50 Cent Ordered to Pay $5 Million for Leaked Sex Tape
50 Cent must pay $5 million for leaking Rick Ross’ baby mama’s sex tape.
According to the New York Daily News, jurors deliberated for just over an hour before awarding Lastonia Leviston $2.5 million in damages for using her image without her permission and another $2.5 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Leviston’s lawyers argued that the G-Unit mogul had leaked the tape online as a publicity ploy, and to diss rival Rick Ross, who fathered a daughter with Leviston. Fifty never showed up to testify at the trial, and he wasn’t in court for the verdict.
Leviston’s lawyer, Philip Freidin, had urged the jury of four women and two men to slap the rapper with a $20 million judgment for humiliating the mother of two.
Fifty doctored the sex tape of Leviston and her former boyfriend, Maurice Murray, by superimposing his alter ego “Pimpin’ Curly” in the video, which racked up millions of views online.
In a videotaped deposition, Murray said he didn’t think he needed Leviston’s permission to use the tape because he said she was “cool with it.”
Next week, the jury will decide on punitive damages and the $5 million could multiply.