CLAYTON, Mo. -- A jury deliberated less than two hours Monday before ruling in favor of St. Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk in a civil case accusing him of domestic abuse.

	Faulk

The jury ruled against Faulk's former girlfriend, who also is the mother of three of his children. Faulk was awarded $125, even though he had sought only $1 in symbolic damages.

Helen Dunne accused Faulk of beating her, but the jury rejected those claims and found in favor of the player's accusation that Dunne had abused the legal process by suing him.

Faulk's family and his supporters cheered as the verdict was read in the St. Louis County courtroom, according to Stltoday.com, the Web site for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Jurors on Monday heard about 90 minutes of closing arguments by Dunne's lawyer, Charles Todt, and Faulk's attorney, Scott Rosenblum, who accused Dunne of extortion.

"You cannot extort the truth, you cannot blackmail reputation, and you cannot exploit a man for your own gain," Rosenblum said.

Todt emphasized testimony by doctors who said injuries Dunne suffered in October 1999, August 2000 and October 2000 were consistent with domestic violence. He also cited a psychologist who testified that Dunne still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of being battered.

In testimony last week, Faulk, a former NFL most valuable player, denied abusing Dunne. He said he asked her to marry him in the fall of 2000, but called the engagement off when she stopped seeing a counselor.

Faulk, 30, said he'd made the marriage conditional on their getting a psychologist's help to resolve their problems. "We argued about money. We told lies to each other. I felt we needed it," Faulk told the jury. "We had issues."

Dunne grew up in St. Louis and met Faulk in 1996, when she was a student at Saint Louis University and he was playing for the Indianapolis Colts. They began a relationship, and the first of their three boys was born the following May.

Faulk was traded to the Rams in 1999. Faulk purchased a house in suburban St. Louis, but the couple never married.

Dunne, 27, now lives in Houston with the couple's children. No criminal charges were ever filed.