In the Circuit Court of the sixth Judicial Court of the State of Florida in
and for Pinellas County. Terry Jean Blaya, professionally known as Hulkhogan, plaintiff
versus Gawker Media LLLC aka Gawker Media, Nick Dentick, AJ Delrio Defendants.
Excerpt from trial proceedings before the Honorable Pamela A. M. Campbell, continue
testimony of Terry Boley March eighth, two thousand and sixty. Call to order
at nine twenty one A. The following is an excerpt from trial proceedings that
want everybody, are there any issues to discuss prior to the jury coming in?
Judge, we still haven't worked through that number. We'll get with Randy
and we'll make sure that's good. Okay, So we're continuing with the cross
of mister Balaia. Yes, your honor, mister Balaia, do you want
to come up on the stand then please and remember your still under oath.
Let's go ahead and bring in the jury. The jury entered the courtroom at
nine twenty three am. Thank you, everybody can be seated. Thank you
all again for continue joining us today. So would each of you please raise
your right hand, jury sworn. I have each been able to follow my
instructions over the course of the evening, and that is not to talk to
anybody about the people or parties involved in this case, not to do any
own research, including going on the internet. Yes. Good. Did anybody
approach you or try to talk to you over the course of the evening or
this morning? No? Great, thank you very much. All right,
So yesterday when we left off, we were on cross examination to mister Balaa
by mister Sullivan. That's where we're going to continue this morning. Mister Sullivan,
thank you, your honor. Good morning, your honor, Terry Jean
Balia, plaintiffs witness here in previously being previously duly sworn on oath, testified
further as follows. Good morning, mister Balaiah. Morning certain, and may
I approach the witness, your honor. Thank you, mister Belaya. If
you could please focus your attention on the interview that you did on TMZ on
March the seventh of twenty twelve. All right, do you recall in that
interview you appeared by phone and your attorney David Houston also appeared by phone.
Do you recall that, yes, sir. Now, just so we're clear,
when you and I discussed this at your deposition, there was some confusion
because you thought about another phone interview, which was that one that happened in
New York. Okay, that is not the one we're going to discuss first
thing this morning. We're back at the one that took place on March seventh
of twenty twelve. All right, now, this may help you frame our
discussion. That was the one after the report TMZ first reported publicly that there
was a news news that there was a Hulk Hogan sex tape out there circulating.
So that's the one we're going to talk about. Now, let's take
a look at that report, Tim, if you could play please, defendants
Exhibit two fourteen. It's a clip I think see the introductory portion video clip
published as follows. So we're gonna talk about the tape, and the best
person to talk about that tape is probably Huk Hogan, and he joins us
now on TMZ Live. Hulk first of all, welcome. Yeah, first
of all, guys, there were several brunettes. Okay, but let's let's
at least get that part, you know, Oh, there were several all
right, no, No, there was you know, between between the divorce
from Linda to the time I'm at Jennifer, I had about four and a
half months where I went back what really went crazy, and I actually wrote
about in my book I'm out staying drunk and crazy at all the bars.
So I was really out of my mind for a while. Video clip concluded,
Now, mister Belaya, do you recognize your voice in that TMC report?
Yes, sir, okay. And when you said there, I think
you said, first of all, guys, there were several brunettes. Between
the divorce from Linda and the time I met Jennifer, I had about four
and a half months that I really went crazy, and I actually wrote about
that in my book, about staying drunk and crazy and hitting all the bars.
Do you recall that, yes, sir okay. Now tell us was
that a true statement that you made to TMZ. Well, I was in
character and I am belish a little bit about the number of women. Okay,
So when you made that statement to TMZ, was that you Terry Balaya
or was that you Hulk Hogan? Well, I was totally Hulk Hogan because
I wasn't at my home, in my private house. Okay, well take
it when because I wasn't at my home and my private house. Brother,
Okay, all right, now, I take it when you did that interview
with TMZ, you felt comfortable at that time sharing with the public that you
had a lot of women between your marriage to Linda ending and the time that
you got with your new wife. Right, would you repeat the question?
