Psychic to Pay Millions to Couple She Claimed Buried Kids in Mass Grave
The Texas psychic responsible for giving local law enforcement officials a bogus tip on a mass grave at the home of a Liberty County couple will need to pay $7 million for the damage she caused the two.
Presley "Rhonda" Gridley, known professionally as Angel, famously "tipped off" the Liberty County Sheriff's Office back in 2011 to the existence of a mass grave containing the dismembered bodies of 25 to 30 individuals including children on the property of truck drivers Joe Bankson and Gena Charlton.
Bankston and Charlton initially sued several media outlets, including The New York Times and CNN, for spreading made up information about them that has had long-term effects, and has even cost them several friends.
Those lawsuits were subsequently dismissed thanks to a Texas law prohibiting lawsuits against organizations for distributing information concerning "matters of public concern."
Another lawsuit against the Sheriff's Office for unreasonable search and seizure was also dismissed, even though Bankson and Charlton claimed the authorities barged into their residence without just cause while they were away, leaving behind "broken dishes, overturned furniture and animal urine and feces."
The last remaining lawsuit, against Gridley, concluded last month after the defendant failed to show up to court.
Judge Carl Ginsberg ultimately ordered her to pay the plaintiffs a combined sum of $6.85 million, though it remains unclear how the couple intends to collect the money.
Gridley told the Houston Chronicle in 2011 that visions she shared with two of her psychic friends of children in trouble prompted her to call the cops.