When he was clean-shaven, and had a career (30 years ago).
We didn’t see this coming…
Although verdicts in such cases are customarily unanimous, both sides agreed to a split verdict. The verdict of 8 to 2 was reached after more than a week of deliberations. Jurors awarded Mr. Ventura $500,000 for defamation and $1.3 million for what was termed the author’s unjust enrichment.
via Jesse Ventura Wins Defamation Case – NYTimes.com.
We hope he enjoys the money.
Does he think his reputation was worth it? Because that’s taken a bigger Streisand Effect hit from the suit than it did from the story in American Sniper — and both of those clobberin’s are bigger than the belt he took (or didn’t) to the jaw.
Kevin was a former Special Forces weapons man (MOS 18B, before the 18 series, 11B with Skill Qualification Indicator of S). His focus was on weapons: their history, effects and employment. He started WeaponsMan.com in 2011 and operated it until he passed away in 2017. His work is being preserved here at the request of his family.
11 thoughts on “Breaking: Scruff Face Wins”
Jesse Ventura!
He wanted to clear his name about what Kyle wrote about him and then clarified what he meant about WHO “Scruff-Face” was & the courts agreed with Jesse.
Jesse is an ol time straight-shooter & I doubt he would’ve went through all this trouble if he didn’t seriously believe what he was doing was right. Jesse Ventura speaks his mind, however searching past news clips of Ventura does he state that he wishes ANY Armed Forces personnel Ill will or death.
There is more to this case then meets the eye.
john b: You are the first person I have seen to even semi-defend Ventura at the numerous military web sites I visit and I give you kudos for courage. Ventura may have “cleared” his name via the judicial system but he has certainly failed to clear his name with any SOF folks or other military, which was his stated intent. The SOF condemnation appears pretty darn unanimous. If he should return the money (minus lawyer fees I’m sure) to Kyle’s estate, maybe he could earn some grudging respect, but not from me as I see him as a man with no honor for initiating the suit in the first place.
I think it was on Legal Insurrection where I saw a statement Ventura made claiming he was the victim. Seriously? After his attempt at being a Governor, who has heard anything about him? His reputation was in the dumper long before Kyle’s comments. Many who have fallen of their own accord from the heights adopt the mantle of the victim and it is always sad to see.
If he donated the money to the Seal Foundation or SOWF he’d save scruff face, perhaps. I can certainly see how two guys can leave a drunken party with a loathing for each other, and conflicting ideas about what went down. Even when I’m at such bashes with SF bros I keep my wits about me, and we’re much less prone to intramural fisticuffs than our frogman compatriots. It’s just part of their culture in a way it’s not of ours.
So now he’s a slightly wealthier douchebag, having climbed to this height on the back of a widow.
Nice going, Jesse. You’ve taken douche baggery to new lows.
Probably more or less a verdict on the endless GWOT than a couple of sentences in a book. I’ll bet Ventura’s lawyers just had him deny everything except that he opposed Bush and his war, case closed.
One of Ventura’s lawyers recently won a case for me. Hell of a lawyer and a good guy. Real expensive though. Ventura might get half of the award. I’d have more respect for him if he’s asked for a dollar and paid the legal fees out of his own pocket.
BTW insurance will pay the judgement not the widow.
It is interesting that the judgment appears to apply no sanctions to the book or pending film, simply gets money. Still, I bet Jesse doesn’t get decked in the film now. (“Deleted scenes for $500, Alex!”)
WM is in “a world of hurt”
If I have a “Problem” with you about something you said or wrote about me I’ll take it up with you. If you die, it’s over. I won’t take it up with your widow.
I always had at least a grudging respect for Jessie Ventura because he spoke his mind and didn’t care if anybody liked it or not. Taking a murdered brother SEAL’s widow to court is beyond reprehensible.
Enjoy it Jessie. Victories will come harder from now on!
Seems to me that Jesse won a pyrrhic victory. He may have won the court case but public perception is going to be that he was harassing the widow of a hero. I’d be surprised if he ever works again. Of course, on the other hand, there is always CNN.
Oh man I think Im gonna catch hell for this nut…what about the idea that this had all been one big publicity stunt right from the start? An agreement between both of them for some future consideration or outright payment to Ventura? Who better to play the “heel” than a guy who made a career out of just that? And who makes a better good guy (the “face” in wrasslin terms) than Kyle did? If that was the case, then you could say Ventura played his part perfectly right to the end. I know this idea isnt well liked, but I wonder if the whole thing wasnt dreamed up as a way to get increased interest in the book and make it stand out from the God knows how many other Iraq/Afghanistan/GWOT/SF books that are out there. I dont know Ventura. Didnt know Kyle. I cant say I could be the judge of either mans character or ethics. But if you look at the whole thing from what I suppose could be a cynical point of view, then staging some sort of controversy to garner publicity isnt really far fetched. There was a couple of things that seemed a bit off to me. The first being that Kyle supposedly dropped Ventura then took off. Why? Anybody thats been in the military knows that in almost no case are the cops, military or civilian, going to be called for a little scrap. Those kind of things are settled in house. At least they used to be. The other thing was the fact that Kyle talked about killing as many people as he did. Not saying he was supposed to be sorry in any way, but there seemed to be a fixation on the number of kills. I dunno, its probably just me but it seemed kind of unseemly or callous. Like the story could be told without the body count. Some might look at it as bragging about something thats better left on the field. Anyways, thats my little 2 cents worth of speculation.