Please? Sure? Sure? My question was you felt comfortable sharing publicly that
you had a number of women between the time your marriage to Linda ended and
your relationship with your new wife commenced. Is that fair to say? Well,
I felt comfortable saying those words, yes, because it was Hulk Hogan,
and I was just embellishing about instead of having a couple of girls,
a bunch of girls, I was just being Hulk Hogan in character. I
see. All right, well let's do this if we could, please hear
the next clip video clip published just follows. Can I crack one tiny joke
here? Sure? Brother? Why not? It's because the one thing that
I just found so funny is it you're just so famous for your wrestling gear,
and apparently in this video there is a suntan line that would reveal that
whoever that person is stopped dancing around. It was wearing a thong. Well,
let me put it to you this way, brother, when you wrestle
in the ring, you don't want like like the girls with that pammy line,
you know, with the underwear cutting into your cheeks. So I basically
when you wear the the you know, these so called tights and the wrestling
ring, you know, most of the guys were a jockstrap. I prefer
a throng, you know. But at the end of the day, let
me put it to you this way, brother, I used the throng like
laying in the sun bed, not out in public. But the main thing
is, thank god that my you know, my ex. You know,
let's I don't even want to go there, but let's just say thank god
it wasn't a guy. Yeah, well that was the only thing we thought
could be worse if it was a young male, So we were grateful.
You're brutal, David. That's your lawyer, and that's your lawyer. Video
clip concluded. Mister Balai. The voices that came on there at the end,
the part about saying thank god it wasn't a guy, that was your
voice, right, m I'm not sure you know, in the beginning it
sounded like he was either me or David David Houston. I couldn't hear real
well, that was mister Houston, okay, sitting here at the table with
you, right, I just didn't hear who said that verbiage about thank god
it was a boy not a boy? Or did you want to hear it
again? Well, I mean, I don't know what your question would be.
Okay, do you recognize the voice of your lawyer on that clip?
Yes? Or it sounded like David mister David Houston okay. And when TMZ
shared publicly the information about how the video, the sex tape video that they
reviewed revealed you naked and showing your tan line, did you consider that to
be invasive of your privacy? Well, you can tell it's you know,
first off, TMS he said, you know, we're joking or we're gonna
make a joke. So right away, you know it tells you you know,
it's all character driven show, and it's all you know, they're having
fun, they're trying to entertain you. So you know, as we're talking
about the situation with my rear end, they're saying hulk. You know,
he actually said Hulk, How do you feel about it? And you know,
sometimes in the ring, you know, when you're wrestling, such as
when I wrestle Rick Flair and he beats me up and he runs away,
I kind of like pull his pants down and his rear end hangs out and
he, you know, he walks around the ring with his rear end hanging
out. So to me, that kind of like, you know, was
a joke, and this is all joking, But it's totally different than you
know, you coming into Terry Ballet's house and taking a private video of me,
so that you know, that really wasn't really that embarrassing to me because
the rear end in the butt and the wrestling thing is kind of like all
fun and all joking around, you know, and they were trying, you
know, they were saying it in a very joking manner. So how do
you feel about your rear end and hanging out of the Hulk? You know,
so, I, you know, this kind of reminds me of the
wrestling. You know, it's a joke. Sure, so I take it
if we boil that down. The answer to my question is no, I
didn't consider that invasive of my privacy, right, you know, having Hulk
Hogan's rear round up there. I didn't think was invasive of Terry Balaya's privacy.
Right, it's a legit quote. Read it again. You're having Hulk
Hogan's rear end up there. I didn't think that was invasive of Terry Balay's
privacy. Right, All right, fair enough? Now, TMZ posted a
report of the interview that you and mister Houston did on its website. Right,
I don't know what. Let's see if this helps you out talking about
I'm sorry, dude, Let's see if this helps you directing your attention to
defendants. Exhibit one sixty, which is a March seventh, twenty twelve post
online on TMZ Online titled Hulk Hogan. I have no idea who my sex
tape partner is. Do you recall that being posted by TMZ immediately following the
TV interview. I don't recall it. But if you say it was posted
by and that was the actual date, I believe you. I just don't
remember every every single article it's written all the time. Sure, I can
appreciate that. Let's see if we can help you out here, all right,
Tim, if you could call up defendants Exhibit one sixty and if you
could please display the second to third page, mister Hogan, mister Bala,
if you would look please, I think we had the headline up there and
it just disappeared. Could you there it is? Do you see the headline
that I read to you a moment ago, Hulk Cogan? I have no
idea who my sex tape partner is? Yes, or I do see that?
