Result: $422,865.86 total JURY VERDICT, including $250,000.00 in punitive damages due to the egregiousness of the ex-boyfriend’s conduct”

A single mother of three children catches her former boyfriend cheating on her, and as a result, breaks things off with the man. The ex-boyfriend threatens that, if the mother does not “get back together with him,” he will send nude pictures of the mother to her children, including distributing flyers depicting the pictures at her younger son’s middle school and her church; and post the pictures on her employer’s publicly accessible social media pages.

After the mother refuses to reconcile with the cheating ex-boyfriend, and despite being informed by the Blue Springs Police Department that, if he follows through with his threats, his behavior would constitute a felony under Missouri law, nonetheless, the ex-boyfriend sends the pictures via Facebook Messenger, along with vile descriptions of the mother to both of her adult children and posts the pictures on the publicly accessible Facebook page for the mother’s place of employment. The ex-boyfriend also leaves the mother voicemails saying things like, “you f***** with the wrong guy.”

After quitting her job and leaving her church due to the embarrassment of the ex-boyfriend’s sociopathic behavior, the ex-boyfriend is charged with, and ultimately, pleads guilty to the felony of non-consensually distributing nude photographs of the mother to a third-party. Unfortunately, he receives a “slap on the wrist” by the criminal court—only being sentenced to probation. Seeking real justice, the brave mother of three puts her reputation on the line and brings a lawsuit against the ex-boyfriend in the Jackson County Circuit Court seeking money damages under a relatively new Missouri law prohibiting exactly this type of deplorable behavior. In what Hollingshead & Dudley believes to be the first civil jury trial under this new law…