Man charged with attempted extortion of Kevin Hart over cheating video
The man who allegedly tried to extort actor Kevin Hart over a sex tape last year is being charged with extortion, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.
Jonathan Todd Jackson, also known as "Action Jackson," was charged with one count of attempted extortion and one count of extortion by threatening letter for allegedly trying to extort an undisclosed amount of money from Hart last August for a sex tape he allegedly had. The recording was allegedly of Hart and a woman in Las Vegas; Jackson is accused of trying to sell the video to numerous websites, prosecutors said. He is expected to be arraigned Wednesday.
Prosecutors are recommending a $100,000 bail, and if Jackson is convicted as charged, he faces up to four years in county jail.
Last September, Hart made a vague public apology to his wife, Eniko Parrish, and children in which he said he made "bad error in judgment" after he allegedly fell victim to extortion.
"It's a s**tty moment when you know you're wrong and there's no excuses for your wrong behavior," he said in an Instagram video. "At the end of the day, I just simply got to do better. But I'm also not gonna allow a person to have financial gain off my mistakes. In this particular situation, that's what was attempted. I said I'd rather fess up to my mistakes."
Attorney Lisa Bloom said a woman had a brief affair with Hart in August and someone illegally recorded intimate footage of the two of them. Bloom said the woman "is adamant that she had nothing to do with this and that she is a crime victim just like Kevin Hart."
Hart and his wife had a baby last November.