http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-03-03-michael-jackson_N.htm

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The owner of a Santa Monica-based air charter service has been ordered to pay attorney Mark Geragos and an associate more than $12 million for ordering secret videotaping of Michael Jackson and the lawyers as they flew with the pop star to his surrender on molestation charges in 2003.
A lawyer for XtraJet owner Jeffrey Borer says he'll appeal the Monday judgment.
Borer and a co-defendant pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiracy for installing digital cameras aboard an XtraJet plane that flew Jackson from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara.
The damages awarded Monday resulted from an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit.
Jackson was acquitted in the molestation case.


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I wonder if Michael gets or got a settlement- I thought he sued as well :hmm:

It's an invasion of his privacy...I'd have thought so..

Here's a few more details:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-03-03-michael-jackson-suit_N.htm

LOS ANGELES — The owner of a Santa Monica-based air charter service was ordered to pay attorney Mark Geragos and an associate several million dollars for ordering the secret videotaping of Michael Jackson and the lawyers as they flew with the pop star to his surrender on molestation charges in 2003, according to court papers obtained Monday.
Superior Court Judge Soussan G. Bruguera ordered XtraJet owner Jeffrey Borer and his company to pay Geragos at least $10 million and possibly up to $18 million in compensatory and punitive damages, depending on how the ruling is interpreted. Geragos' colleague Pat Harris was awarded between $1.25 million and $2.25 million in damages.
The ruling dispute centers on whether both the company and Borer are separately responsible for punitive damages, or just Borer. Geragos' legal team claims the former, while Borer's claims the latter.
A court spokeswoman wasn't immediately able to clarify.
"Defendant Borer was the mastermind behind a scheme to desecrate and exploit sacred attorney-client communications for personal profit," Brugera wrote in the 21-page judgment filed Friday.

Geragos' and Harris' attorney Brian J. Kabateck said he was pleased with the decision.

"This is an important day for lawyers who generally represent celebrities and high profile people," he said.

Borer's lawyer, Lloyd Kirschbaum, said his client will appeal. He contended the attorney-client relationship could not have been breached because the video recording did not have sound.

"There wasn't any sound," he said. "You can't intercept a communication without sound."

Borer and co-defendant Arvel Jett Reeves pleaded guilty last year to felony counts of conspiracy. They acknowledged they installed two digital video recorders in a Gulfstream jet that flew Jackson from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara. XtraJet has since gone bankrupt, according to Kirschbaum.

Reeves was sentenced to eight months in prison.

Borer was sentenced to six months home detention rather than prison because he said he was the caregiver for his wife, who had chronic health problems. He spent part of that confinement at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey, saying his house had a mold problem and his wife was allergic.

The damages resulted from an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit filed by Geragos and Harris. Jackson, who was initially a plaintiff in the civil lawsuit, later dropped out of the case.

The pop singer was acquitted of the molestation charges in 2005.

Michael won't get anything from this. He pulled out of the lawsuit when he fired Geragos.

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Cash-strapped Jackson misses out on damages

The owner of a Los Angeles-based celebrity jet service has been ordered to pay $20.25m in compensation to two of Michael Jackson's former lawyers after secretly video-taping them and the pop star on a flight from Las Vegas to California in 2003. Jackson was flying into Santa Barbara to turn himself in to face the child molestation charges of which he was eventually acquitted.

Jeffrey Borer, owner of Xtrajet, was found out after Fox News was approached in November 2003 by someone offering to sell tapes of Jackson talking on the plane with his lawyer Mark Geragos and associate Pat Harris. Borer pleaded guilty to federal charges and received a six-month home detention sentence. Geragos called the invasion of privacy one "one of the most outrageous acts I've seen in my 20 years of practising criminal law".

Jackson will be kicking himself that he pulled out of the lawsuit against Xtrajet after firing Geragos as his lead attorney in the 2004 molestation case. Jackson could have done with the money to help pay off the $25m mortgage arrears on his Neverland ranch.

Borer, whose jet service has since gone bankrupt, made the headlines last year when the Los Angeles Times discovered he had managed to turn his home detention 'sentence' into a holiday, by serving it not at home but at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey. After persuading a court that his house was infested with mold, to which his wife was allergic, Borer was allowed to say at the Ritz Carlton - for six months at his own expense.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people,734,cash-strapped-jackson-misses-out-on-damages,19514

the company does not excist anymore so i doubt geragos will see any of the money. they are appealing so it will go on for along time. its already taken over 4 years. its no help to mj in his current situation as even if there was money to be paid to geragos it will probably be years b4 he sees any.if theres any to see

Very true, I think. However, I think it's about the judgment in this case- like the principle. They were shady and needed to be shamed. I am kinda glad they out of business. :yes: