The Hulk Hogan vs Gawker trial officially started this morning in Pinellas County, Florida, with Hogan hoping for a big pay out of $100 million against media company Gawker for posting excerpts of his sex tape online and providing a full play-by-play text description of what happened.
Opening remarks were kicked off by Hogan’s attorney Shane Vogt and said that Gawker is “full of hypocrites” who usually condemn other websites who post nude photos of celebrities. He said he won’t play the video to the jury but they are free to watch it if they want to. “He makes mistakes,” Hogan’s lawyer said. “He’s going to sit right there on that stand and he’s going to own it.” Hogan will be the first one on the witness stand.
He closed off his remarks by telling the jury that they want Hulk to be paid for each of the 7 million plus visitors who watched part of the video and explained how online advertising works with clicks and impressions.
In his opening remarks, Gawker’s attorney Mike Berry said that the company didn’t make any money from advertising from the post as posts tagged NSFW don’t carry ads. He said that the writer, AJ Daulerio, posted only 9 seconds of actual sex footage while “the rest was conversation” and only “used enough of the video to illustrate the point of his commentary.” He repeated that they don’t know who sent the DVD and it’s still a mystery to them on who threw Hogan under the bus.
“Mr. Bollea has spent years telling the public why he is a role model…Daulerio got a DVD that showed something different,” Berry concluded.
The trial is being streamed live by Tampa Bay’s WTSP and you can watch it below.
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