Knievel Wins Suit, $51,000

SPOKANE - Jurors have awarded retired daredevil Evel Knievel about $51,000 in his lawsuit against a hotel that gave another man a key to Knievel's room.

Clarence "Cip" Paulsen III beat the stuntman severely when he entered the room and saw a former girlfriend in Knievel's bed, according to Knievel's lawsuit over the 1989 incident at the Ridpath Hotel.

Paulsen testified there was no fight.

Spokane County Superior Court jurors awarded Knievel $72,500 but reduced the sum by 30 percent on grounds that Knievel and Paulsen, an acquaintance, were partly at fault. The jury deliberated three days after six days of testimony. The verdict was returned yesterday.

Paulsen said Knievel had asked him to come to the room to wake him from a nap. He testified he left the room after seeing Knievel and his ex-girlfriend in bed.

Knievel characterized Paulsen, heir to a mining and real-estate fortune, as a celebrity stalker who followed him during his occasional visits to Spokane.

Knievel, 56, of Las Vegas, said Paulsen was given the key by a Ridpath Hotel clerk on Sept. 11, 1989.

His lawsuit accused the downtown Spokane hotel and its parent company, Seattle-based WestCoast Hotels Inc., of invasion of privacy.

He sought damages of at least $130,000 for physical injuries, emotional distress and loss of potential income.

The hotel did not contest Judge Harold Clarke's earlier ruling that it was negligent in giving the key to Paulsen. The clerk gave Paulsen the room key because the two men were known to be friends and drinking companions, said attorney Michael Nelson, representing the hotel chain.

Knievel gained a measure of fame from a failed attempt to ride his SkyCycle rocket across Idaho's Snake River Canyon in 1974. He retired in 1981.

Paulsen, 35, recently pleaded guilty to federal drug-trafficking charges in an unrelated case.