Tamara Favazza Wins $5.8M In 'Girls Gone Wild' Case | The company that creates "Girls Gone Wild" DVDs is seeking to overturn a verdict awarding nearly $6 million to a St. Louis-area girl who claims her vacant breasts were recorded while not permission.
St. Louis Circuit decide John Garvey last month sided with Tamara Favazza in her suit against Mantra Films Inc. and MRA Holdings LLC, awarding her $5.77 million. She was a 20-year-old faculty student in 2005 when somebody lifted her tank prime throughout a celebration at a St. Louis bar, exposing her breasts. Another person filmed it. She later discovered the recording was a part of the "Girls Gone Wild Sorority Orgy" DVD series.
Favazza claimed within the suit originally filed in 2008 that she failed to offer consent and therefore the ensuing DVD broken her name. A St. Louis jury sided with the DVD manufacturers in 2010, however a retrial was granted.
Garvey issued his ruling on March five. On Wednesday, the defendants filed motions asking that the judgment be put aside and a replacement trial granted.
Jeffrey Medler, an attorney for Favazza, said he can "vigorously oppose" any effort to overturn the ruling.
Several messages left with David Dalton, the last listed attorney for Mantra Films and MRA Holdings weren't came back. Phone calls to Mantra Films' workplace in California went unanswered.
"Girls Gone Wild" videos and DVDs, that includes young girls exposing themselves on camera, have created a fortune for founder Joe Francis. however he has been targeted with dozens of lawsuits from girls who said they were upset at being filmed. Francis was originally named in Favazza's suit however was dismissed from the case in 2009.
The video was created at a bar then called the Rum Jungle close to the St. Louis riverfront. Earlier court testimony indicated that a lady acting as a contractor for "Girls Gone Wild" pulled down Favazza's shirt at the shoulder strap, exposing her breasts.
Favazza, currently a 26-year-old wife and mother, claimed that she solely became tuned in to her look within the video when an addict of her husband pointed it out. She sued soon once learning she was within the video.
Three months once a jury sided with "Girls Gone Wild" in 2010, the decide in that case, John J. Riley, ordered a replacement trial, ruling that the decision did not mirror the load of proof. He wrote that it absolutely was clear within the video that Favazza was an "unwilling participant," saying she is seen mouthing the word "no" as her shirt is pulled down.
But attorneys for Mantra Films and MRA Holdings said at the primary trial that signs posted at the bar explained how the video would be used.
The case took another twist in January when Dalton withdrew as counsel. When the decide heard the case on Feb. 17, Favazza's attorneys presented their case, however there was no representative for Mantra Films or MRA Holdings.
In inquiring for the judgment to be put aside, Dalton wrote that the defendants "reasonably and rightfully believed they were still represented by counsel which the cause was being defended."
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