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TRANSCRIPT of Jury Trial Proceedings (Volume I) Held On

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Toffoloni v. LFP Publishing Group, LLC Doc. 251 1 1 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA 2 ATLANTA DIVISION 3 MAUREEN TOFFOLONI, as ) Administrator and Personal ) 4 Representative of the Estate ) of Nancy E. Benoit, ) 5 ) Plaintiff, ) 6 ) -vs- ) Docket No. 1:08-CV-421-TWT 7 ) LFP PUBLISHING GROUP, LLC, ) June 13, 2011 8 doing business as Hustler ) Atlanta, Georgia MagaZine, )9:38 a.m. 9 ) Defendant. ) 10 ______________________________ ) 11 12 TRANSCRIPT OF THE JURY TRIAL PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE HONORABLE THOMAS W. THRASH, JR., 13 U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE, AND A JURY 14 VOLUME I 15 APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL: 16 On behalf of the Plaintiff: Richard Decker 17 Francis Edwin Hallman, Jr. HALLMAN & WINGATE 18 On behalf of the Defendant: Derek Bauer 19 Barry Armstrong MCKENNA, LONG & ALDRIDGE 20 21 Proceedings recorded by mechanical stenography and computer-aided transcript produced by 22 SUSAN C. BAKER, RMR, CRR 23 2194 U.S. COURTHOUSE 75 SPRING STREET, S.W. 24 ATLANTA, GA 30303 (404) 215-1558 25 Dockets.Justia.com 2 1 INDEX 2 Page 3 Jury Selection 6 4 Opening Statements 70 5 Witness on Behalf of the Plaintiff: 6 DONNA HAHNER Cross (By Mr. Decker) 106 7 MAUREEN TOFFOLONI 8 Direct (By Mr. Decker) 146 Cross (By Mr. Armstrong) 158 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 (Proceedings held in Atlanta, Georgia, June 13, 2011, 2 9:38 a.m., in open court.) 3 THE COURT: All right. This is the case of Maureen 4 Toffoloni versus LFP Publishing Group, Case Number 08-CV-421. 5 First let me ask counsel for the parties to identify 6 yourselves for the record and the parties you represent. 7 MR. DECKER: Good morning, Your Honor. Richard 8 Decker for the Plaintiff, Maureen Toffoloni. 9 THE COURT: Morning, Mr. Decker. 10 MR. BAUER: Morning, Your Honor. Derek Bauer for 11 Defendant LFP Publishing Group. 12 THE COURT: Morning, Mr. Bauer. 13 MR. ARMSTRONG: Barry Armstrong for Defendant as 14 well, Your Honor. 15 THE COURT: Morning, Mr. Armstrong. 16 Are you ready, Mr. Decker? 17 MR. DECKER: Yes, Your Honor. 18 THE COURT: Are you ready, Mr. Bauer? 19 MR. BAUER: Yes, Your Honor. 20 THE COURT: All right. We have distributed the 21 questionnaire that I prepared to the potential jurors, and I 22 think they have finished filling those out. It's going to be a 23 few minutes before we can get copies of those made for you. So 24 we will be in recess probably for about 10 or 15 minutes, and 25 we should have the jurors' responses to the written 4 1 questionnaire available. And we will begin with the responses 2 to the individual questions that you see on the screen in front 3 of you. 4 We will bring the jurors in and seat them on the 5 right-hand side of the courtroom, so everybody that's sitting 6 over there needs to move over to the other side of the 7 courtroom. 8 Any questions about the jury selection process? 9 Okay. We will be in recess for about ten minutes. 10 (A short recess was taken.) 11 THE COURT: Now, I've given each side 12 seven-and-a-half hours for the evidence in the case. With that 13 limitation, how long you think it's going to take to try this 14 case, Mr. Decker? 15 MR. DECKER: Your Honor, I'm sure I would be finished 16 tomorrow morning. 17 THE COURT: What about you, Mr. Bauer? 18 MR. BAUER: I think we need a little more than a half 19 day. 20 THE COURT: So if I tell the jurors this case is 21 going to take about three days to try, is that going to be 22 about accurate? Should I say two days? 23 MR. DECKER: I would say three, Judge, out of an 24 abundance of caution. 25 I had one question about that. I understand the 5 1 Court has indicated it's going to be bifurcated, and I think 2 that's correct. I'm not clear on exactly what's going to 3 happen in the first phase vis-a-vis the second phase, and that 4 controls my witness flow. 5 THE COURT: I think certainly the question of 6 compensatory damages and whether or not punitive damages should 7 be awarded and whether or not attorneys' fees and expenses of 8 litigation should be awarded will be addressed by the jury in 9 the first phase. If they decide that punitive damages should 10 be awarded and/or expenses of litigation, I would expect they 11 will decide the amount of those in the second phase. 