Kemo
03-07-2016, 08:35 PM
udL-i6fd4QU
With opening arguments completed, it’s time for what may get more attention than anything else in the trial of the civil lawsuit that Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) filed against Gawker Media, founder Nick Denton, and former Gawker editor/founder A.J. Daulerio. Hogan will be the first witness in his case starting today at 1:00 p.m. ET, and we’ll be bringing you live coverage of his testimony right here since it’s likely the biggest “event” of the trial, at least that we can predict. The whole trial is being streamed live by both WTSP (http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/florida/opening-statements-to-begin-in-hulk-hogan-gawker-lawsuit/72016549) (the CBS affiliate station in Tampa, Florida) and Wild About Trial (http://www.wildabouttrial.com/one_off/hulk-hogan-v-gawker-trial-live-stream/), a court buffs website.
One would expect that this will take a while, possibly lasting until the end of business today. In his opening argument, Hogan attorney Shane Vogt made a point of saying that Hogan will completely own up to his infidelities and whatnot, arguing that it has no bearing on whether or not clips of a video of him having sex that was shot without his consent should be put online for the whole world to see.
The run down so far:
1:09 p.m. ET Hogan’s lawyers are actually starting by playing the deposition testimony of Heather Cole, the woman in the video with Hogan. She’s not going to be appearing as a witness, so this is how the Hogan side is opening their case. Will include some notes here while checking if it’s know how long this will run.
1:25 p.m. ET Bubba Clem comes off terrible here, with Heather saying he could be “intimidating” and that he was “”loud… aggressive in the way that he would talk to someone… until you did what he wanted.” She sounds like she’s choosing her words carefully. This is pretty brutal, though, especially in the context of the case: “He would continuously berate you until you did what he wanted. Whether it was in the privacy of your own home, or publicly.” She said that she doesn’t recall Bubba told her he was recording the encounters with Hogan, though there’s video proof that he did tell her.
(Hogan is up next)
1:28 p.m. ET Terry Bollea, professionally known as Hulk Hogan, takes the stand. There appears to be some internet connection issues at the courthouse as he starts and gives basic background information about his life.
1:38 p.m. ET It’s back, though we’re still mostly on Hogan’s upbringing and early life. Hogan is reaching for words, as he somehow starts talking about seeing wrestling at the “Armenia” only for his lawyer to correct him with “armory.”
1:40 p.m. ET We get the story about Hiro Matsuda breaking his leg, but only after Hogan’s lawyer feeds him a question to answer with the word “kayfabe” and explain what it means. Is wrestling hard on his body? Talks about his injuries.
1:49 p.m. ET Now we’re going through Hogan’s early career. He said that Jerry Jarrett gave him a $800 per week guarantee and bought him a car. Now we’re up to him going to the WWF. They’re trying to humanize him with all of this background.
1:53 p.m ET Rocky III now. Hogan is going through his usual stories, which aren’t necessarily true, though Jarrett apparently DID by him a car. But anyway, even though he just testified to it under oath, he was not fired by Vince McMahon Sr. for wanting to shoot Rocky III as far as anyone else knows. Now we’re up to his 1983 WWF return.
1:58 p.m. ET “That’s when it really took off. When we quit trying to insult the public’s intelligence. It’s just to entertain.” The Hulk Hogan character is described as a loud, all-American good guy. And now the judge wants a comfort break that will also allow them to fix some technology issues (presumably the streaming hiccups and Hogan’s microphone).
2:12 p.m. ET We’re back. Hogan’s mic works now. Talking about his celebrity. Nobody outside of his home ever really calls him Terry anymore. Talks about how he’s usually accommodating when fans ask for autographs. Talks about one time he said no: Guy aggressively approached his family in a restaurant and got his cigarette ashes in Hogan’s wife’s food. Has a doctor friend who he can be Terry Bollea around, plus a few other local friends as well as his family.
2:14 p.m. ET So why IS he wearing a bandanna in court? His wife would berate him about his baldness during arguments and talk about wanting to be with someone younger. It’s a self-confidence thing. Also:”I have an exceptionally large head.” Explains that even though the bandanna is part of the the signature Hulk Hogan “look,” he wears it for different reasons as Terry Bollea.
2:18 p.m. ET Now claiming he wrestled 400-450 times a year. Said that he had a lot less friends than he thought he did when he was wrestling. Had at most three close friends. Finds it harder to trust people than he used to. Who were his close friends? Jimmy Hart, Ed “Brutus Beefcake” Leslie (but they grew apart when Leslie got remarried to someone who Hogan doesn’t get along with), and formerly Todd/Bubba Clem.
