ATLANTA — A civil trial that was going to expose more than a dozen audio recordings of the Waffle House chairman and his housekeeper, as well as a sex tape, ended shortly after it began Tuesday.
Channel 2 Action News had the only camera in the courtroom to capture Waffle House Chairman Joe Rogers, Jr. embrace his wife, Fran, shortly after both sides reached a settlement midway through opening statements.
[READ: 3 indicted in ex-Waffle House CEO sex tape case]
"What we can speculate is that one side either heard something they didn't like in the opening. Or that side was afraid of something that the defense was about to say in their opening," Channel 2 legal analyst Esther Panitch said.
Rogers argued that his former housekeeper Mye Brindle invaded his privacy when she secretly videotaped them in a sexual act in 2012.
His attorney claimed Brindle also had 15 audio tapes of different sexual encounters.
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Rogers maintained the relationship was consensual, but the former housekeeper said she feared she would be fired if she rejected her boss.
The chairman’s lawyer told the jury that the case was about taking money from a wealthy man and there’s an extortion letter to prove it.
“The letter made clear that Joe would have to pay money to keep those recordings private and avoid being publicly accused of inappropriate sexual conduct,” attorney Robert Ingram said.
[READ: Three found not guilty in Waffle House sex tape case]
Last year, a Fulton County jury acquitted Brindle and her two lawyers on charges of unlawful surveillance.
The civil trial stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 2012.
"We have no idea what's going to happen to that videotape?" Channel 2's Chris Jose asked Panitch.
“Well, I know the plaintiff asked for its destruction,” Panitch said.
Jose asked the attorneys on both sides for an interview about the settlement, but they say said they could not talk about the case.
Cox Media Group