Okay, super If we could now go to the page of texts,
all right, you'll see there the second one, Hulk tells us. You
know, can you leave that up for a second, you know, I'm
just trying to read it, brother, Yes, yes, very well,
Okay, this is more difficult than I thought. I'm looking for the paragraph
that says Hulkogan a TMZ Live moments ago. There you go, thank you.
Do you see there? It says Hulk Coogan to TMZ Live moments ago,
claiming he went in a four month alcohol fueled lady screwing benda between the
time when he left his ex wife Linda and met his current wife Jennifer.
Do you see that? Yes, you're a I see where they wrote that
with their words. Okay, all right now, and that post was dated
Much seven, twenty twelve, at one fifty pm. Right, yes,
sir. Now let's shift I focused slightly and talk about your dealings with TMZ
around this time, around the time of interview, around the time that they
ran this article. So we're focused on March at twenty twelve. All right,
okay, okay, Now you know TMZ's Mike Walters, don't you,
Yes, sir, I know who he is, and based on your knowledge
of him, he is a reporter for TMZ, right, yes, sir.
And he appeared in that TMZ video we just looked at. Did you
see him? I didn't. I didn't pay attention to who was in there.
Okay, there's a gentleman there with a black T shirt, yes,
sir, dark hair, yes, sir. And you talked with him in
connection with wrestling news. Correct, with wrestling what wrestling news? I don't
recall. It's very possible. I have Okay, a wrestling events you talk
with him about that. It was the guy with the dreads. No,
sir, the black shirt, No, it's were you talking about Harvey with
the black hair? No, it's the gentleman you said, the guy with
the black hair. Tim If we could play more of that clip so that
mister Blair can see mister Balaia. To help you out, my colleagues inform
me that the brief portion we played did not depict mister Walters. So in
fanness to you, we're going to play a little bit longest you can say.
Okay, yeah, I didn't recognize he was up there. Sure,
I don't mean to cause confusion. It's okay. Video clip published as follows.
At the end of the tape, you leave and Bubba comes back in
the room. Video clip concluded. Okay, do you recognize that fellow?
Yes? Or I do sab mister Walters. Yes, it is all right.
Now focusing on the discussions you had with Mike Walter's in March twenty twelve,
maybe approach all right at the bench, he's confusing to witness. The
clip that they just put up was not from the same exhibit. We pulled
up the wrong one. Okay, let me finish. They just pulled up
a clip from a different show at a different time. This gentleman did not
appear in the last clip. This is an October clip. There's confusion with
our tech guy. He's playing the March No, he's not. No,
he's not. That was in March. That was October. Okay, Judge,
if we could look there's a process for how we impeach witnesses. I'm
not impeaching him. Can I just please finish? I'm trying to avoid umping
up in the middle of all this video stuff because I think eventually, somehow
or another, most of it comes out. However, you ask a witness
a question in court, he answers yes or no, and then you appeach
him with an inconsistent statement. If it's inconsistent, if they're going to offer
those these for the truth of the matter asserted, or as admissions against his
interest somehow or another. I need some kind of predicate before they just throw
videos up there to understand what they're doing, because I don't know whether I
should object or not, especially because there are so many of them. Mister
Sullivan is stating the number. Do you have a list of the number in
which video it is? We do? I think my bigger problem is this,
And again I don't want its cross, and he deserves wide latitude on
cross, particularly with the plaintiff. But there's no predicate for anything. In
other words, about five questions ago, he just referred to an exhibit.
Now, remember you told me in your deposition and it wasn't tied to any
specific statement. Well, judge, please, if I can finish, I
mean, every now and again, we like to make a record too.
And the point is I'm getting deprived of my right to figure out basically what
he's doing. Is he trying to refresh his memory as he's trying to impeach
something he said? I mean not to be too big of a stickler,
but if he's going to refer to his deposition, there's only two purposes for
it. One, the witness may have forgotten something and you're going to show
it to him and say does that refresh your memory? Or Two you just
said X. Isn't it true that in your deposition you said why there is
a process, There are elements to these these foundations, and I just need
some kind of an order to this so we can figure out what he's doing.