2:23 p.m. ET Hogan outlining how he and Bubba became friends. Bubba was with Hogan in the hospital room when his father died. Bubba held Hogan’s father in his arms as he died. Line of questioning moves to Hogan’s marriage to Linda. Didn’t really have any arguments until 1986. Bad problems started from around 2004-2006 when “Hogan Knows Best” got going and peaked around 2006-2007.
2:29 p.m. ET Explaining how “Hogan Knows Best” was, basically, a work (“soft scripted” is the term for that type of “reality” show). They were told what to say most of the time but “were hoping for magic” in terms of some kind of spontaneous moment.
2:31 p.m. ET Hogan explains how the bloom came off the rose when they realized how much work “Hogan Knows Best” was. Third season was…difficult. On-camera, Linda was “very professional,” but off-camera Linda was distancing herself from Terry and talking about wanting to finally move back home to California.
2:37 p.m. ET Marriage was basically done when Linda moved out. Now we pivot to Bubba and Heather offering for Heather to have sex with him. Started with half-joking sounding propositions like “Heather wants to see you naked!” Hogan “didn’t know Heather very well at all” even though she was his best friend’s wife. They continued hounding him about him sleeping with Heather to the point he asked them to stop.
2:40 p.m. ET “I thought those people cared about me.” Said he “let [his] guard down” one time at Bubba’s house (the only place he “felt safe” during his divorce) and that led to a sexual encounter with Heather, than two or three more (Bubba filmed three). Bubba rarely invited him over; Hogan had only been there a few times before. He got there, they had a group hug, Heather led him to the bedroom, Bubba handed him a condom, and told him he’d be in his office while they had sex. But first: Hogan asked Bubba if he was filming the encounter. Bubba snapped back with a “How could you even ask me that? I’m your best friend!” type of rant.
2:43 p.m. ET “I was on a publicity tour for Total Non-Stop Action, a very small company…”
2:47 p.m. ET “Could you explain to the jury what TNA is or was? Are they even still in business?” They’re still going over how he found out about Gawker’s article/video, etc.
2:51 p.m. ET They’re playing Hogan’s “Showbiz Tonight” appearance during that media tour about TNA that ended up becoming about the video. At the time he said that the whole sex tape thing (both in general and Bubba’s betrayal) “Hurts worse than any back surgery… worse than my son going to jail…”
2:57 p.m. ET How did he feel when he found out about the Gawker post/video? From the description it sounds like he had a panic attack, pretty much, though he didn’t describe it that way. His lawyer, David Houston had to talk him down. At that point, he considered Houston his only real friend.
3:03 p.m. ET Hogan looks like a complete shell of himself listening to the Howard Stern interview from right after the video went up. Playback over, back to questioning.
3:15 p.m. ET Last 10+ minutes mostly Hogan talking about how embarrassed he was. Was even embarrassed for his Hulk Hogan character, not just as Terry Bollea. Direct examination done, break then cross examination by Gawker’s counsel.
3:15 p.m. ET Last 10+ minutes mostly Hogan talking about how embarrassed he was. Was even embarrassed for his Hulk Hogan character, not just as Terry Bollea. Direct examination done, break then cross examination by Gawker’s counsel.
3:48 p.m. ET Gawker attorney Michael Sullivan cross examining Hogan, laying groundwork about the Bubba friendship. Does he miss Bubba? He misses the Bubba he THOUGHT he knew. He was on Bubba’s radio show 50-100 times. They had heated arguments when he asked Bubba if he was involved in the sex video materializing when Hogan asked him after screen grabs showed up online. Moving on to the Gawker post now.
3:52 p.m. ET Sullivan comes off much better than Berry did, with a comforting voice. Sounds more like a guy just doing his job, while Berry sounded flippant. Talking about how good a liar Bubba is to convince Hogan he knew nothing about the video. Hogan testifying now he didn’t know he was being recorded. Bubba and Heather never said only like “You can only have sex with Heather if we can record it.” Sure sounds like Gawker is laying groundwork for something here.
3:58 p.m. ET Hogan doesn’t remember Bubba telling him anything about security camera installation in his bedroom. They’re about to play a clip of him on Sirus/XM’s “Busted Open.”
