Hulk Hogan to get $25mn more in sex tape case

A Florida jury awarded punitive damages totalling $25 million on Monday in a second blow to Gawker.  The six-person jury assessed Gawker $15 million in punitive damages. The media company’s publisher and CEO, Nick Denton, was slapped with an additional $10 million. 

This amount is over and above the $115 million Gawker ,  the online news outlet must pay for posting a sex tape of the former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. “I think we made history today, because I think we protected a lot of people today who may be going through what I went through,” Hogan told reporters on Monday. 

Hogan sued the website for posting a video clip in 2012 featuring him having sex with the wife of his thenbest friend, the radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. 

Hogan, 62, testified that he did not know that their consensual tryst was being recorded when it occurred nearly a decade ago inside Clem’s home. AJ Daulerio, responsible for the post, was assessed $100,000 in punitive damages.  Gawker plans to appeal the decision in a civil case. Legal experts say the company stands a good chance of getting the decision reversed or reduced.