Voice of America
07 Dec 2019, 03:35 GMT+10
LOS ANGELES - An attorney told a Los Angeles federal jury Friday it would be reasonable to award $190 million in damages to a British cave explorer who is suing Elon Musk for allegedly branding him as a pedophile during a Twitter spat.
Attorney Lin Wood said the suggested sum includes $150 million in punitive damages.
Musk, who testified his stock in Tesla and SpaceX is worth about $20 billion, contends that he was not being literal when he referred to Vernon Unsworth as a "pedo guy."
The case was expected to go to the jury later in the day after closing arguments end.
The spat happened as Unsworth was involved in the rescue of a youth soccer team and its coach from a flooded cave in Thailand.
Unsworth had ridiculed Musk's effort to help in the rescue by having engineers at his companies, including Space X and The Boring Co., develop a mini-submarine to transport the boys. Despite working around the clock to build the sub, Musk arrived in Thailand late in the rescue effort and the craft was never used.
Unsworth called it nothing more than a "PR stunt" and said Musk could stick the sub "where it hurts."
In his closing argument, Wood called Musk a "billionaire bully" who lied when he claimed "pedo guy" only means "creepy old man" and when he apologized to Unsworth.
The biggest lie, Wood said, was when Musk accused Unsworth of being a pedophile.
"When Elon Musk tweets something it goes around the world," Wood said.
He added: "It can never be deleted."
Unsworth testified that he had to sue Musk for defamation because if he didn't, the allegation would seem true.
In his testimony, Musk insisted that the phrase he tweeted off-the-cuff "was obviously a flippant insult, and no one interpreted it to mean pedophile."
Get a daily dose of New Orleans Sun news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to New Orleans Sun.
More InformationFRANKLIN, Tennessee: Hundreds of thousands of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles are being recalled across the United States due to a potential...
REDMOND, Washington: Microsoft is the latest tech giant to announce significant job cuts, as the financial strain of building next-generation...
LONDON UK - U.S. stock markets were closed on Friday for Independence Day. Global Forex Markets Wrap Up Friday with Greeback Comeback...
SANTA CLARA, California: Nvidia came within a whisker of making financial history on July 3, briefly surpassing Apple's all-time market...
SACRAMENTO, California: California's multibillion-dollar farms are facing a growing crisis—not from drought or pests, but from a sudden...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Donald Trump says the United States could soon reach a trade deal with India. He believes this deal would...
MADRID, Spain: Liverpool footballer Diogo Jota and his younger brother, André Silva, have died in a car accident in Spain. Spanish...
LONDON, U.K.: An unrelenting heatwave sweeping across Europe has pushed early summer temperatures to historic highs, triggering deadly...
President Donald Trump's plans to build a space-based Golden Dome missile defense shield have drawn immediate criticism from China,...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Paramount has agreed to pay US$16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by U.S. President Donald Trump over...
LONDON, U.K.: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer won a vote in Parliament this week to move ahead with changes to the country's welfare...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Donald Trump will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. President...