Nick Gordon has been ordered to pay more than $36 million in girlfriend Bobbi Kristina Brown’s wrongful death civil lawsuit, the Associated Press reports.
Brown’s estate said in a statement that Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford awarded $36,250,000 in damages on Thursday, November 17, according to the AP. Gordon was not present in court and has not been criminally charged in Brown’s death.
Bobbi Kristina, the daughter of the late Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, was found unresponsive in a bathtub at her Atlanta home in January 2015 — circumstances eerily similar to her mother’s 2012 death. She died at age 22 in July 2015 when she was taken off life support following a six-month medically induced coma.
In response to Thursday's judgement, her father Bobby told IPRESSTV in a statement: “I am pleased with the outcome of today’s court proceedings. I do know that Mr. Gordon will be unable to slander my daughter’s name in the future or obtain any benefits from the use of Krissy’s name. Finally, I do need for the District Attorney’s Office to step up and begin the criminal prosecution of Mr. Gordon. The delay in that matter is of great concern to me and my family. We need for District Attorney Howard to act now.”
Bobby’s attorney Christopher Brown issued his own statement. "We have said all along that Nick Gordon was responsible for the death of Bobbi Kristina Brown and the harm of losing a child is immeasurable,” the statement read.
As previously reported, Gordon was found “legally responsible” in the case in September after he failed to show up to court, which means that the conservator of Brown’s estate won by default. “Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford ruled today that Nick Gordon is legally responsible for Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death after the defendant failed to appear in court,” the Fulton County Court told IPRESSTV in a statement. “A jury will determine the amount of damages to be awarded to Brown’s conservator.”
Bobbi Kristina’s conservator, Bedelia Hargrove, alleged in the lawsuit that “Ms. Brown died due to a violent altercation with [Gordon] after which he placed her in a bathtub, unconscious, after he injected her with a toxic mixture,” according to court documents obtained in October 2015 by Radar Online. Gordon has denied these claims and any involvement in her death.