That should've been a mistrial the moment they brought the sex books into it.
Here's how it would have gone.
Defending Insurance Attorney: <Reads the scene> Did you write that?
My Attorney: Objection! This is not relevant to the case!
Judge: Objection sustained. The Jury will disregard that reading.
Defending Insurance Attorney: <smirks, and reads another>
Now....you tell me HOW you get a rural Oklahoma jury to "disregard" a gay "sex" scene (there wasn't much "sex" in it, but it sure was gay) after one has been read to them? In their minds I have now gone from "their neighbor being screwed over by the big insurance company" to "that freaky woman who is definitely a hippie and a pinko and probably a pedophile."
As long as ANYTHING is put into the record during the pretrial "discovery" process it can and will be used in the trial. And regardless of whether the jury is told to disregard it, once the information is in their heads, you can't take it out again.
This is why I warn people about getting into a lawsuit with a big company, because they have slimeballs who will do nothing for weeks at a time but dig up anything and everything they can to discredit you as a person and read it into the court record during discovery. That's even easier now that people post things online. And once on the internet, thanks to the Wayback Machine, it is there forever.
This is why we went to arbitration, instead of to trial. MAYBE we could have won big against them, but....versus at least getting something back.
