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#TMI: Woman’s party Tweets cast doubt on jury, injury award severely reduced

Tweets that didn’t show Omiesha Daniels to be a hobbled victim of a car crash that broke her arm late last year ended up costing the woman nearly $100,000 in jury award money, a prime example of sharing too much information (TMI, if you will) on the Internet. According to a report at PerezHilton.com and […]

tweets reduced injury awardTweets that didn’t show Omiesha Daniels to be a hobbled victim of a car crash that broke her arm late last year ended up costing the woman nearly $100,000 in jury award money, a prime example of sharing too much information (TMI, if you will) on the Internet.

According to a report at PerezHilton.com and from other sites, the woman had a jury award in her favor reduced from $237,000 to $142,000 after those same jurors were presented with evidence of the woman partying and even carrying a handbag with her broken arm during a New Year’s Eve junket with friends in New Orleans. Her case was heard before a jury in Gwinnett County, Ga.

Daniels, who Tweets from her handle @browneyeddst38, initially told jurors that she was unable to perform her duties as a hairstylist because of the injuries she suffered in a car accident earlier in the year in 2012. The cast, she said, prevented her from doing weaves and other involved techniques that are required of salon experts in a traditionally African American hair establishment. 

Jurors saw Tweets of her weekend in New Orleans and decided to reduce the award they planned for her for her injuries. Daniels had asked for more than a million dollars but was awarded about one-fourth that amount initially. An attorney for Daniels admitted that the Tweets “sunk her” case and the jury award initially decided for her.

The all-white jury did agree that the accident that led to her broken arm did cause her to suffer and that she did miss time from work as a result but the Tweets sent from the beach and of having an “epic weekend” with her friends convinced them that the injuries weren’t as severe as she may have suggested through her trial.

A review of the woman’s account shows that the Tweets that doomed her initial jury award have been removed. The latest posts to her feed show indicate she was “getting  back on (her) feet” right around the Christmas holiday and planning to go out with friends at night. She often posts more photos of herself  than any words she might include with the Tweets.

Daniels argued to the jury that the photos she posted to Twitter show her holding a lightweight handbag and that the jury wasn’t aware of the manual labor she’d need to conduct her job as a hairstylist.

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