Jury says Todd Chrisley defamed GA Revenue agent, awards her $755,000 in damages

ATLANTA — A federal jury has found in favor of a Department of Revenue investigator against imprisoned reality star Todd Chrisley, and said he now owes that agent hundreds of thousands of dollars for slander.

According to the complaint, DOR investigator Amy Doherty-Heinze said Chrisley “began a social media campaign against the GDOR and certain of its employees, contending that the investigation was illegal and improperly motivated.”

Court documents say Chrisley “began attacking” Doherty-Heinze, “accusing her of a multitude of crimes and wrongdoing.”

On Thursday, a federal jury said Chrisley was responsible for one count of libel and one count of slander. The jury then awarded Doherty-Heinze compensatory damages of $350,000 plus punitive damages of $170,000, as well as attorney’s fees, totaling to about $755,000 in overall damages, Doherty-Heinze’s attorney said.

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Todd and his wife Julie Chrisley, mostly known for their reality TV series “Chrisley Knows Best,” were found guilty in 2022 of conspiring to defraud banks and the IRS out of millions of dollars.

Channel 2 Action News first started investigating the Chrisleys in 2017, when we learned that Todd Chrisley had likely evaded paying Georgia state income taxes for several years.

Court documents obtained by Channel 2 Action News showed that by 2018, the Chrisleys owed the state nearly $800,000 in liens.

The couple eventually went to trial and a federal jury found them guilty of bank fraud and tax evasion in June 2022.

Savannah Chrisley said during her podcast that she hoped to have her parents home by the summer.

The next hearing for the couple’s appeal is scheduled for April 19 where Savannah Chrisley said she is hoping the judge will grant bond for them.

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Records show Chrisleys could be getting out of prison earlier than expected Their attorney said he believes the Chrisleys' sentence would be reduced even further once new sentencing guidelines are implemented in November.

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