Keifer Bonvillain, a Houma, Louisiana man, has sued Oprah Winfrey, alleging that she and an attorney made false statements leading to his arrest. He seeks damages of $180 million. Charges were in fact filed against Keifer Bonvillain; however, they were dismissed.
Bonvillain was arrested in December 2006 after he allegedly recorded telephone conversations with a Winfrey's production company employee. Keifer allegedly said he wanted to publish a book based on the recordings and had offers for the tapes from publishers and tabloids.
Bonvillain was supposedly arrested when a company associate allegedly agreed to pay him $1.5 million. In the lawsuit, Bonvillain claims he did everything he could to avoid doing anything illegal.
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10 comments:
The moral of the story is:
You DON'T mess around with Oprah ...
Lets see if Oprah loses the suit! If so, don't mess around with Keifer Bonvillain!
Oprah is going down!
I am not so sure about that. Lots of money for Oprah to fight these type of suits.
Oprah has a stable of lawyers on retainer for situations like this one.
She's been sued many times! How many have prevailed?
I'm putting my money on Oprah.
Keifer is going to hit the jack pot now!
Got my money on Oprah and her lawyers. If she is smart she will add a lawyer like Legal Pub to the team! :)
Law Dog
Just to be clear, the charges were dismissed at the request of the US Attorney only after Bonvillain agreed to perform 50 hours of community service, undergo drug testing and pay $3,000in restitution. If Bonvillain was so confident in his innocence and victimization, why did he agree to a plea deal?
This is not this guy's first attempt at hitting the lotto by recording conversations about high profile individuals, which he then offered to sell to the subject of those recordings in exchange for his silence (google re Roper and Thyne w/ this guy's name). There are prima facie cases for blackmail (18 USC 873), extortion involving interstate communications (18 USC 875), and extortion by mailing threatening communications (18 USC 876), assuming he used both telephone and mail to make his demands.
Looking like Oprah has a pretty good defense. Law Dog, thanks for the plug but I doubt Oprah knows me so unless her insurer calls, I won't be on the case. That is okay, because I am plenty busy. :)
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