Jury Awards $40,000 in Kid Rock Case

A jury retued with a verdict in the civil case against musician Kid Rock Friday. The 11-person jury awarded plaintiff Harlen Akins $40,000 in compensatory damages.

The case stems from a fight that happened between Kid Rock, whose real names is Robert James Ritchie and his entourage and Akins at a suburban Atlanta Waffle House three years ago.
Jurors began deliberations on Friday moing after hearing three days of very different versions of what happened.

Multiple cameras at the Waffle House on Buford Highway captured the brawl blow-by-blow. But in the lawsuit filed by Akins, who threw the first punch is not as important as what happened before and after the fight. In his three-day civil suit, Akins has maintained that he was the victim of a vicious mob attack at the hands and feet of Kid Rock and his entourage.

"It was coming from everywhere-- kicks, blows, hits. I mean, they actually tried to kick me up under that table," Akins testified.

Kid Rock said he wasn’t looking for a fight that night after a show in Atlanta in 2007. He claims Akins was drunk and high, and that he had a knife. He also says Akins was being belligerent to the women at their table, so his entourage acted to protect them.

"Now Jason just reacts and jumps on him. As soon as Jason acts, I react. That's my friend, something is happening, I'll ask questions later," Kid Rock testified when he took the stand on Thursday.
On Friday, the jury asked to see the surveillance video presented in court again.

In addition to the video, which each side claims proves their version of the fight, jurors also saw the bloody jeans Akins was wearing that night, and pictures of Kid Rock’s roughed-up hands.

Jurors were asked to decide whether or not to award Akins for his medical bills, who claims to have a mild traumatic brain injury from the fight.

"My actual head from right here, going down through there, it just like constantly throbs, Akins explained. ”It's unbearable."

Akins is also asking for an unspecified amount for pain and suffering. Kid Rock, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of simple battery in the brawl, says that second amount is what Akins is really after.

"I feel like I'm a big number in the lawsuit lottery, Kid Rock said. ”I feel like if this was anybody else at the Waffle House, making an honest wage in a job, we wouldn't be sitting here right now. No way, shape, or form.