GAWKER: 'It may be necessary' to appeal the Hulk Hogan sex-tape case
Lawyers for Hulk Hogan urged a Florida jury on Friday to hit the website Gawker with tens of millions of dollars in damages for posting a sex tape featuring the former professional wrestler.
In a statement released after jurors were released for deliberation, Gawker suggested the possibility that it will have to appeal a jury verdict against it:
The "most important witness" in question is Bubba the Love Sponge, a shock jock who was once Hogan's friend. Bubba filmed the tape, which features his wife having sex with Hogan.
Bubba, who previously settled with Hogan for $5,000 for his own part in the tape affair, has made a number of contradictory statements as to whether Hogan was aware that he was being filmed. Bubba avoided testifying in the Gawker trial by exercising his Fifth Amendment right to avoid incriminating himself, the Tampa Bay Times reported. His attorney said that Bubba's statements could potentially expose him to lawsuits for perjury or for making the tape without Hogan's consent.
Gawker attorney Michael Berry lamented Bubba's decision not to testify, saying Bubba was the only person other than Hogan who knew if the tape was a "publicity stunt," according to statements he made in court tweeted by Tampa Bay Times reporter Anna Phillips.
Gawker's statement said that "Bubba should have been required to appear in court and explain what really happened." But, he said, he looked forward to the upcoming release of previously sealed documents pertaining to the case. He said "the jury deserved to know about [these documents] during deliberations."
In court, attorney Kenneth Turkel - no relation to the Business Insider reporter - told a six-member jury that Gawker's editors did not have the "common decency" to call Hogan for comment before uploading the video.
"What's disturbing about Gawker isn't what they do in a vacuum," Turkel said at the close of a two-week civil trial in state court in St. Petersburg. "It's how proud they are of it."
But Michael Sullivan, a lawyer for the gossip and news website, said the First Amendment protects the media's ability to publish legitimate news stories, even when the content is objectionable.
"If they can make a claim like this, the internet as we know it will cease to exist," Sullivan said.
The case essentially hinges on whether jurors believe the sex tape was newsworthy, and requires them to weigh a celebrity's right to privacy in the digital age against the freedom of the press.
Hogan, 62, testified during the trial that the video's release in 2012 caused him lasting humiliation. The longtime star of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. and reality television veteran sued for $100 million in damages.
Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, said he did not know the encounter with his friend's wife was caught on camera about a decade ago inside Bubba's home.
Gawker obtained the tape and created an edited version less than two minutes long that contained only nine seconds of explicit sexual activity. The editor involved said the post was intended as a commentary on celebrity sex tapes.
Sullivan argued that Hogan made his sex life newsworthy by repeatedly discussing it in public, often in graphic detail. He said other sites had already written about the tape, though none posted any video.
But Hogan sought to distinguish his real-life persona from the bombastic wrestling character he said he portrayed with "artistic liberty." His public behavior, he said, should not rob him of the privacy he expected while in the bedroom of a friend's house.
Gawker said it did not make money directly off the post, which ran without advertisements. Experts for Hogan said the company netted substantial gains from the traffic it generated.
Reuters reporting by Letitia Stein and Joseph Ax.