Sporting legend Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson has been awarded just over $21 million by a Cobb County judge in his civil extortion case against his niece and nephew, whom he accused of relentless harassment and intimidation.
The judgment came Feb. 2 alongside a permanent protective order barring siblings Thomas Lee Anderson and Erica M. Anderson, also known as Erica Anderson Ross, from further bothering or contacting Jackson and his immediate family members. The Andersons must stay at least 500 yards away from the Jacksons and their homes, workplaces and schools, and remove from social media any content about them.
The Andersons are Jackson’s niece and nephew, he said in his complaint against them, filed in April. The lawsuit alleged that Thomas and Erica Anderson, who live in Cobb County and Texas, respectively, tried to extort $20 million from the former professional baseball and football player.
“Unfortunately for those attempting to extort $20 million dollars from Jackson and his family, Bo still hits back hard,” Jackson’s attorneys said in a Feb. 5 press release about the case.
Attempts to contact the Andersons and their attorneys were not immediately successful.
Jackson claimed the harassment started in 2022 and included threatening social media posts and messages, public allegations casting him in a false light, and public disclosure of private information intended to cause him severe emotional distress. He said Thomas Anderson wrote on Facebook that he would release photos, text and medical records to “show America” that he wasn’t playing around.
The Andersons, with assistance from an Atlanta attorney, demanded $20 million in exchange for ending their conduct, Jackson alleged. He said they threatened to appear at a restaurant near his home and disrupt a charity event he hosted in April as a means of harassment and intimidation.
Jackson feared for his safety and that of his immediate family, the lawsuit states. It sought a stalking protective order against the Andersons as well as unspecified compensation for intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy. Jackson also brought a civil conspiracy claim against the siblings.
In a Feb. 2 order, Cobb County Superior Court Judge Jason D. Marbutt said neither the Andersons nor their attorneys rebutted Jackson’s claims or participated in the case after a May hearing, when they consented to a temporary protective order. The judge found the Andersons to be in default, accepting as true all of Jackson’s allegations.
“Reasonable people would find defendants’ behavior extreme and outrageous,” Marbutt wrote. “The court saw evidence that an attorney representing defendants claimed his clients’ conduct would cease for the sum of $20 million.”
Jackson, 61, is a former Heisman Trophy winner. He played in both the National Football League and Major League Baseball. He was raised in Alabama and lived in Illinois at the time he filed his complaint.
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