After Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, was awarded a stunning 5 million in damages from Gawker Media on Friday after filing a suit three years ago against the site after they published a portion of a sex tape featuring the pro wrestler – he celebrated with a wrestling meme on Tuesday. The jury, the same group who awarded Hogan with $115 million in damages last week, deliberated for four hours before announcing their decision.
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Hogan sued Gawker after it posted a video of him having sex with his then-best friend’s wife.
Gawker Media was ordered to pay $15 million; the company’s founder, Nick Denton, was assessed $10 million; and Gawker.com’s former editor in chief, Albert J. Daulerio, must come up with $100,000. Most recently, the jury even awarded an additional $25 million as punitive charges to Hogan.
Earlier this month, Hogan took the stand in the sex tape case, and said that the scandal “changed [his] whole world”. “There is so much this jury deserved to know and, fortunately, that the appeals court does indeed know”, said Heather Dietrick, president and general counsel of Gawker Media, in a statement reported by Wired. Most of that money comes from the parent company that owns Gawker, which is worth $276 million.
Jurors have “an ability to send a message”, Turkel said, adding that Gawker acted with reckless disregard when it posted an edited version of the sex video.
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The latest award, which will hit Gawker for $15m and Denton for $10m, has a good chance of being reduced or reversed, despite the prohibitive conditions for launching an appeal in such cases. She spoke out about the trial to Inside Edition, saying, “It made me a little bit sick”.