Thank you, missus Sullivan. Yes, ma'am. And here's the thing
I took his deposition. He has a very difficult time with chronology. He
gets confused. That's my perception. You may have a different view. So
I have tried to do this in a way to kind of take him along
so it doesn't become unduly confusing for the jurors. But I also want to
make sure he's not confused. I understand. I mean, we don't want
to add to the confusion. So that popped up. I knew we had
a video of Mike Walter's in a black T shirt. But the point,
and what I was going to say is I'm not trying to impeach him.
When I try to impeach him, you'll know I've been trying to use his
deposition to get him focused and refreshest recollection to keep this thing on track.
Is that which you gave him a copy of the deposition? Yes, it
has every single volume in order. Great. I'm just asking that whatever he's
trying to do, he lay a predicate for it so that I know what
it is. That's fine. And so mister Sullivan, then are you now
that we're going back, now that it's clear as to which time frame and
who's on which clips, are you going to clarify that, yes, I
will. It came out of order. The thing is this, if he's
putting this up here a substantive evidence to ask a witness white just a second
I just assume he and Barry hear the same thing. No, they had
different He is mister Sullivan if he's putting this up there to ask the witness
questions about it, and all fairness to the witness, playing two seconds of
what maybe a sixty second clip isn't fair because if he's trying to refresh him,
he may need to see the whole thing. The problem is, I
don't really know what it is in the rest of the clip, so I
don't know if those are certain things that have already been ruled out. My
colleague tells me that we have the one that mister Walters appears in on March
seventh, and that we will play the whole thing so there will be no
confusion. I don't know where he's going or what he's doing. I just
know that the witness has a right to know exactly what he's looking at and
when it occurred. The other thing as well, Is there anything in that
match seventh video clip that I've already ruled us out? No, ma'am.
I want to talk about your rulings though, because your rulings were that they
were going to use these not for the truth of the matter, asserted but
merely to show that things were being reported. What we just did as a
statement made by TMZ that was far more offensive than the one he made on
the show, an argumentative. It was pulled out shown to the jury,
and that was the entire point of that. That's using it for the truth
of the matter. No, it's not asserted, not to show it was
discussed. He's talking about all this stuff he found invasive of his privacy.
Do you find that invasive? That's not the statement. The statement is did
you go in an alcohol fueled four month bender or whatever? But it goes
it's two things. I think where this is all going is is it public
concerned that this stuff was being reported on by the press. Whether he's characterized
his way in his words, which is one thing, separately the press is
reporting it, which is we have to show is for a legitimate matter of
public concern, and how it's being characterized and portrayed in the press are two
separate things. But we have to be able to get it in right.
But the problem is that they've shown the show. They've shown the press being
reported. They showed him making a statement on it, and cumulatively they showed
the way that the press characterized it on top of that, which is going
to far more. These are all kinds of things that could have been taken
care of ahead of time, but they can't be cumulative. So I think
this has been resolved. Thank you, your honor. May I play that
one that is correct? March seventh, one great, Thank you clarify with
mister Belaya. Thank you in open coort. All right, you may perceive
missus Sullivan, Thank you, your honor, mister Balaia. We created some
confusion here, and maybe it's my fault, but we have shown you a
little clip. I asked you about the fellow in the black T shirt.
We showed you a clip from a letter later TMZ report, which we'll get
to you later in the morning. Okay, it was not my desire to
create confusion for you. So what we're going to do is we're going to
show you the report that aired by TMZ on March seventh, twenty twelve,
and let you look at that. All right, well, I'll do whatever
I canna help you, Yes, sir, super thank you. Video clip
published as follows. Oh first of all, welcome, Yeah. First of
all, you know there were several brunettes Okay, let's let's at least get
that part. Oh there were several brunettes. Well, no, there was.
You know, between between the divorce from Linda and the time I met
Jennifer, I had about four and a half months that I really went crazy.
And I actually wrote about it in my book, you know, about
staying drunk and crazy and hitting all the bars. So I was really out
of my mind for a while. So you actually, and we're going to
get to the sex tape, but you obviously prefer blonds, but was going
for brunette' kind of statement against Linda Hogan. Oh, no, brother,
he was just you know, I don't I don't know what was wrong with
me. I was just so shocked and broken up. You were drunk because
I dreamed that I was the guy that would always stay married. And then
you know, when the whole thing went down, and you know, Linda
fell in love with a younger guy. I guess everything in and it's nobody's
fall up on my own. So I'm not blaming her, but you know,
I just went crazy for a while. Okay, So, Hulk,
I want to say we were also joining the fund with David Houston, who
was your lawyer in this whole thing. So, David, welcome as well.
