![]() Gawker President and General Counsel Heather Dietrick issued the following statement Monday: "To any even casual observer of First Amendment rights, the outcome is perfectly clear." "The Hulk Hogan issue, other than comic value to me, is nothing more than a time and money question," Gawker board member Jason Epstein told Re/code’s Peter Kafka in January. In any event, Gawker’s leadership has appeared zen about the outcome of the trial, which they were certain didn’t look good for them before it got under way earlier this month. Shortly before the jury delivered its verdict on Friday, previously sealed records were released, indicating that what Hogan told FBI investigators appeared to contradict what he said during testimony in the trial. ![]() If Judge Campbell forces the company to pay $50 million (or a similarly high amount) up front, then the company plans to take its case to the Second District Court of Appeals, which has already reversed some of Campbell’s decisions.Īnother development worth paying attention to is what comes of the sealed FBI documents that Hogan’s lawyers successfully kept out of the trial. Denton (who owns a controlling stake in Gawker Media) is worth $121 million, and Daulerio "has no assets but owes $27,000 in student loans."ĭenton told the New York Times last summer that Gawker doesn’t keep that kind of cash sitting around, but that doesn’t mean Gawker is totally screwed. In court, Gawker’s lawyers said that the company is worth $83 million. The bond amount could be up to $50 million, depending on what the judge rules. ![]() The bond is where things could start to get tricky for Gawker. ![]() Next, the company’s legal team will have to persuade Judge Pamela Campbell* to either release them from or greatly reduce the bond that Gawker would have to post before proceeding with its appeal. This final ruling from the jury effectively marks the conclusion of stage one in the legal fight between the former professional wrestler and Gawker. Last Friday, the jury ruled that Gawker, Denton and Daulerio violated Hogan’s right to privacy when they released the tape of the ex-wrestler having sex with the then-wife of his best friend, Bubba "The Love Sponge" Clem. Daulerio, who published the blog post with the sex tape excerpt, has to pay $100,000. Founder and CEO Nick Denton must pay $10 million, and former editor A.J. The jury ordered Gawker Media to pay $15 million in punitive damages. “It’s how proud they are of it.In court on Monday, a jury ruled that in addition to the $115 million Hulk Hogan (real name, Terry Bollea) was awarded last week for the 2012 publication of his sex tape on, the ex-professional wrestler was entitled to more than $25 million in punitive damages. “What’s disturbing about Gawker isn’t what they do in a vacuum,” said Kenneth Turkel, one of Hogan’s lawyers, during his closing argument. Hogan had argued that Gawker ignored basic journalistic ethics by failing to contact him before publishing and violated his privacy by including several seconds of explicit sexual activity as part of the video excerpt it posted. “It will be much more interesting and much more important as a legal issue to see what the appellate court says.” “The jury’s decision is somewhat of a black box,” said Mary-Rose Papandrea, a University of North Carolina law professor who previously represented the National Enquirer, a tabloid known for its aggressive reporting on celebrity scandals. Hogan had sued the website for posting a video clip in 2012 featuring him having sex with the wife of his then-best friend, the radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem.īoth sides cast the case as a crucial test of the balance between the right to privacy and freedom of the press in the digital age, when a celebrity sex tape can reach millions of viewers with one click of a button. REUTERS/Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times/Pool via Reuters Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, sits in court during his trial against Gawker Media, in St Petersburg, Florida March 17, 2016.
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