Chris Kyle Punches Jesse Ventura Out Of Court

Chris Kyle Punches Jesse Ventura Out Of Court (Image: MGN)

• Jesse Ventura's court case for $1.8 million in defamation, against the Chris Kyle's estate, was rejected this morning.
• After Chris Kyle claimed to punch out the “Scruff Face” former governor in his book American Sniper, Jesse Ventura has been out for vengeance.
• Jesse Ventura claims the event never happened, and that it has ruined his reputation within his Navel SEAL community.
• The case is being re-sent up through the court systems for a new trial.

The former Minnesota governor, Jesse Ventura's, $1.8 million judgment was rejected this morning, in his case against the Chris Kyle estate. 

Jesse Ventura claimed that he had been defamed in Chris Kyles book “American Sniper.” In the book, there is a chapter entitled “Punching Out Scruff Face,” where “scruff face” was later identified as Jesse Ventura. 

The courts rejected the award for $500,000 for defamation, as well as the $1.3 million for unjust enrichment against Kyle's estate. The defamation award, however, is being sent back to court for a new trial.

In the book, Kyle punched a man described as “scruff face” at the wake of a fallen Navy SEAL at a California bar in 2006. He went on to say that the man made comments about the SEAL's and that they ‘deserved to lose a few' in Iraq. That, of course, seems like a very justified reason to punch a man, no matter how scruffy the face.

However, Ventura is denying the event. He says that he never made those comments and that the altercation never happened. Ventura being an ex-demolitions team member for the Navy SEAL's, as well as a professional wrestler, said that the accusations have ruined his reputation in the selective SEAL's family. 

The issue with the case is the definition of defamation, which comes to “acted with malice.” That means that a defendant must prove that the accused knew the statement was false or made it with reckless disregard to if it was false. Yet after Kyles death in 2013, that makes that process difficult. Chris Kyle did, before his death, give a videotaped testimony that the story was true. 

We will have to wait and see if the case will get pick up again in court, and if Jesse Ventura can  body slam his way into convincing the courts he is in the right.