The wrestler Hulk Hogan today won a claim of 115 million dollars (102 million euros) in a lawsuit he filed against the company Gawker Media for "violation of privacy", following the publication of a video of a sexual nature.
After six hours of deliberation, the jury found in favor of the star wrestlingin a trial that began ten days ago in Saint Petersburg, Florida, and in which Hogan claimed to suffer "emotional stress" and economic damage for the publication video in 2012.
Hogan, 62, whose real name is Terry Bollea , sued in 2012 the founder of the website Gawker, Nick Denton, for posting a video of two minutes in which we observe the wrestler having sex with wife a friend.
During the process, Hogan said video recording was made without their consent and occurred at a sensitive time personally, when I was immersed in a divorce.
After learning of the ruling, lawyers for Gawker said they will appeal the decision. The web based his defense on the right to freedom of expression stated in the First Amendment of the Constitution.
Judicial sources said that the amount you receive Hogan may increase next week , when the jury determine whether the plaintiff suffered other damages.
The jury awarded Hogan $55million for economic injuries and $60million for emotional distress.
Hogan broke down in tears in the courtroom as the jury's verdict was read.
Gawker will appeal the case, but under Florida law will still have to hand over the monetary damages.
Gawker founder Nick Denton said outside the courthouse following the verdict; '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.
'I want to thank our lawyers for their outstanding work and am confident that we would have prevailed at trial if we had been allowed to present the full case to the jury.
'That’s why we feel very positive about the appeal that we have already begun preparing, as we expect to win this case ultimately.'
Gawker released Hulk Hogan's sex tape after he openly talked about it in the media. They say talking about it in the media gave them the right to release the tape because the public needed to know.
The site published an article soon after with the headline; 'A Judge Told Us to Take Down Our Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Post. We Won't.'
They wrote in the post; 'We publish all manner of stories here. Some are serious, some are frivolous, some are dumb. I am not going to make a case that the future of the Republic rises or falls on the ability of the general public to watch a video of Hulk Hogan f****** his friend's ex-wife.
'But the Constitution does unambiguously accord us the right to publish true things about public figures.
'And Campbell's order requiring us to take down not only a very brief, highly edited video excerpt from a 30-minute Hulk Hogan f******session but also a lengthy written account from someone who had watched the entirety of that fucking session, is risible and contemptuous of centuries of First Amendment jurisprudence.'
The video was eventually removed from the site.
It's all about money, not about violation of privacy!
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