Thank you, Harvey. So walk us through this. So when what
year is this tape shot? Well, brother, I don't know what year
it was, but this year around September, and you know, the end
of September October, I will have been with Jennifer for five years that long.
So the question I'm wondering is, you know, why would somebody hold
on to this for at least five years, you know, and then do
this to me? Now that's what I don't understand. And I don't know,
you know, and I did not know what was being done. You
know, I didn't say, hey, Brunette Las, put a camera up
and have a sex tape. I mean, I'm dumb, but I'm not
dumb and dumber brother, And so I just don't know why someone would do
this number one and number two, why they would wait five years to release
it? Oh, Carvey, at least five at least five years? Hey,
how can David? This is Mike Walters. I've actually seen part of
this tape, and this is kind of how we wrote the story in front
of looks like and from what I've seen, it appears to be a little
bit old. And the reason I say that is from what you see of
Hulk and what he looks like and how he's and what he's discussing about working
out and stuff, it seems. And I discussed this with them earlier when
we did the web story. But it only shows a brunette. It shows
him. It's a bedroom, it's a security footage from inside of a home,
and it shows Hulk kind of going towards a brunette woman. And then
that's all that I've seen. I haven't seen whether or not this tape is
some lengthy thing or what exactly happens after that. Does that ring anything kind
of a bell with you? Hulk? You know, Hervey Harvey. I'm
not trying to be a smart Alec and I'm horrible with remembering names, you
know. But you know that's why I call everybody brother, you know.
But during that time, that four or five month window where I was going
crazy, I was, you know, one of the first things I did
was when I sat down with Jennifer, I said, I don't even remember
people's names, you know, last weekend that I met I meet so many
people, you know, much less girls five or six or seven years ago,
you know, or five years whatever it was. He I couldn't remember
her name if I had to. And the truth is it wasn't just Brunette's.
I was running pretty wild there for a few months. So when we
started when we started hearing about this last night, and one of the first
things we tried to do is put together a picture of who this could be.
It sounds like it's somebody that hit hard times and had the tape and
then hooked up with someone that had the ability to try to market it.
And in fairness to them, we want to put them on notice. They're
committing a felony, and a lot of people aren't worried about civil liability because
they may not have anything, but I think everybody is worried about whether they're
going to spend time in jail, And in reality, this is notice.
If anyone goes forward with this thing, we're going to find them and we're
going to have them prosecuted. Video clip concluded. Was that helpful? Yes,
sir, that was Mike Walter's there, Okay, And just again,
that was the fellow in the black T shirt. I'm sorry I didn't notice.
It was just the guy that they cut to and said, Hulky,
I've seen the part of the tape, hulk Yeah, I didn't see the
whole thing whatever. Right that fellow that said I've seen part of the tape.
That was Mike Walters. That was Mike Walters. Okay, now we're
on the same page. Okay, Now you know what call if you asked
mister Walters where he got the tape from, right, sir, I don't
recall that, okay. And you never had a conversation with him where you
asked him to destroy the tape right now. I don't remember asking him personally
to destroy anything, okay. And you never told Mike Walter's not to talk
about it publicly, did you? No, sir, I didn't have a
problem with that, right. And you never told Mike Walter's not to write
about this, did you? No, Sir, I did not. Okay,
I have a problem with him writing an article about it. What's that?
I did not have a problem with him writing an article about the tape?
Right now, after these events, after you had the interview, and
after they published their post online, you didn't talk to Mike Walter's off the
year about the sex tape, did you? No, Sir, okay.
And the other gentleman we saw there in the intro Harvey Levin. You didn't
talk to him offline about the sex tape, did you? No, sir,
you didn't talk to that gentleman we saw, the fellow with the dreadlocks.
You didn't talk to him after you went off the year either, I
take it, no, sir. Okay. Now, you didn't ask them
at this time when this came out in March of twenty twelve. I take
it you didn't ask them to see the sex tape they had. Did you
to what the sex tape? To see the sex tape they had? No,
Sir, I did not. Okay. Now, you don't recall if
Mike Walter's provided you with any information about what he saw on the sex tape?
