You must know something I don't - I thought Chris Kyle had witnesses to the incident.
The case was thrown out by the appellate court on somewhat technical grounds. Ventura prevailed on the issue of liability on two claims -- a legal claim of "unjust enrichment", and a claim of "defamation". That means that the jury (at least) believed that he actually
was defamed. So Kyle was found liable.
However, the Appellate Court found that an independent claim for unjust enrichment could not be brought, so that entire claim was tossed. And on defamation, they found that Ventura's attorney had improperly suggested that any verdict would be paid by insurance (a big no-no in civil litigation) so they threw out that verdict too. Now, Ventura has to decide if we wants to push ahead with a retrial on the defamation claim.
The point is that as a matter of
facts, the jury did find that Ventura was defamed, which means they believed the statement in the book was not true. But Ventura is just an idiot for pursuing it this far. It has basically made him personal non grata among many in the SEAL community. He could easily have laughed off the allegation as a bullshit bar fight story that never happened, and left it at that. Making a lawsuit out of it was just stupid.
