Former professional baseball and football player Vincent "Bo" Jackson has won a $21 million verdict in his civil case against his niece and nephew for trying to extort him. The Feb. 2 decision included a permanent protective order barring Thomas Lee Anderson and his sister, Erica Anderson Ross, from further bothering or contacting Jackson and his immediate family. The Andersons also must stay at least 500 yards from the Jacksons and remove from social media any content about them. The lawsuit, filed in April, alleged that Jackson's relatives tried to extort $20 million from him through harassment and intimidation, per the AP. "Unfortunately for those attempting to extort $20 million dollars from Jackson and his family, Bo still hits back hard," Jackson's attorneys said Monday.
Jackson, 61, claimed the harassment started in 2022 and included threatening social media posts and messages, public allegations that put him in a false light, and public disclosure of private information intended to cause him severe emotional distress, WSB-TV reports. He said Thomas Anderson wrote on Facebook that he would release photos, text, and medical records of Jackson to "show America" that he wasn't playing around, the suit alleged. The Andersons, with help from an Atlanta attorney, demanded the money in exchange for ending their conduct, Jackson said. Jackson feared for his safety and that of his family, the lawsuit states.
The court found no legitimate purpose for these actions and that even after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Jackson's attorneys, the intimidation and harassment continued. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Jason D. Marbutt said in his order that neither the Andersons nor their attorneys rebutted Jackson's claims and found the Andersons to be in default, accepting as true all of Jackson's allegations. "Reasonable people would find [the] defendants' behavior extreme and outrageous," Marbutt wrote.
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