RACINE - A jury awarded SC Johnson $147 million in damages Tuesday afternoon after ruling in the company's favor.

SCJ sued Milton Morris, its former transportation director, his second-in-command Katherine Scheller, and several of the companies they did business with after uncovering a widespread bribery and kickback scheme.

The company uncovered the massive bribery scheme in 2004. Transportation carriers gave Morris hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, lavish travel and expensive jewelry in exchange for business with SCJ. In order to cover up the scheme, Morris is accused of inflating transportation rates across the board, costing SCJ even more money.

Morris, Scheller, Thomas Buske, Tom Russell and their companies were all on trial, accused of fraud, conspiracy to commit bribery and fraud and violating the Wisconsin Organized Crime Control Act. The jury found them liable for damages based on those actions.

SCJ's attorneys had requested $101.9 million in damages, a number reached by comparing the company's rates with industry benchmarks.

The defense requested significantly less: Thomas Buske's attorney asked the jury to award SCJ $8.2 million and Tom Russell's attorney asked the jury to consider $4.1 million. Those numbers were based on the profits Buske's and Russell's companies made during the bribery scheme.

Judge Wayne Marik asked the jury to take the time to double-check their work before he called everyone in to hear the verdict. He then spent about 5 minutes reviewing the 16-page verdict form before reading the results. It took 14 minutes for him to read the verdict out loud.

The jury answered "yes" to every question that asked whether a defendant had taken some action against SCJ, and awarded the company $147 million, $45.1 million more than what the company had asked for.

Some of the jurors looked around as Marik read the verdict, watching the lawyers and those in the audience. None of the attorneys had a visible reaction to the verdict.

As Marik dismissed the jury, he thanked jury members for their service. They have been working on this case almost every weekday since Jan. 28, when jury selection began

"I know your service on this jury has been a huge, huge imposition on each of you," he said. "Not only was this case a very long one, but it was a complicated and complex one."

He said he was "amazed" at the number of notepads the jury used. Altogether, the jury used 48 legal pads, significantly more than bailiffs had seen in past cases.

Prior to trial, SCJ settled with Peter O'Malley and his company Vantraxx. Three defendants - All Modes, David Eggleston and Bay Darnell - were severed from this trial; they may have a separate trial at a later date.

Journal Times Director of Photography Mark Hertzberg contributed to this report.

SCJ-Morris Trial By the Numbers

The following is the breakdown of financial liability the jury attributed to defendants and their actions. The company will not receive more than $147 million in damages.

$131,124,000

caused by the conspiracy between the four defendants

$70,266,000

caused by the conspiracy between Morris, All Modes, David Eggleston and Bay Darnell

$61,740,000

caused by the conspiracy between Morris, Vantraxx and Peter O'Malley

$58,065,000

caused by Morris' actions

$2,205,000

caused by Scheller's actions

$52,920,000

caused by the Buske defendants

$17,934,000

caused by the Russell defendants