Hulk Hogan on the defensive as Gawker atty tries to show inconsistencies btw depositions and his testimony today. pic.twitter.com/Vt1thZnXU6
— Ryan Kerns (@RyanKernsEsq) March 7, 2016
4:03 p.m. ET Clips now of Hogan saying Bubba “I know you have cameras, are there cameras in there?” Hogan thinks what he said to Bubba was “You’re not filming this, are you?” The situation felt too weird. Why’d his mind go straight to am I being filmed? Just a weird gut feeling.
4:07 p.m. ET Hogan knew there were security cameras, but they were never pointed out and he didn’t know there was one in the bedroom, much less facing the bed. He didn’t read the commentary alongside the video on Gawker at the time, and it appears he didn’t until his deposition, which he doesn’t remember. They’re jogging his memory with the transcript. Hogan has a notoriously bad memory.
4:14 p.m. ET Berry catching Hogan in lies about watching the Gawker video. Testified in deposition that he didn’t watch the edited Gawker video. Said on multiple TV shows that he watched anywhere from a minute of the video to the entire 1 minute, 40 second video. Says he lied on the TV shows because he was “on autopilot.” Definitely strange, though. Why not say “I just couldn’t look at it, I know what my lawyers told me” or something similar?
4:20 p.m. ET Hogan said he was kind of in the Hulk Hogan character when he made those media appearances even though the topic was something that happened to Terry Bollea. Something leads to a bench conference with the judge and lawyers. Which just ended…
4:29 p.m. ET It was “a constant badgering” of Bubba and Heather propositioning the whole situation for close to two years. Bubba had bragged about being a swinger, even on the radio. Laying further groundwork about Hogan’s friendship with Bubba and how well he did or didn’t know Heather. Hogan moved into their house for a short period after his wife filed for divorce, which was after he had sex with Heather. Was uncomfortable being there, concerned they’d egg him to resume the affair. But Heather never made advances while he lived there and Bubba didn’t push the issue, either.
4:32 p.m. ET We get a bench conference when Hogan’s lawyers object to questions about if Bubba ever told him about videos of Heather with other men. And then we adjourn for the day. Michael Sullivan will continue his cross examination of Hulk Hogan tomorrow morning.
The lawyers are discussing some scheduling issues after the jury was sent away for the day. Guessing nothing of note happens here, but if there are any real developments, we’ll keep you updated.
That’s it for today.
With opening arguments completed, it’s time for what may get more attention than anything else in the trial of the civil lawsuit that Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) filed against Gawker Media, founder Nick Denton, and former Gawker editor/founder A.J. Daulerio. Hogan will be the first witness in his case starting today at 1:00 p.m. ET, and we’ll be bringing you live coverage of his testimony right here since it’s likely the biggest “event” of the trial, at least that we can predict. The whole trial is being streamed live by both WTSP (http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/florida/opening-statements-to-begin-in-hulk-hogan-gawker-lawsuit/72016549) (the CBS affiliate station in Tampa, Florida) and Wild About Trial (http://www.wildabouttrial.com/one_off/hulk-hogan-v-gawker-trial-live-stream/), a court buffs website.
One would expect that this will take a while, possibly lasting until the end of business today. In his opening argument, Hogan attorney Shane Vogt made a point of saying that Hogan will completely own up to his infidelities and whatnot, arguing that it has no bearing on whether or not clips of a video of him having sex that was shot without his consent should be put online for the whole world to see.
The run down so far:
1:09 p.m. ET Hogan’s lawyers are actually starting by playing the deposition testimony of Heather Cole, the woman in the video with Hogan. She’s not going to be appearing as a witness, so this is how the Hogan side is opening their case. Will include some notes here while checking if it’s know how long this will run.
1:25 p.m. ET Bubba Clem comes off terrible here, with Heather saying he could be “intimidating” and that he was “”loud… aggressive in the way that he would talk to someone… until you did what he wanted.” She sounds like she’s choosing her words carefully. This is pretty brutal, though, especially in the context of the case: “He would continuously berate you until you did what he wanted. Whether it was in the privacy of your own home, or publicly.” She said that she doesn’t recall Bubba told her he was recording the encounters with Hogan, though there’s video proof that he did tell her.
(Hogan is up next)
1:28 p.m. ET Terry Bollea, professionally known as Hulk Hogan, takes the stand. There appears to be some internet connection issues at the courthouse as he starts and gives basic background information about his life.
1:38 p.m. ET It’s back, though we’re still mostly on Hogan’s upbringing and early life. Hogan is reaching for words, as he somehow starts talking about seeing wrestling at the “Armenia” only for his lawyer to correct him with “armory.”
