Extortion is a criminal offense which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Legal extortion is achieving the same thing but within the confines of the law.
It appears that Rachael Uchitel and her attorney Gloria Allred have struck a deal with Tiger Woods. We will never know for sure but the pattern is long established. Everything below is conjecture and I welcome a call from Allred to disabuse me of my theories. I add this caveat because I would prefer to avoid a lawsuit from her like in 1981 when she sued California State Senator John Schmitz for slander for $10 million when he called her a “slick butch lawyeress”. She settled that case for $20,000 and an apology.
If Allred and Uchitel simply called up Tiger and said “If you don’t pay me two million dollars I will release all of your text messages, emails and voice mails to the media.” that would be criminal extortion. Both Uchitel and her attorney could go to jail (like Robert Halderman, the man that is out on $200,000 bail and may spend up to 15 years in prison for alleged extortion against David Letterman).
How does Gloria lawfully obtain payment from the likes of Tiger through coercion without breaking the law? Here is my hypothesis. First she contacts the Tiger camp and tells them that her client has been damaged by Tiger and her client demands compensation. She claims emotional distress, humiliation and fear for Uchitel’s safety. Tiger’s attorneys immediately get to work because they know the unspoken but far more damaging threat is that Allred or her client will go to the media with all the “dirt”. So Tiger’s team and Gloria quickly work out a settlement where Tiger agrees to pay Uchitel a few million dollars in exchange for settling her claims. Just one more thing. These agreements always include a non-disclosure and confidentiality provision that says Uchitel will never reveal anything about her romance with Tiger (especially those graphic text messages).
And by the way, Gloria probably took one third of the settlement to compensate her for protecting the “little guy”. She also managed to garner enough publicity in the process so the next mistress of a philandering sports figure will call Gloria first when she wants to collect millions rather than ending up in prison.
What do you think about extortion? If Robert Halderman is going to spend years in prison, is it right for Uchitel and Allred to profit so handsomely?
Upon further reflection, I think Allred scheduled the press conference first and waited a short time for a call from Tiger's attorney.
ReplyDeleteIf Tiger would keep his pants zipped, this would never become a problem.
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