Woman Secretly Taped Having Sex Awarded $1 Million

HOUSTON —  A jury awarded $1 million Friday to a woman who said she suffered grave mental anguish after learning that her college boyfriend had secretly videotaped them having sex and had shown the tape to others.

“We just feel wonderful,” said Ronald Krist, who represented 23-year-old Susan Kerr in a lawsuit seeking $48 million in damages. “You know, this lawsuit was never about money. It was about a definition of who was the victim and who was the culprit.”

The jury said the ex-boyfriend and three other defendants had acted with gross negligence. The four were assessed $500,000 in compensatory damages for pain and suffering and an additional $500,000 in punitive damages.

Kerr, who testified during the trial that the tape and the ensuing gossip it caused affected her health and her studies, said she accomplished what she wanted.

“The purpose was to know and let other people know that I wasn’t wrong in what I did,” Kerr said. “I never did anything wrong. What they did to me was wrong.”

The largest share of damages was $350,000 assessed against Dan Boyles, 21, who admitted appearing in the videotape having sex with Kerr and showing the tape to at least 10 fellow students at the University of Texas at Austin.

Boyles’ attorney, Jaime Drabek, said he expected the jury to assess some liability, but not to find there was gross negligence.