Todd Chrisley is facing another legal and financial setback while behind bars.
via: TV Insider
As reported by the LA Times, last Thursday, April 4, Todd was ordered to pay $755,000 in compensatory, punitive damages, and legal fees to Amy Doherty-Heinze after a Georgia judge found him guilty of defamation.
Doherty-Heinze is an investigator from the Georgia Department of Revenue who sued Todd in July 2021, alleging that he defamed her character by accusing her of “a multitude of crimes and wrongdoing” and making “repeated false allegations.”
According to the LA Times, Todd initially tried to get the case thrown out, but Doherty-Heinze claimed he continued to “defame” her on a September 2021 episode of his and Julie’s Chrisley Confessions podcast.
In the podcast, Todd is said to have accused Doherty-Heinze of “corruption” and “illegally accessing” a government program to find information on himself and wife Julie, plus their children, Chase and Savannah.
Doherty-Heinze filed her lawsuit four years after the Georgia Department of Revenue began investigating Todd and Julie in 2017. The couple was found guilty of bank and tax fraud in 2022 and sentenced to lengthy sentences in federal prison.
Todd’s attorney, Leesa Guarnotta, told the LA Times that the star’s team was “pleased the jury recognized that some of Mr. Chrisley’s statements were not defamatory and awarded the plaintiff a fourth of the damages she requested.”
However, she added, “We are concerned about the state of the First Amendment where such a case could make it to trial in the first place… We are optimistic about our appeal.”
The Chrisley Knows Best stars reported to prison on January 17, 2023. Todd is serving a 10-year sentence at Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Florida, while Julie is serving five years at Kentucky’s Lexington Medical Center.
The couple is currently awaiting oral arguments as part of their appeal, which is set for April 19.
