The Kansas City radio show “Afentra’s Big Fat Morning Buzz” took a big hit from a federal court jury Friday.
Afentra Bandokoudis (left) of 96.5 The Buzz hosts the radio show “Afentra’s Big Fat Morning Buzz” that misidentified a woman as being a porn star in 2012. | File photo/The Kansas City Star
A woman falsely identified as a porn star during a 2012 broadcast on 96.5 The Buzz was awarded $1 million after a weeklong trial in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan.
Ashley Patton filed the suit against the radio station’s owner, Entercom Kansas City, seeking damages for mental suffering, shame and humiliation.
The jury awarded Patton $250,000 in actual damages and $750,000 in punitive damages.
As part of an agreement negotiated while jurors were deliberating the amount of punitive damages, the company will not appeal the verdict, said Patton’s lawyer, Arthur Benson.
Both sides agreed that Patton was not and never had been involved in the pornography industry.
Benson told jurors in closing arguments Friday that the company needed to be held accountable for the conduct of employees who acted with reckless disregard of the truth.
Fritz Riesmeyer, attorney for Entercom, said that although false and highly offensive, identifying Patton as a porn star was a mistake and not done with malice, as the law required for her to collect damages.
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