An Idaho drag performer received more than a $1 million in damages in a defamation suit against a blogger who falsely claimed the performer exposed himself to a crowd that included children, according to an attorney for the performer.

A jury on Friday ruled that Summer Bushnell defamed Eric Posey by posting on Facebook a doctored video of Posey performing at a Pride event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 2022, and falsely telling her followers that Posey flashed his genitals, according to the attorney, Wendy J. Olson.

The jury awarded Posey $926,000 in compensatory damages for defamation and an additional $250,000 for punitive damages, which were based on the argument that Bushnell knew her claims were false when she made them, Olson said.

“Mr. Posey’s life was forever changed when Summer Bushnell falsely accused him of a crime,” Olson said in a statement. “The jury’s unanimous verdict and its award of $1.176 million in damages sends the clear message that truth matters, that facts matter and that you can’t dehumanize and damage someone to suit your own purposes.”

An attorney for Bushnell did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Posey, whose stage name is Mona Liza Million, sued Bushnell — who runs a local blog, “The Bushnell Report” — for defamation in September 2022, seeking damages that exceeded $10,000 and attorneys’ fees. 

The lawsuit stemmed from a performance Posey gave at the Coeur d’Alene Pride event, called Pride in the Park, on June 11, 2022. 

A day after the performance, Bushnell posted a doctored video of Posey dancing on stage to her blog’s Facebook account, according to the complaint. The video blurred out the area around Bushnell’s genitals and included false statements that Posey exposed himself, according to a screenshot of the video in the suit. 

“Can this guy be arrested for exposing his genitals to minors?” Bushnell asked her followers in comments attached to the video, according to the suit. 

Posey never removed any articles of clothing throughout his three performances that day, the complaint states. He was wearing a leotard, black shorts, underwear and tights, in addition to a metallic silver boa wrapped around his waist, it adds.

Bushnell also suggested people should report Posey to the police and the state’s attorney general at the time, and included their contact information in one of her posts, according to the suit. 

A spokesperson for the Coeur d’Alene Police Department confirmed with NBC News that the department received calls from people reporting Posey in 2022, but not from anyone who attended the performance. The spokesperson added that the department referred the unedited version of the video to a local prosecutor’s office, which found no evidence of indecent exposure.

Posey’s attorneys contended that Bushnell posted the doctored video to boost her own profile, noting that the video was viewed more than 19,000 times, compared with her other videos, which garnered 235 to 1,400 views, according to the suit. 

The lawyers also argued that Bushnell was looking to capitalize off the national media attention on a series of unrelated arrests that took place near the 2022 Pride event.

Thirty-one people wearing masks and holding shields were arrested near the event on suspicion of conspiracy to riot, which Bushnell referenced throughout her series of posts, according to the suit. (Five of the 31 suspects, who were affiliated with the white nationalist group Patriot Front, were convicted on misdemeanor charges in July 2023.) 

Posey’s attorneys said in the suit that their client lost professional opportunities and suffered damage to his reputation in the aftermath of Bushnell’s posts.

Olson said in a phone call that Posey, who is Black, also received violent threats in person and online, and has been called racial slurs as a result of Bushnell’s false claims.

“The most important thing is that this allows him to re-enter public life, so to speak,” Olson said, referring to the jury’s verdict. “He can go about his life as he had before without being in hiding.”