12 MR. DECKER: And so in the second phase as the Court 13 has ordered, the second phase is where the attorney fees and 14 expenses evidence comes in? 15 THE COURT: Correct. 16 MR. DECKER: Not in the first phase? 17 THE COURT: Correct. 18 MR. DECKER: All right. Well, with that 19 clarification, Judge, my estimate for the Plaintiff is again 20 about a day and a half or a little less. 21 Your Honor, I would simply note my exception to the 22 bifurcation of the attorneys' fees question into the punitive 23 damages phase. But I hear you, and I understand. That's the 24 direction I will take. 25 THE COURT: All right. We are ready for the jurors. 6 1 We will bring the jurors in, have them seated on the 2 right-hand side of the courtroom. Y'all are welcome to turn 3 your chairs around, work off those two back tables if you want 4 to. 5 Mr. Bauer, you have a corporate representative here? 6 MR. BAUER: We do, Your Honor. This is Donna Hahner, 7 corporate vice president of LFP Publishing. 8 THE COURT: I'll let you introduce her at the 9 appropriate time. 10 MR. BAUER: Thank you. 11 (Prospective jurors entered the courtroom.) 12 - - - 13 JURY SELECTION 14 - - - 15 THE COURT: Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen. You 16 are here to participate in the voir dire and jury selection 17 process in the case of Maureen Toffoloni as administrator and 18 personal representative of the estate of Nancy E. Benoit versus 19 LFP Publishing Group, LLC, doing business as Hustler MagaZine. 20 This is a civil case in which the Plaintiff is suing LFP 21 Publishing Group for publishing unauthoriZed photographs of 22 Nancy Benoit and in which the Plaintiff is also seeking 23 punitive damages and expenses of litigation. And I will 24 explain all that in more detail later. 25 As I said, the Plaintiff in this case is Ms. Maureen 7 1 Toffoloni. Would you stand up, Ms. Toffoloni. 2 (Plaintiff rises.) 3 THE COURT: Thank you. 4 She is represented in the case by Mr. Richard Decker. 5 Would you stand, Mr. Decker. 6 (Mr. Decker rises.) 7 THE COURT: The Defendant in the case is LFP 8 Publishing Group which is represented in the case by Mr. Derek 9 Bauer and Mr. Barry Armstrong. 10 (Mr. Bauer and Mr. Armstrong rise.) 11 THE COURT: Mr. Bauer, you have a corporate 12 representative you'd like to introduce? 13 MR. BAUER: We do, Your Honor. 14 Thank you for being here this morning, Ladies and 15 Gentlemen. This is Donna Hahner. Donna, if you would stand 16 up. She is the corporate vice president of LFP Publishing 17 Group. 18 (Ms. Hahner rises.) 19 THE COURT: Let me ask you, Ladies and Gentlemen, are 20 any of you related by blood or marriage to the Plaintiff, 21 Ms. Maureen Toffoloni? 22 (No response.) 23 THE COURT: Are any of you officers, employees, 24 stockholders, shareholders, directors, agents of the Defendant, 25 LFP Publishing Group? 8 1 (No response.) 2 THE COURT: All right. Gentlemen, the jurors appear 3 to be qualified. 4 THE CLERK: Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a list of 5 questions that we would like for you to respond to in statement 6 form. They are on the large monitors in front of you, plus I 7 have got a sheet here that you can handle if you need to do 8 that. We will ask you to use this microphone. You need to 9 hold it close to your mouth so that we can hear you here in the 10 courtroom. 11 We will begin with the juror on the front row up 12 against the wall. If you will stand. First thing you need to 13 do is state your name and then respond to the questions in 14 statement form. Remain standing briefly in case the Court has 15 some follow-up questions. If not, then pass the microphone and 16 the sheet of questions to the next juror. 17 When we reach the end of the row, then we need to 18 pass the microphone and the sheet of questions to the jurors in 19 the row behind you up against the wall. The court security 20 officer will be here to assist you in that. 21 PROSPECTIVE JUROR: My name is Sharon Williams. I 22 live in Fulton County, and I have lived there for over 15 23 years. I am divorced. My former husband is a physician. I 24 have three children. One is deceased. The ages are 43 and 39. 25 They are employed. My daughter who's 43 is a hospital 9 1 administrator at Hugh Spalding Children's Hospital.
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