Man Charged With Extorting Kevin Hart With Sex Video

By Gene Maddaus

Prosecutors accused a man on Wednesday of trying to extort comedian Kevin Hart by threatening to release a sex tape last year.

Jonathan Todd Jackson, 41, was arrested on Monday. He is set to be arraigned Wednesday on charges of attempted extortion and extortion by threatening letter, according to the L.A. County District Attorney’s office.

Prosecutors say that Jackson demanded an undisclosed amount of money from Hart between Aug. 25 and Aug. 30. Investigators say he then shopped the video to various celebrity news sites.

On Sept. 20, TMZ published a video of Hart cozying up with a woman at a club in Las Vegas.

A few days earlier, Hart posted an apology to his wife and children on Instagram.

“I’m at a place in my life where I feel like I have a target on my back,” he said in the video. “And I made a bad error in judgement and I put myself in a bad environment where only bad things can happen and they did. And in doing that I know that I’m going to hurt the people closest to me, who’ve I talked to and apologized to, that would be my wife and my kids.”

Jackson, also known as Action Jackson, faces a maximum sentence of four years in county jail if convicted. Prosecutors are asking for bail to be set at $100,000.