The plaintiff, who has been identified only as "Charlie" in media reports, moved in with his parents in Grand Haven, Michigan, in October 2016, after going through a divorce. Instead of paying rent Charlie did odd jobs around the house. Almost a year later, in August 2017, he was asked to leave the house due to a "domestic situation," local outlet FOX 17 reported.
After the man relocated to Muncie, Indiana, his parents traveled to his new home in November 2017 to drop off his belongings — which, according to the lawsuit, did not include his pornography.
While Charlie made many complaints to police — totaling over 40 emails — the authorities declined to pursue the case. In one of those messages, Charlie attempted to explain the value of some of the destroyed movies, writing, "Not Just Out of Print. But the entire studio making it dissolved, and that was 20 years ago."
Prosecutors refused to press any charges, which prompted Charlie to file a lawsuit, seeking almost triple the alleged worth of the collection in damages: $86,822.16.
Several emails exchanged between the family members prior to the legal filing show the plaintiff's parents admitting they trashed the porn collection, which included movies like "Frisky Business" and "Big Bad Grannys."
According to the parents, their son was reprimanded during high school and college for selling pornographic materials to his fellow students.
"I did you a big favor by getting rid of all this stuff," the father said in an e-mail to his son, which is now part of the legal documentation in court records, reported FOX 17.
The parents also said that they "counted twelve moving boxes full of pornography plus two boxes of ‘sex toys,'" adding that it took a long time to dispose of the stash.
"Believe it or not, one reason for why I destroyed your porn was for your own mental and emotional [health]. I would have done the same if I had found a kilo of crack cocaine," the plaintiff's father wrote in another email, according to court documents.
"Someday, I hope you will understand."
