A Texas woman was awarded $1.2 billion in damages after she sued her former boyfriend and accused him of sending intimate images of her to her family, friends and co-workers from fake online accounts. The woman, identified by the initials D.L. sued her former boyfriend, Marques Jamal Jackson, claiming he had psychologically and sexually abused her by distributing so-called revenge porn, a term for sexually explicit photos or videos of someone that are shared without consent. The couple started dating in 2016 and were living together in Chicago in 2020 when they began a “long and drawn-out break up,” according to the lawsuit. D.L. temporarily moved to her mother’s house in Texas and Jackson began accessing the security system there to spy on her, reports the New York Times. In October 2021, the couple officially ended their relationship and D.L. told Jackson that she no longer wanted him to have access to “visual intimate material” of her that she had allowed him to have while they were a couple.
Instead, he posted the images on social media platforms and websites, including a pornographic website, and in a publicly accessible folder on the online file-sharing service Dropbox. He identified her in the material, using her name and address, and images of her face. He created fake social media pages and email accounts to share the material with her family, friends and co-workers. In an email to D.L., Jackson said, “You will spend the rest of your life trying and failing to wipe yourself off the internet.” Jackson did not appear in court last week, when a jury in Houston ordered him to pay $200 million for past and future mental anguish and $1 billion in punitive damages.
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