1:40 p.m. ET We get the story about Hiro Matsuda breaking his leg, but only after Hogan’s lawyer feeds him a question to answer with the word “kayfabe” and explain what it means. Is wrestling hard on his body? Talks about his injuries.
1:49 p.m. ET Now we’re going through Hogan’s early career. He said that Jerry Jarrett gave him a $800 per week guarantee and bought him a car. Now we’re up to him going to the WWF. They’re trying to humanize him with all of this background.
1:53 p.m ET Rocky III now. Hogan is going through his usual stories, which aren’t necessarily true, though Jarrett apparently DID by him a car. But anyway, even though he just testified to it under oath, he was not fired by Vince McMahon Sr. for wanting to shoot Rocky III as far as anyone else knows. Now we’re up to his 1983 WWF return.
1:58 p.m. ET “That’s when it really took off. When we quit trying to insult the public’s intelligence. It’s just to entertain.” The Hulk Hogan character is described as a loud, all-American good guy. And now the judge wants a comfort break that will also allow them to fix some technology issues (presumably the streaming hiccups and Hogan’s microphone).
2:12 p.m. ET We’re back. Hogan’s mic works now. Talking about his celebrity. Nobody outside of his home ever really calls him Terry anymore. Talks about how he’s usually accommodating when fans ask for autographs. Talks about one time he said no: Guy aggressively approached his family in a restaurant and got his cigarette ashes in Hogan’s wife’s food. Has a doctor friend who he can be Terry Bollea around, plus a few other local friends as well as his family.
2:14 p.m. ET So why IS he wearing a bandanna in court? His wife would berate him about his baldness during arguments and talk about wanting to be with someone younger. It’s a self-confidence thing. Also:”I have an exceptionally large head.” Explains that even though the bandanna is part of the the signature Hulk Hogan “look,” he wears it for different reasons as Terry Bollea.
2:18 p.m. ET Now claiming he wrestled 400-450 times a year. Said that he had a lot less friends than he thought he did when he was wrestling. Had at most three close friends. Finds it harder to trust people than he used to. Who were his close friends? Jimmy Hart, Ed “Brutus Beefcake” Leslie (but they grew apart when Leslie got remarried to someone who Hogan doesn’t get along with), and formerly Todd/Bubba Clem.
2:23 p.m. ET Hogan outlining how he and Bubba became friends. Bubba was with Hogan in the hospital room when his father died. Bubba held Hogan’s father in his arms as he died. Line of questioning moves to Hogan’s marriage to Linda. Didn’t really have any arguments until 1986. Bad problems started from around 2004-2006 when “Hogan Knows Best” got going and peaked around 2006-2007.
2:29 p.m. ET Explaining how “Hogan Knows Best” was, basically, a work (“soft scripted” is the term for that type of “reality” show). They were told what to say most of the time but “were hoping for magic” in terms of some kind of spontaneous moment.
2:31 p.m. ET Hogan explains how the bloom came off the rose when they realized how much work “Hogan Knows Best” was. Third season was…difficult. On-camera, Linda was “very professional,” but off-camera Linda was distancing herself from Terry and talking about wanting to finally move back home to California.
2:37 p.m. ET Marriage was basically done when Linda moved out. Now we pivot to Bubba and Heather offering for Heather to have sex with him. Started with half-joking sounding propositions like “Heather wants to see you naked!” Hogan “didn’t know Heather very well at all” even though she was his best friend’s wife. They continued hounding him about him sleeping with Heather to the point he asked them to stop.
2:40 p.m. ET “I thought those people cared about me.” Said he “let [his] guard down” one time at Bubba’s house (the only place he “felt safe” during his divorce) and that led to a sexual encounter with Heather, than two or three more (Bubba filmed three). Bubba rarely invited him over; Hogan had only been there a few times before. He got there, they had a group hug, Heather led him to the bedroom, Bubba handed him a condom, and told him he’d be in his office while they had sex. But first: Hogan asked Bubba if he was filming the encounter. Bubba snapped back with a “How could you even ask me that? I’m your best friend!” type of rant.
2:43 p.m. ET “I was on a publicity tour for Total Non-Stop Action, a very small company…”
2:47 p.m. ET “Could you explain to the jury what TNA is or was? Are they even still in business?” They’re still going over how he found out about Gawker’s article/video, etc.
