Jurors considering Ventura case
Published 10:14 am Wednesday, July 23, 2014
ST. PAUL — An attorney for Jesse Ventura asked a federal jury Tuesday to award the former Minnesota governor millions of dollars in damages for what he claimed is a lie in a memoir by the late military sniper Chris Kyle.
Ventura testified during the two-week trial that Kyle fabricated a passage in his 2012 best-seller “American Sniper” about punching him in a California bar in 2006 after Ventura allegedly made remarks insulting Navy SEALs. But Kyle said in testimony videotaped before his death last year that his story was accurate.
In his closing argument, Ventura attorney David Bradley Olsen said he believes Kyle’s estate has earned more than $6 million from the book, and suggested that $5 million to $15 million would be reasonable compensation for what he said was irreparable harm to Ventura’s reputation.