parents must pay 30k to son 43 for his 'disturbing' collection of 2000 porn tapes after he moved out of their basement
A judge has ordered a western Michigan couple to pay $30,441 to their son for getting rid of his pornography collection.
US District Judge Paul Maloney's decision this week came eight months after David Werking, 43, won a lawsuit against his parents.
He said they had no right to throw out his collection of films, magazines and other items. David had lived in the basement of his parents' Grand Haven home for 10 months in 2016 following his divorce from his ex-wife, Mary.
He then moved to Muncie, Indiana which is when his parents Beth and Paul got rid of his large porn cache.
The Werkings had told their son that he could not bring the pornography to their home and if they found it, it would be destroyed.
The judge followed the value set by an expert, MLive.com reported. David's parents also must also pay $14,500 to their son's attorney.
Parents Beth and Paul Werking are shown. They have been told they need to pay their own son damages for throwing out his 'disturbing' pornography collection after throwing him out when he lived in their basement for free, aged 43, following his divorce. The son is not pictured
David's ex-wife Mary, with whom he shares a daughter
David won a lawsuit against his parents for getting rid of his pornography collection worth $25,000 in December. He asked the judge to boost the damages to close to $75,000, as he and his attorney leveled 'wanton destruction of property,' claiming most of the collection is irreplaceable.
He sued his parents after they threw out 'a trove of pornography and an array of sex toys' from their home.
David kept detailed record of how much money he spent on the porn, most of which was from the 80s and 90s and demanded triple that amount as punishment for 'wanton destruction of property'.
In total, he listed more than 400 VHS tapes and 1,600 DVDs that he said they had thrown out.
Judge Maloney ruled in favor of David who said his parents had no right to throw out his collection.
According to court documents, David lied to his parents about the contents of his boxes when he moved in. Once he was settled into a new place in Indiana, he instructed his parents to ship his belongings to his new residence.
But he noticed a dozen boxes of VHS tapes, DVDs, magazines and sex toys worth an estimated $25,000 were missing when they sent his possessions to his new address.
His father said in an email: 'Frankly, David, I did you a big favor getting rid of all this stuff.'
The parents kept some of the pornography, which they described as 'the worst of the worst', in a safety deposit box out of concerns it could be illegal.
Police reviewed the X-rated material and found no evidence of illegality and no charges resulted from it.
One of the emails that David, now 43, sent his father. In it, he said there were 'college girls waiting to be made into women'
In one email to his son, Paul Werking argues about some of the content he found and said 'it was not natural or normal'
These are just some of the titles that David kept in boxes in his parents basement. The full list is 17 pages long and highly explicit
They then threw it away. In one email, his father Paul said to him: 'I do not possess your pornography. It is gone.'
'It has been either destroyed or disposed of. I may well have missed a few items that are now in your possession but, at this point, if you don't have it, it is gone.'
'Ditto for your sex toys and smutty magazines.'
'We counted twelve moving boxes full of pornography plus two boxes of 'sex toys' as you call them. We began that day the process of destroying them and it took quite a while to do so.'
EMAILS BETWEEN WERKING AND HIS PARENTS
WERKING TO FATHER
'There's plenty of porn on the internet if you want to watch that Dad. Try youporn or xhamster.
'Believe me, I know you need it with mom around. I needed it with Mary around.
'Meanwhile for me there are college girls out there waiting to be made into women.'
FATHER TO WERKING
'I find your whole attitude toward women to be very disturbing.
'You are almost 40 years old. How has life worked out for you so far? Maybe now is a good time to change your goals and how you live.'
In another email, Paul said: 'David, I find your whole attitude toward women to be very disturbing. Women are not objects for you to masturbate with, they are people created by God just as you were and should be treated with respect and dignity.'
'Back in high school you joined a gang that made its money by distributing pornography to underage boys. I am sure that you remember the day when Mom and I discovered this and put a stop to it.'
'At that time, I destroyed all of your pornography and reported your activities to Pickerington High School officials and other parents.'
'I also warned you that if I found pornography in my house again I would destroy it.'
His father added that when he got married, he and his wife thought he'd become 'Mary's problem' and they would no longer have to worry about him.
'At that point we figured that you were Mary's problem and not ours.'
'Apparently, the love of a good woman was not enough to turn you from your evil ways. After ten years of abuse, Mary had enough and kicked you out. After living on the street for a while we allowed you to live with us again despite the way you mistreated us,' he said.
His father also described discovering the large stash of porn in the basement, saying: 'We were not surprised that you lied to us about having pornography because you lied to us every day about other things for the entire ten months that you lived with us.
'However, we were amazed at the magnitude of the lie. We counted twelve moving boxes full of pornography plus two boxes of 'sex toys' as you call them.'
'We began that day the process of destroying them and it took quite a while to do so.'
In another email, his father had asked: 'You are almost 40 years old.'
'How has life worked out for you so far? Maybe now is a good time to change your goals and how you live.'
'Don't worry, I'm not going to preach at you again. I think that you know enough that you can figure it out for yourself and that you know where to find the answers.'
Irate, David- who had also asked them for his 'tambourine' and 'black comforter' back, phoned the police who then contacted his parents.
The emails in 2015 begin with Beth, David's mother, offering to send him winter clothes because he has nowhere to live and inviting him to stay with them for a while
He complained to her about possibly living in the basement, saying he wanted to 'move onto painting with oils' and needed natural light
In an angry email to his dad, he'd also said: 'There's plenty of porn on the internet if you want to watch that Dad. Try youporn or xhamster.'
'Believe me, I know you need it with mom around. I needed it with Mary around. Meanwhile for me there are college girls out there waiting to be made into women.'
They admitted to destroying some and said they kept some other DVDs in a safety deposit box in case it was illegal.
Maloney said: 'There is no question that the destroyed property was David's property.'
'Defendants repeatedly admitted that they destroyed the property.'
David's parents said they had a right to act as his landlords and had warned him not to bring pornography into the house.