A jury Friday awarded gay porn director F. Marc Schaffel $900,000 in damages for money he claimed pop singer Michael Jackson owed him for loans and for his work in making music videos and other expenses.
Schaeffel, who directed gay porn videos under the name Marc Fredericks, had initially sued Jackson for $3.8 million before reducing it to $1.6 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. He also claimed the singer owed him much of the money for loans he had made to him.
Schaffel has directed more than 400 gay porn titles including The Man With the Golden Rod and Cocktales.
The plaintiff had been Jackson’s business partner since 2001 when he worked on his unsuccessful album Invincible and most recently had been working on a tribute album and video for 9/11 victims.
But Jackson’s attorney’s had countered that Schaffel owed Jackson $660,000 from projects they had worked on just prior to Schaffel’s 2001 firing after the singer purportedly found out about Schaffel’s gay porn past.
Jurors said later that they agreed on the $900,000 figure because they believed Schaffel’s claims that Jackson did not pay commissions for two videos and other expenses.
