( dpa )- Michael Jackson's lawyer Mark Geragos won a damage award of 2.25 million dollars Monday from the owner of a private jet company who secretly taped the troubled singer and his defence attorney in November of 2003.
The incident occurred when Geragos and Jackson flew from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara for the pop star's surrender to face child molestation charges, of which he was later acquitted in a criminal trial.
Geragos had called the taping "one of the most outrageous acts I've seen in my 20 years of practicing criminal law" and filed an invasion of privacy suit against XtraJet, claiming the company videotaped the flight and tried to sell the tapes to the media for a sum in the high six-figure range. The lawsuit claimed the recordings violated Jackson's right to privacy.
The settlement could provide a much-needed boost to Jackson's finances. He is currently facing foreclosure on his Neverland Ranch after failing to make mortgage payments.