After three hours of deliberation, jurors unanimously found that Keanu Reeves doesn’t have to pay anything to Alison Silva, the paparazzo who sued him for $711,974 that included lost wages, punitive damages and medical bills.
The civil lawsuit ruling found that Reeves was not responsible for the photographer’s injuries. Monday, ruling that Reeves is not responsible for the photographer’s alleged injuries.
“I respect the jury’s decision,” Silva explained to reporters outside the Los Angeles County Superior Court. “That’s what we were here for since the beginning.”
Silva said he would keep working in the picture snapping biz and when asked whether he would photograph Keanu Reeves again he responded “Why not? It’s business.”
The lawsuit stemed from an incident in March 2007 where Silva claimed that Reeves hit him with his Porsche which caused an injury to his left wrist.
Jurors heard contradictory testimony from Silva about what happened. As if that wasn’t enough, they saw a video of him using his “injured” hand to crawl down a fence after getting video of Britney Spears.
“We obviously felt from day one that Mr. Reeves was not negligent,” said Reeves’ attorney, Alfred Gerisch, after the verdict. “It’s unfortunate that this lawsuit was brought and it’s unfortunate that we had to go this far — a lot of time, a lot of effort and obviously a lot of money.”
The star of “Matrix” and “Speed” waited for the verdict outside the courthouse’s cafeteria but declined to comment after the decision.
Attorneys issued closing arguments Friday, the jury deliberated about five minutes before leaving for the weekend, and resumed their work Monday morning. All 12 decided to reject the case; civil trials in California only require nine jurors to be in agreement.
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