Kemo
03-02-2016, 03:55 AM
L9W57eVBruk
LawNewz, the website founded by ABC Chief Legal Correspondent Dan Abrams, broke an interesting story today when it comes to the whole Hulk Hogan sex tape mess. Originally, when Hogan filed his lawsuit against Gawker, both Bubba the Love Sponge Clem and his ex-wife, Heather Cole were both co-defendants along with Gawker, Gawker founder Nick Denton, and then-Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio, who wrote the article about the sex tape of Hogan and Cole. Clem (who recorded the counter on a hidden security camera feeding into a DVR/DVD burner system) and Cole (who was aware she and Hogan was on camera and later told Tampa police that positioned the Hulkster for “better” shots) were dropped from the suit after Clem settled with Hogan. The terms of the settlement were sealed, and little was known…until today.
It had already come out via past filings that Clem transferred the copyright of the video (Bubba didn’t register it; all works are automatically copyrighted under United States law going back to early 1989) and had to make a public apology, which he did on his radio show. What weren’t known were the financial terms of the settlement. Today, after digging through various transcripts of hearings from Hogan’s case against Gawker, found one of Gawker’s lawyers discussing the settlement, including the financial terms and some of the other promises Clem made:
Mr. Clem got out of this case with a promise to testify to cooperate, to not disparage Mr. Bollea, and to not help us, and paid what they called the substantial sum of $5,000.
Yes, just $5,000, when Hogan is suing Gawker for $100 million. Gawker was trying to get the settlement admitted as evidence in the trial, and they felt the settlement amount was an important detail. Why? The case against Clem was dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning Hogan could re-file the case against Clem. Here’s the note about the settlement terms in context:
Then there is this dismissal without prejudice. Mr. Clem got out of this case with promise to testify to cooperate, to not disparage Mr. Bollea, and to not help us, and paid what they called the substantial sum of $5,000. But at that point, if Mr. Clem testified differently in his deposition, if he comes into court come March 7th and testifies differently in this courtroom, Mr. Bollea can restart a hundred million dollar lawsuit against him. That is the problem.
You can read that as, more or less, that Gawker is concerned by a former co-defendant and key witness changing his story after settling might have changed his story because the settlement terms were so forgiving. Especially since Hogan could just sue him again after he gets favorable testimony in the trial. The low settlement figure also makes you wonder if, by that point, Hogan was aware of the racist comments he made on one of the three videos Clem and Cole made of him (not the one Gawker had) and was willing to give Bubba a sweetheart deal to make sure Bubba wouldn’t do anything that would lead to those comments surfacing.
LawNewz, the website founded by ABC Chief Legal Correspondent Dan Abrams, broke an interesting story today when it comes to the whole Hulk Hogan sex tape mess. Originally, when Hogan filed his lawsuit against Gawker, both Bubba the Love Sponge Clem and his ex-wife, Heather Cole were both co-defendants along with Gawker, Gawker founder Nick Denton, and then-Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio, who wrote the article about the sex tape of Hogan and Cole. Clem (who recorded the counter on a hidden security camera feeding into a DVR/DVD burner system) and Cole (who was aware she and Hogan was on camera and later told Tampa police that positioned the Hulkster for “better” shots) were dropped from the suit after Clem settled with Hogan. The terms of the settlement were sealed, and little was known…until today.
It had already come out via past filings that Clem transferred the copyright of the video (Bubba didn’t register it; all works are automatically copyrighted under United States law going back to early 1989) and had to make a public apology, which he did on his radio show. What weren’t known were the financial terms of the settlement. Today, after digging through various transcripts of hearings from Hogan’s case against Gawker, found one of Gawker’s lawyers discussing the settlement, including the financial terms and some of the other promises Clem made:
Mr. Clem got out of this case with a promise to testify to cooperate, to not disparage Mr. Bollea, and to not help us, and paid what they called the substantial sum of $5,000.
Yes, just $5,000, when Hogan is suing Gawker for $100 million. Gawker was trying to get the settlement admitted as evidence in the trial, and they felt the settlement amount was an important detail. Why? The case against Clem was dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning Hogan could re-file the case against Clem. Here’s the note about the settlement terms in context:
Then there is this dismissal without prejudice. Mr. Clem got out of this case with promise to testify to cooperate, to not disparage Mr. Bollea, and to not help us, and paid what they called the substantial sum of $5,000. But at that point, if Mr. Clem testified differently in his deposition, if he comes into court come March 7th and testifies differently in this courtroom, Mr. Bollea can restart a hundred million dollar lawsuit against him. That is the problem.
You can read that as, more or less, that Gawker is concerned by a former co-defendant and key witness changing his story after settling might have changed his story because the settlement terms were so forgiving. Especially since Hogan could just sue him again after he gets favorable testimony in the trial. The low settlement figure also makes you wonder if, by that point, Hogan was aware of the racist comments he made on one of the three videos Clem and Cole made of him (not the one Gawker had) and was willing to give Bubba a sweetheart deal to make sure Bubba wouldn’t do anything that would lead to those comments surfacing.