Albert Hit With Triple Legal Fees

Author Laura Albert, who lost a trial for duping a production company in June, was ordered to pay triple what the jury originally awarded Antidote International Films Inc, the Associated Press has reported.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Kaplan awarded Antidote $279,175 in fees and $70,325 in expenses, totaling $349,500, nearly triple the $116,500 originally awarded by the jury.

Albert posed as "J.T. LeRoy," the male author of Sarah. The work was about a truck-stop prostitute and was supposedly based on LeRoy’s life. Albert even went so far as having friends pose as LeRoy at book signings and succeeded in misleading journalists with her tales of truck-stop sex. At the trial, Albert objected to LeRoy being called a hoax because, according to the AP, "she believed he was inside her."