Maury Povich sued by Florida state prison inmate for damages for the “great emotional shock, grief, shame, and embarrassment” of seeing his 7-year-old daughter on The Maury Show
Maury Povich, the 75-year-old host of the long-running syndicated tabloid TV talk show named after him, has been sued by a Florida state prison inmate for monetary compensation for damages resulting from the "great emotional shock, grief, shame, and embarrassment" of seeing his 7-year-old daughter on The Maury Show, reports TMZ.
The plaintiff in the handwritten civil action lawsuit, Alan B. Griffin, is serving time for a second-degree attempted murder and sexual battery conviction back in 2002. As represented, he saw his then 7-year-old daughter Lanique and ex-wife Sherilitra Nash were guests on an episode of the Maury Show that aired in 2010, and that he was the topic of that particular program. He claims that seeing his "only child being exploited" by Povich led to "suicidal thoughts" which landed him in a 72-hour mental health holdand which made him undergo a year of psychiatric counseling. He maintains that until now, he "still suffers from the fright and horror of seeing his daughter" on the tabloid TV talk show.
Griffin further asserts that since he had joint custody of his daughter then, based on 1998 divorce proceeding, the producers of The Maury Show should have gotten his consent to have her appear on air notwithstanding the fact that he has been in prison since 2002. He maintains that Maury and his producers "made millions of dollars at the [expense of his] mental and emotional distress."
In his lawsuit, which he filed December 17, 2014, at a Florida district court, Griffin is asking that Povich, his production company, and NBC be ordered to pay $100,000 each in monetary compensation for his "mental suffering and emotional distress" on account of their alleged "negligence" for not asking for his consent before they used his then minor-aged daughter on the show.
TMZ says that Griffin's "got next to no shot at winning this thing." According to lawyers, with his being in prison, his ex-wife gets sole custody and becomes the primary guardian over their child. So, it was really not up to him as to whether or not the then 7-year-old Lanique could appear on The Maury Show at the time.