2:51 p.m. ET They’re playing Hogan’s “Showbiz Tonight” appearance during that media tour about TNA that ended up becoming about the video. At the time he said that the whole sex tape thing (both in general and Bubba’s betrayal) “Hurts worse than any back surgery… worse than my son going to jail…”
2:57 p.m. ET How did he feel when he found out about the Gawker post/video? From the description it sounds like he had a panic attack, pretty much, though he didn’t describe it that way. His lawyer, David Houston had to talk him down. At that point, he considered Houston his only real friend.
3:03 p.m. ET Hogan looks like a complete shell of himself listening to the Howard Stern interview from right after the video went up. Playback over, back to questioning.
3:15 p.m. ET Last 10+ minutes mostly Hogan talking about how embarrassed he was. Was even embarrassed for his Hulk Hogan character, not just as Terry Bollea. Direct examination done, break then cross examination by Gawker’s counsel.
3:15 p.m. ET Last 10+ minutes mostly Hogan talking about how embarrassed he was. Was even embarrassed for his Hulk Hogan character, not just as Terry Bollea. Direct examination done, break then cross examination by Gawker’s counsel.
3:48 p.m. ET Gawker attorney Michael Sullivan cross examining Hogan, laying groundwork about the Bubba friendship. Does he miss Bubba? He misses the Bubba he THOUGHT he knew. He was on Bubba’s radio show 50-100 times. They had heated arguments when he asked Bubba if he was involved in the sex video materializing when Hogan asked him after screen grabs showed up online. Moving on to the Gawker post now.
3:52 p.m. ET Sullivan comes off much better than Berry did, with a comforting voice. Sounds more like a guy just doing his job, while Berry sounded flippant. Talking about how good a liar Bubba is to convince Hogan he knew nothing about the video. Hogan testifying now he didn’t know he was being recorded. Bubba and Heather never said only like “You can only have sex with Heather if we can record it.” Sure sounds like Gawker is laying groundwork for something here.
3:58 p.m. ET Hogan doesn’t remember Bubba telling him anything about security camera installation in his bedroom. They’re about to play a clip of him on Sirus/XM’s “Busted Open.”
Hulk Hogan on the defensive as Gawker atty tries to show inconsistencies btw depositions and his testimony today. pic.twitter.com/Vt1thZnXU6
— Ryan Kerns (@RyanKernsEsq) March 7, 2016
4:03 p.m. ET Clips now of Hogan saying Bubba “I know you have cameras, are there cameras in there?” Hogan thinks what he said to Bubba was “You’re not filming this, are you?” The situation felt too weird. Why’d his mind go straight to am I being filmed? Just a weird gut feeling.
4:07 p.m. ET Hogan knew there were security cameras, but they were never pointed out and he didn’t know there was one in the bedroom, much less facing the bed. He didn’t read the commentary alongside the video on Gawker at the time, and it appears he didn’t until his deposition, which he doesn’t remember. They’re jogging his memory with the transcript. Hogan has a notoriously bad memory.
4:14 p.m. ET Berry catching Hogan in lies about watching the Gawker video. Testified in deposition that he didn’t watch the edited Gawker video. Said on multiple TV shows that he watched anywhere from a minute of the video to the entire 1 minute, 40 second video. Says he lied on the TV shows because he was “on autopilot.” Definitely strange, though. Why not say “I just couldn’t look at it, I know what my lawyers told me” or something similar?
4:20 p.m. ET Hogan said he was kind of in the Hulk Hogan character when he made those media appearances even though the topic was something that happened to Terry Bollea. Something leads to a bench conference with the judge and lawyers. Which just ended…
4:29 p.m. ET It was “a constant badgering” of Bubba and Heather propositioning the whole situation for close to two years. Bubba had bragged about being a swinger, even on the radio. Laying further groundwork about Hogan’s friendship with Bubba and how well he did or didn’t know Heather. Hogan moved into their house for a short period after his wife filed for divorce, which was after he had sex with Heather. Was uncomfortable being there, concerned they’d egg him to resume the affair. But Heather never made advances while he lived there and Bubba didn’t push the issue, either.
4:32 p.m. ET We get a bench conference when Hogan’s lawyers object to questions about if Bubba ever told him about videos of Heather with other men. And then we adjourn for the day. Michael Sullivan will continue his cross examination of Hulk Hogan tomorrow morning.
The lawyers are discussing some scheduling issues after the jury was sent away for the day. Guessing nothing of note happens here, but if there are any real developments, we’ll keep you updated.
That’s it for today.