Jesse Ventura vs. SEAL's widow

[Sangersteve]

I don't think he will win his case, but the defense has to prove that what Kyle wrote was true.

You are correct, I think they can do it via quotes from Kyle that he deleted Jesse's name from the book and eyewitness testimony.

[BillB]

I don't think he will win his case, but the defense has to prove that what Kyle wrote was true.

Again, you are mistaken. Ventura must prove that the account Kyle wrote was false.

"To prevail in a defamation lawsuit, a plaintiff must prove that the defendant made a false and defamatory statement about the plaintiff that was communicated to a third party."

http://www.haliczerpettis.com/what-does ... bel-claim/

[BigTex]

We shall see.

[Grassman]

I can't get over RO being a P1

[Red Oak]

Huh ?

[GFB]

Can we all just agree that Jesse is a scum bag?

Let's GO with it!

[Bob Of Burleson]

Kyle talks about fight.

VIDEO

[jellowrestling]

I don't think he will win his case, but the defense has to prove that what Kyle wrote was true.

I'm pretty sure the standard is different for a public figure. For example, I can say that Obama is the son of a goat, totally without conseque

[BillB]

I don't think he will win his case, but the defense has to prove that what Kyle wrote was true.

I'm pretty sure the standard is different for a public figure. For example, I can say that Obama is the son of a goat, totally without conseque

There is a different standard for defaming a public figure.
The defamation has to be made with malice. That means the person must know for a fact the statement is false.
I can say safely that Obama takes bribes, because I have no way of knowing whether he really does or not.
I cannot say that I caught Obama in my house stealing my television. I know that isn't true and I would be guilty of defamation.

In Ventura's case, Kyle knew whether his statements were true or not, since he was a principal in the story.
If he was lying, it would be defamation even though Ventura is a public figure.

[jellowrestling]

I don't think he will win his case, but the defense has to prove that what Kyle wrote was true.

No, Ventura has to prove that what Kyle wrote isn't true.

More importantly, since Ventura is a public figure, he has to prove malice.

[planosteve]

Looks like America's favorite sniper might have had a bit of a problem with "truthiness".

"In the deposition, videotaped a year before his death, Chris Kyle said he could not remember who told him that Ventura had hit his head when he fell to the sidewalk, could not recall how he learned that Ventura had a black eye, and conceded that tables did not go “flying” during the 2006 confrontation in a bar near San Diego, which he described in his book “American Sniper.”

While calmly stating that the fight had indeed occurred and that he had punched Ventura in the face, Kyle also conceded that Ventura may not have used a vulgarity in describing former President George W. Bush, which Kyle wrote in the book was one of the reasons he struck him."

http://www.startribune.com/local/266448121.html

Someone should have warned him. "Don't mess with old guys".

[Bob Of Burleson]

Ex-Governor, Jesse Ventura,
Matches Outsize Image in Court

By CHRISTINA CAPECCHI and MONICA DAVEY
The New York Times

ST. PAUL — Jesse Ventura, the wrestler-turned-politician, looked slighter than he once had and more buttoned down, in pinstripes and glasses. Yet as Mr. Ventura, the former Minnesota governor, testified Friday in a defamation suit he has brought against an author, he was every bit the enormous, sometimes contradictory personality the public remembers: boisterous, boastful, even emotional.

“That’s me in my prime,” a smiling Mr. Ventura told jurors as an image of him from his wrestling days as “The Body” flashed on a courtroom screen. From the witness stand, he offered an enthusiastic rendition of his own line — “I ain’t got time to bleed!” — from “Predator,” a 1987 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

At another point, Mr. Ventura, who left political life more than a decade ago, offered to show jurors a military tattoo on his chest, an offer the federal judge overseeing the case politely declined before announcing a lunch break.

At the root of the case is his allegiance to his military past with a Navy underwater demolition team, and claims made about his views in a book written by a former member of the Navy SEALs.

“It defines me today,” Mr. Ventura told jurors about his time spent in the special Navy unit. “It’s the thing I’m proudest of in my 63 years of existence, of anything I’ve done.” He appeared to choke up while describing having been named as one of the “co-frogmen of the millennium” in 2000 in a magazine aimed at special naval units.

Mr. Ventura has sued the estate of Chris Kyle, the former SEAL member who alluded to Mr. Ventura in his book, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History.” The book was a best seller; a movie is in the works.

In the book, Mr. Kyle, who died last year in a shooting, described a confrontation in 2006 with a man he called “Scruff Face” at a California bar frequented by members of the SEALs. Scruff Face was loudly criticizing the nation’s policies in Iraq and at one point suggested that the Navy SEALs deserved to “lose a few,” Mr. Kyle wrote.

Mr. Kyle, troubled by the comments and concerned that they were upsetting others in the bar, said that he punched the man. Although the book never identified Mr. Ventura by name, Mr. Kyle in 2012 confirmed in interviews about the book that he was referring to Mr. Ventura.

On the stand, Mr. Ventura said the events in the book had never occurred. Mr. Ventura said that he had been at the bar that night — reuniting with old Navy colleagues before a SEAL graduation ceremony the next day — but that he recalled no confrontation and was uncertain whether he had even come across Mr. Kyle in the bar. Mr. Ventura said he was not drinking alcohol that night and has not since 2002, when he was put on blood-thinning medication.

“Nothing unusual has ever happened to me out there,” Mr. Ventura said of his numerous visits to Navy reunions.

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