn't happen?
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:04 pm
by BillB
BigTex wrote:How do you prove something didn't happen?
That's Ventura's problem.
He needs to be able to bring in witnesses who were with him that night in that bar swearing that no such thing happened.
I read the other day that he doesn't have any witnesses.
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:09 pm
by Bob Of Burleson
Another problem for Ventura is that Kyle didn't identify by name the man he allegedly cold-cocked. Just "a scruffy-faced man" — or something like that.
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:21 pm
by Sangersteve
Bob Of Burleson wrote:Another problem for Ventura is that Kyle didn't identify by name the man he allegedly cold-cocked. Just "a scruffy-faced man" — or something like that.
It get's more twisted.Now I am not for Jesse,I think Jesse got his ass kicked and is ticked about it. So he is bringing suite to try and prove he didn't get decked by a hero.
A slain military sniper whose memoir sparked a lawsuit from former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura admitted before his death that he removed Ventura's name from the book because he was afraid of being sued, jurors in Ventura's defamation lawsuit heard Wednesday.
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Slain- ... 15311.html
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:26 pm
by Grassman
Red Oak wrote:The Anus is definitely on Ventura.
What??
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:26 pm
by Grassman
Grassman wrote:Red Oak wrote:The Anus is definitely on Ventura.
What??
I don't think so.....
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:32 pm
by BigTex
"While Mr. Kyle called the man only “Scruff Face” in his book, he later confirmed during interviews about the book that Mr. Ventura had been the subject of the passages."
If Ventura can demonstrate that he was damaged financially or psychologically by what was written in the book, it only matters if it was not true. If what was written in the book was true - boo hoo, so sad, too bad.
Only the defense can prove that what Kyle wrote is true.
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:33 pm
by Red Oak
Hey I was just quoting BT
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:51 pm
by Sangersteve
Can we all just agree that Jesse is a scum bag?
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:53 pm
by BigTex
I don't think he will win his case, but the defense has to prove that what Kyle wrote was true.
Re: Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:01 pm
by BigTex
Ventura's biggest problem will be jurors sympathetic to the widow of a murdered Navy SEAL.