Former professional baseball and football player Vincent “Bo” Jackson, a running back who won the Heisman Trophy at Auburn, won a $21 million verdict in his civil suit against his nephews for attempting to extort him .
The Feb. 2 decision included a permanent protective order prohibiting Thomas Lee Anderson and his sister, Erica M. Anderson Ross, from further disturbing or contacting Jackson and his immediate family. The Andersons must also stay at least 500 meters away from the Jacksons and remove any content about them from social media, news outlets reported.
The lawsuit, filed in April, alleged that Jackson’s relatives attempted to extort $20 million from him through harassment and intimidation.
“Unfortunately for those attempting to extort $20 million from Jackson and his family, Bo continues to respond harshly,” Jackson’s lawyers – Robert Ingram and David Conley – said in a press release about the case on Monday.
Jackson, 61, said the harassment began in 2022 and included threatening social media posts and messages, public accusations that cast him in a false light and public disclosure of private information intended to cause him severe emotional distress, WSB- reported TV. He said Thomas Anderson wrote on Facebook that he would release photos, texts and medical records of Jackson to “show America” that he wasn’t joking, the lawsuit claims.
The Andersons, with the help of an Atlanta lawyer, asked for the money in exchange for an end to their behavior, Jackson said. He said they threatened to show up at a restaurant near his home and disrupt a charity event he hosted in April in Auburn as a means of harassment and intimidation.
Jackson feared for his safety and that of his immediate family, the lawsuit states. He is seeking a protective order for stalking against the Andersons, as well as unspecified damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy. Jackson also filed a civil conspiracy lawsuit against the brothers.
The court found that there was no legitimate purpose for these actions and that even after receiving a cease and desist letter from Jackson’s lawyers, the intimidation and harassment continued.
Cobb County Superior Court Judge Jason D. Marbutt said in his order that neither the Andersons nor their attorneys refuted Jackson’s claims or participated in the case after a May 2023 hearing, when they agreed to a temporary protective order, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The judge found the Andersons to be in default, accepting all of Jackson’s allegations as true, the newspaper said.
“Reasonable people would find the defendants’ behavior extreme and outrageous,” Marbutt wrote. “The court saw evidence that a lawyer representing the defendants said his clients’ conduct would be stopped for a sum of $20 million.”