Kemo
01-13-2016, 10:07 PM
Hulk Hogan secured another victory in Pinellas County Court today in the latest hearing in his lawsuit against Gawker. As you may know, back in October 2012, Gawker was anonymously sent a copy of a sex video (shot on a security camera without Hogan’s knowledge) showing Hogan and Heather Cole having sex in the bedroom she shared with then-husband Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. Gawker edited the video into a “highlight reel” mixing sex and banter, released it accompanied by an article about the video and celebrity sex tapes in general, and promptly got sued by Hogan.
Today, they were in court for a hearing where the judge would rule on a number of motions, most importantly Gawker’s latest motion to dismiss the case outright. As I covered in both the December 28th and January 4th issues of Figure Four Weekly for F4WOnline.com subscribers, the motion to dismiss was filed under seal because it was confidential according to the terms set by the judge. All we really knew was that the motion was arguing that the case should be dismissed on the grounds of fraud by Hogan and his attorneys. This is what Gawker’s motion to determine the confidentiality of the court record said:
Concurrent with this motion, Gawker is filing its Motion to Dismiss, and the Exhibits attached thereto. The Motion to Dismiss argues that plaintiff Terry Bollea has engaged in a systematic fraud on the Court to conceal the existence of additional sex tapes depicting him having sex with Heather Clem, including one that shows him making racist statements. As explained in the Motion to Dismiss, the effect of plaintiffs fraud was to cover up key evidence on many core issues relating to liability, credibility, and damages. In particular, plaintiffs year long fraud suppressed evidence of the existence of an alternative and intervening cause for Bollea’s alleged distress following Gawker’s publication of brief, grainy excerpts from one tape, and an alternative explanation for why the tapes depicting him and Ms. Clem had value and what that value actually is. The full extent of plaintiffs fraud only became clear on November 30 and December 2, 2015, when the FBI produced hundreds of unredacted records to Gawker’s counsel.
It seemed like they were alleging that Hogan and his lawyers had lied about a number of things. Today, in court, Gawker’s lawyers got deeper into this, though a lot of it was not in open court due to the restrictions. Among the misrepresentations that Gawker’s counsel listed were Hogan’s lawyers saying that:
Gawker was the target of the FBI’s investigation into the sex videos (They weren’t; it was an alleged extortionist).
The FBI investigation was still ongoing in 2014 (It wasn’t; the investigation had been closed in 2014).
There was only one sex video long after they had learned there were three, with there being two that Gawker didn’t have and one of those two having Hogan’s racist comments.
Nobody had tried to sell the sex videos back to him. (Allegedly, “sex tape broker” Keith Davidson had on behalf of his clients)
There was no way of knowing if there was actually an additional video containing racist comments and that even if it did exist, the audio could have been manipulated by the extortionist hiring a Hogan impersonator.
Gawker’s lawyer stressed that the judge had made rulings based on these misrepresentations. Hogan’s lawyer was very bombastic when he responded, but mostly said that the misrepresentations (both sides were barred from using the word “lie”) were just disagreements and that they applied to damages, not issues central to the case. Gawker then cited caselaw showing that fraud with regards to damages can be grounds for dismissal.
Judge Pamela Campbell denied the motion to dismiss, started to explain why, and then decided to announce it was time for a lunch break. It wasn’t clear what she was about to say or why she stopped.
More later, as the hearing is still ongoing with regards to other motions.
Today, they were in court for a hearing where the judge would rule on a number of motions, most importantly Gawker’s latest motion to dismiss the case outright. As I covered in both the December 28th and January 4th issues of Figure Four Weekly for F4WOnline.com subscribers, the motion to dismiss was filed under seal because it was confidential according to the terms set by the judge. All we really knew was that the motion was arguing that the case should be dismissed on the grounds of fraud by Hogan and his attorneys. This is what Gawker’s motion to determine the confidentiality of the court record said:
Concurrent with this motion, Gawker is filing its Motion to Dismiss, and the Exhibits attached thereto. The Motion to Dismiss argues that plaintiff Terry Bollea has engaged in a systematic fraud on the Court to conceal the existence of additional sex tapes depicting him having sex with Heather Clem, including one that shows him making racist statements. As explained in the Motion to Dismiss, the effect of plaintiffs fraud was to cover up key evidence on many core issues relating to liability, credibility, and damages. In particular, plaintiffs year long fraud suppressed evidence of the existence of an alternative and intervening cause for Bollea’s alleged distress following Gawker’s publication of brief, grainy excerpts from one tape, and an alternative explanation for why the tapes depicting him and Ms. Clem had value and what that value actually is. The full extent of plaintiffs fraud only became clear on November 30 and December 2, 2015, when the FBI produced hundreds of unredacted records to Gawker’s counsel.
It seemed like they were alleging that Hogan and his lawyers had lied about a number of things. Today, in court, Gawker’s lawyers got deeper into this, though a lot of it was not in open court due to the restrictions. Among the misrepresentations that Gawker’s counsel listed were Hogan’s lawyers saying that:
Gawker was the target of the FBI’s investigation into the sex videos (They weren’t; it was an alleged extortionist).
The FBI investigation was still ongoing in 2014 (It wasn’t; the investigation had been closed in 2014).
There was only one sex video long after they had learned there were three, with there being two that Gawker didn’t have and one of those two having Hogan’s racist comments.
Nobody had tried to sell the sex videos back to him. (Allegedly, “sex tape broker” Keith Davidson had on behalf of his clients)
There was no way of knowing if there was actually an additional video containing racist comments and that even if it did exist, the audio could have been manipulated by the extortionist hiring a Hogan impersonator.
Gawker’s lawyer stressed that the judge had made rulings based on these misrepresentations. Hogan’s lawyer was very bombastic when he responded, but mostly said that the misrepresentations (both sides were barred from using the word “lie”) were just disagreements and that they applied to damages, not issues central to the case. Gawker then cited caselaw showing that fraud with regards to damages can be grounds for dismissal.
Judge Pamela Campbell denied the motion to dismiss, started to explain why, and then decided to announce it was time for a lunch break. It wasn’t clear what she was about to say or why she stopped.
More later, as the hearing is still ongoing with regards to other motions.