{"id":550515,"date":"2021-06-03T08:31:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T12:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=550515"},"modified":"2021-06-03T08:50:11","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T12:50:11","slug":"former-rep-hill-ordered-to-pay-219k-in-revenge-porn-case-legal-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-rep-hill-ordered-to-pay-219k-in-revenge-porn-case-legal-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Rep. Hill Ordered to Pay $219K in Revenge Porn Case Legal Fees"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-rep-hill-ordered-to-pay-219k-in-revenge-porn-case-legal-fees%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=550515&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GetFile-129.aspx\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>A Los Angeles judge has ordered former Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., to pay nearly a quarter of a million dollars in legal fees to a British tabloid and two\u00a0conservative journalists she unsuccessfully sued in a revenge porn lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>Hill accused the Daily Mail, the\u00a0managing editor of the conservative website Red State, and a radio producer of violating the law by publishing intimate pictures without her consent. The lawsuit was thrown out on First Amendment grounds earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Yolanda Orozco awarded about $105,000 to the parent company of the Daily Mail, a British tabloid, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/story\/2021-06-02\/katie-hill-attorneys-fees-revenge-porn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Los Angeles Times<\/a> reported. The judge previously ordered Hill to pay $114,000 overall to the two\u00a0individuals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A judge just ordered me to PAY the Daily Mail more than $100k for the privilege of them publishing nude photos of me obtained from an abuser,&#8221; Hill\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KatieHill4CA\/status\/1400135397011869697\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tweeted<\/a> Wednesday with the hashtag #BoycottDailyMail. &#8220;The justice system is broken for victims.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hill, 33, also asked people to offer financial assistance via an online form titled \u201cNonconsensual Porn is NOT Free Speech!!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A spokeswoman told the Times that Hill planned to appeal the rulings that dismissed her suit.<\/p>\n<p>An attorney representing the Daily Mail did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Orozco previously ordered Hill to pay about $84,000 to the attorneys of Jennifer Van Laar, managing editor of the Red State, and about $30,000 to lawyers representing radio producer Joseph Messina.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Hill dropped her initial claim that accused Messina of being part of a conspiracy to distribute the pictures.<\/p>\n<p>The judge\u2019s ruling showed that &#8220;those who file speech-chilling [intimidation] lawsuits must pay the price,&#8221; said Krista Lee Baughman, an attorney representing Messina and Van Laar.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you have a problem with the way the Legislature wrote the revenge-porn statute, that needs to be addressed in the Legislature. The court is duty-bound to follow the writing. In this case, the statute itself clearly had a public interest exception.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, a year after Hill was elected to Congress by flipping a traditional GOP district in northern Los Angeles County, the Red State published stories alleging the lawmaker had an affair with a male congressional staffer.<\/p>\n<p>The website also alleged she and her husband Kenneth Heslep \u2014\u00a0the two were in the process of divorcing at the time of the Red State\u2019s story \u2014\u00a0had a previous relationship with a female campaign worker.<\/p>\n<p>Both the Red State and Daily Mail published pictures.<\/p>\n<p>Hill confirmed she and Heslep had a relationship with the campaign worker but denied the affair with the congressional staffer. Hill said the relationship with the campaign worker was inappropriate because the woman was a subordinate.<\/p>\n<p>Hill sued the Daily Mail, the Red State, Van Laar, Messina, and Heslep in December. She argued they violated California&#8217;s revenge-porn law by distributing and\/or publishing images that included photographs showing her nude while brushing another woman\u2019s hair, holding a bong, and sunbathing.<\/p>\n<p>A 2013 California law makes it a crime to distribute private images without the person\u2019s permission. However, there are exceptions, such as if sharing such photos is in the &#8220;public interest.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The publications and Van Laar successfully argued that Hill&#8217;s lawsuit failed to meet the requirements of the revenge porn statute. They cited the &#8220;public interest&#8221;\u00a0exemption but also said they were not the original distributors of the images, and that Hill\u2019s private parts were redacted in the published pictures.<\/p>\n<p>The parties claimed the First Amendment gave them the right to publish newsworthy information about an elected official\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n<p>The Red State&#8217;s parent company has not sought attorneys&#8217;\u00a0fees. Heslep, who does not have a lawyer on record in the case, has not filed any legal responses.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Storied:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Los Angeles judge has ordered former Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., to pay nearly a quarter of a million dollars in legal fees to a British tabloid and two\u00a0conservative journalists &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2279028,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GetFile-129.aspx","fifu_image_alt":"Former Rep. Hill Ordered to Pay $219K in Revenge Porn Case Legal Fees","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GetFile-129.aspx","fifu_image_alt":"Former Rep. Hill Ordered to Pay $219K in Revenge Porn Case Legal Fees","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}