Rapper 50 Cent must pay $2M in sex-tape lawsuit — jury

Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent, appears in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 21, 2015 in New York to testify in a lawsuit about a sex tape he allegedly posted online. AP

NEW YORK — Rapper 50 Cent must pay an additional $2 million in punitive damages to a woman featured in a sex tape posted online, a jury decided Friday.

The decision came two weeks after jurors ordered the multiplatinum-selling artist to pay $5 million to Lastonia Leviston.

Leviston’s invasion-of-privacy lawsuit argues that 50 Cent, born Curtis Jackson III, posted online a crudely narrated 13-minute sex-tape she made with a boyfriend in 2008. In the video, he taunts rival rapper Rick Ross, who isn’t featured in the video but has a child with Leviston.

After the jury’s verdict, Jackson filed for bankruptcy protection in Connecticut.

A lawyer for Leviston had urged jurors to award her $15 million. Jackson’s attorney had asked them to order he pay $700,000.

Jackson’s attorney, James Renard, said in a statement Friday that he was disappointed with the verdict. He said Jackson will ask the court to reduce the jury’s award.