Imprisoned actuality TV star Todd Chrisley is going through much more authorized and monetary woes.
Final week, a federal jury discovered that the true property tycoon, identified for the USA Community collection “Chrisley Is aware of Greatest,” defamed an investigator from the Georgia Division of Income. A Georgia decide determined Thursday that Chrisley, who’s at present serving a years-long sentence in federal jail for financial institution fraud and tax evasion, should pay Amy Doherty-Heinze $755,000 in compensatory and punitive damages and authorized charges, in response to authorized paperwork reviewed by The Occasions.
Doherty-Heinze sued Chrisley on July 9, 2021, alleging he accused her of “a mess of crimes and wrongdoing” beginning in 2020, authorized paperwork say. The defamation swimsuit additionally alleged Chrisley, 55, “repeated false accusations that, amongst different issues, [Doherty-Heinze] engaged in varied prison misconduct in her publish as an investigator for the Georgia Division of Income’s Workplace of Particular Investigations.” Two months after the lawsuit got here down, Chrisley tried to get the case thrown out, however Doherty-Heinze alleged that the TV star continued to “defame” her in a September 2021 episode of his and spouse Julie’s “Chrisley Confessions” podcast.
In response to the investigator’s swimsuit, Chrisley names Doherty-Heinze in his podcast and accuses her of corruption and of “illegally accessing” a authorities program to tug info on the fact TV household, together with his spouse and their youngsters, Chase and Savannah.
Doherty-Heinze filed her lawsuit 4 years after the Georgia Division of Income started investigating Todd and Julie Chrisley in 2017, the lawsuit stated.
Her swimsuit alleged that Chrisley began a “social media marketing campaign in opposition to the GDOR and sure of its staff, contending that the investigation was unlawful and improperly motivated.” Amid the lawsuit, Doherty-Heinze’s attorneys demanded in September 2022 that Chrisley retract the alleged defamatory statements from the September 2021 podcast episode.
In response to Thursday’s ruling, Chrisley’s lawyer Leesa Guarnotta stated in an announcement to The Occasions the star’s workforce was “happy the jury acknowledged that a few of Mr. Chrisley’s statements weren’t defamatory and awarded the plaintiff a fourth of the damages she requested.”
“We’re involved concerning the state of the First Modification the place such a case may make it to trial within the first place,” the assertion added. “We’re optimistic about our attraction.”
A authorized consultant for Doherty-Heinze didn’t instantly reply to The Occasions’ request for remark.
The “Chrisley Is aware of Greatest” patriarch and Julie Chrisley had been convicted in June 2022 of federal expenses together with tax evasion and financial institution fraud, disrupting their actuality TV empire and household dynamics. The spouses started their jail sentences in January 2023.
Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in Florida’s Federal Jail Camp Pensacola and Julie seven years at Kentucky’s Federal Medical Heart in Lexington. Final 12 months, each acquired minor reductions of their sentences: Todd is about to be launched two years sooner than initially scheduled, and Julie 14 months.
Occasions researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.
