Jury sides with Jesse Jackson in lawsuit
LOS ANGELES – A jury Friday rejected most claims by a conservative minister that the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his son threatened the clergyman during a 2001 meeting of Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a frequent guest on conservative talk shows who has organized protests against Jackson, filed the lawsuit, claiming he believed his life was in danger during a meeting involving the coalition and representatives of Toyota.
“It’s a total vindication. We are thrilled,” Carol Sobel, the attorney representing Jackson and his son Jonathan, said in a phone interview. She said Peterson “makes a living attacking Rev. Jackson, and this case has been a propaganda machine for him.”
Peterson, 56, accused the elder Jackson of assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Jonathan Jackson was accused of battery and false imprisonment for allegedly preventing Peterson from leaving the meeting about a Toyota ad campaign.
The jury split 6-6 on an additional claim of simple assault that contended the younger Jackson “may have threatened to touch” the minister, Sobel said.
The defense said it would ask the judge for a directed verdict – a ruling showing that Jonathan Jackson was not responsible. Peterson’s attorneys indicated they would oppose that request and would seek to refile that part of the case.
“We believe we had the truth on our side here,” said Michael Hurley, Peterson’s lead lawyer.
Peterson insisted he was harassed by the Jacksons.
“There were people in the room who saw it, and there are people who agree with me, but because of their fear of Jesse Jackson they’re afraid to come forth (and testify),” said Peterson, founder and president of the conservative Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny.
Peterson was represented by lawyers from Judicial Watch, a conservative Washington public-interest group.
The alleged confrontation happened at a meeting between the coalition and Toyota to discuss an ad campaign that featured a close-up of a dark-skinned man’s mouth with an image of a gold Toyota RAV4 on one tooth.
Jesse Jackson had threatened to boycott the automaker because of the ad. Instead, he reached an agreement in which the company agreed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to hire more minorities, buy from minority companies and spend with minority advertisers.
During the meeting, Peterson said, he angered the crowd when he asked a Toyota representative whether black Republicans would have to go through the coalition to participate in the automaker’s program.
After the meeting, Peterson contended, he was encircled by a threatening crowd that included a cursing Jesse Jackson, and that Jonathan Jackson struck him in the shoulder with an elbow.
Jesse Jackson, in his testimony, said he remembered the remark being phrased as an accusation that challenged the carmaker’s integrity. He testified that Peterson deliberately tried to provoke a confrontation, calling him “sissy or woman,” but that he encouraged people to remain calm and never saw any physical or verbal assault.
Jonathan Jackson also denied striking Peterson, who never reported the confrontation to police.