Elon Musk Takes Stand Again In Defamation Trial
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk returned to the stand Wednesday to testify a second day at his defamation trial in downtown Los Angeles.
Musk apologized on the first day of testimony Tuesday for calling Vern Unsworth a "pedo guy" on Twitter and referring to him later as a "child rapist" who married a 12-year-old Thai girl. On the stand, Musk agreed with Unsworth's attorney that the tweet caused the British cave diver "unreasonable grief."
Unsworth was part of the effort to rescue 12 boys and a soccer coach who got trapped inside a flooded cave in Thailand. The rescue operation riveted the world, and Musk had sent a miniature submarine in an effort to help with the rescue, a move Unsworth had called a publicity stunt.
Musk fired back with the tweets that are now at the heart of the defamation case.
In opening statements, Unsworth's attorney Taylor Wilson alleged his client's reputation had been ruined and his heroic efforts in saving the soccer team had been overshadowed by the slanderous comments. Alex Spiro, one of Musk's lawyers, said the tweet was merely a "joke" prompted by Unsworth's CNN interview a few days earlier and that the term did not imply the plaintiff was engaging in pedophilia.
When asked to define the term "pedo guy," Musk testified it was not an obscure South African insult, but a frivolous term used frequently online and throughout the world, and should not be taken literally.
"It just means creepy old dude," Musk said on the stand. "It is quite common in the English-speaking world."
A jury will decide whether Musk was negligent by failing to use reasonable care to determine the truth or falsity of his comments about Unsworth.