The jury in the trial of Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) and Gawker Media, Nick Denton and AJ Dauleiro is over. For now.
The four women and two men of the six-person jury deliberated for five hours and, in the end, sided with Hogan and awarded him $115,000,000 - $55 million for economic injuries and $60 million for emotional distress. Hogan is said to have broken down in tears as the verdict was read out by the jury.
However, in a somewhat unexpected turn of events, the jury asked to award Hogan punitive damages against the defendants. Generally speaking, under Floridan law, punitive damages can be three times the amount of compensatory damages - meaning that Gawker Media could potentially be paying out $345 million on top of the $115 million they've been ordered to pay.
Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media and one of the defendants in the trial, has been open about how an unfavourable result in the trial could destroy his company. Denton sold off a minority stake for the first time in January.
Denton read a prepared statement following the jury's verdict against him, stating "Given key evidence and the most important witness were both improperly withheld from this jury, we all knew the appeals court will need to resolve the case... That's why we feel very positive about the appeal that we have already begun preparing, as we expect to win this case ultimately."
The witness Denton referred to was Bubba Clem, the husband of the woman Hogan had sex with on camera. Hogan's legal team argued that the former wrestler was not aware he was being recorded when he had sex with Clem's then-wife. However, one of Gawker's arguments was that Hogan must have known Clem and his wife were in an open marriage and that he had a propensity for recording his wife having sex with other men.
Gawker posted the two-minute sex tape and openly defied the court order to remove it from site, citing free speech laws.
Via CNNMoney