Correct? Just that information right there? Okay? And that isn't that
something? Isn't that something you would likely recall if he provided you with information
about what he saw on the sex tape? Wouldn't you remember that? Yep?
From this tape? I don't know I remember it now, you know
you just showed me this tape. But I've done so many interviews I've done
it's just overwhelming to try to remember one interview out of thousands over the last
well, you know, at the same time of this timeframe, the last
seven or eight years. Okay, if you could turn please and look with
me at your deposition, If you would look at the fifth volume, do
you have a page, yes, ma'am six seventy nine? Which volume?
Yes, sir? Volume five volume, yes, sir seventy nine, Yes,
sir, it might be. Judge. I'm going to object and ask
what we approach please, okay at the bench, Judge, this is kind
of what I'm talking about. He's about to show him his deposition and basically
trying to impeach him with what a statement that's completely consistent with what he said
in court. I'm not impeaching him. Okay, Well, then why are
you using the depot? I mean it looks a little confusing like you're trying
to impeach him. Oh I'm not, so what are you doing? Okay,
judge, he says. I asked him at one point around this March
seventh interview, did Mike Walters provide you with information about what he saw?
I don't recall. Is that something you would likely recall if it if it
was important in life? Shaking. Maybe, I mean, I just don't
recall phone call. Okay, Well, he's just pretty much said the same
thing. I'm not sure what your point is. Let me make a point,
judge. This is why the rules allow them to publish any part of
a deposition of a party for any purpose. They can just put that all
in their case in chief. But if it's not inconsistent, they can't do
this during our case. We can put it in our case. They've already
designated it. That's the point. Okay. I think you hit the nail
on the head, which is, if it's inconsistent, there's a predicate you
said X at your depot. Did you not give the following answers to the
following questions? His testimony seems to be consistent with what that is. Okay,
an open court, all right, mister Sulliman. So you don't recall
what any discussions with Mike Walter's about what he saw on the tape. No,
I don't recall talking to Mike Walter's about the tape other than that,
you know, we just talked about here on the interview. Okay, let
us move forward in time once again. All right, after you did the
TMZ March seven, two twelve appearance, business associates advised you that well,
basically, you weren't helping yourself much giving interviews and dragging the story out right.
I don't recall that, okay. If you could look please at defendants
Exhibit one sixty five, which is a March eighth, two twelve email from
Dixie Carter Defendants Exhibit one sixty five of Bala. Do you see that there
in your screen? Yeah? Can you make it bigger? Thank you?
Now? At the time miss Carter was connected with TNA, right, I'm
sorry, what was that? Yes, sir, At the time missus Carter
was connected with TNA, right, yes, sir, and she still is,
okay, And at that time you were working for TNA or working with
them, weren't you. Well? Is that date? This is March of
twenty twelve, a day after the TMZ report, I would have it's a
possibility. I'm not good with dates. I'm really not. Brother. Let
me let me see if this helps you out. When we move forward yet
again, in time, we're going to get to the fall around the time
Gawker posted the article that brings us all here together? Yes, sir,
that was in October of twenty twelve. You told us yesterday you were about
to go on this media tour. Okay, yeah, well then I was
working with them. That that helps you remember if you tell me what I
was doing, because just a date to me is like right, you're just
not a fellow that no brother zeros in on dates were names. I'm real
bad with both you fair enough? All right? So now you have kind
of a chronology in your mind and you'll see that this is an email that
you received from miss Carter. Do you see that? Yeah, yes,
I see that. Okay, now if we can look at please add Can
I read this first? Please? Absolutely? Thank you? You bet,
thank you? Yes, yes I did. I just wanted to read it
before you pass it on. I wanted to see what it was. No,
no, sure, Now let's look together at the first paragraph. Do
you see she says there, I love you to death, but I have
to be honest and say I think this interview is so beneath you. TMZ
used it verbally, set up the sex tape and took what you said to
drag this story out even further with sensational headlines, etc. It benefits them,
but not you. I am on your team, but people like rent
to send her and others can look at this differently. I'm surprised your attorney
let you agree to the interview, but I have to say this is what
seeing your attorney's face a name on this makes me think he did this more
for him than you. Do You see that? Yes? I do?
And if you continue in the second pargraph, you see it says Terry,
this is my specialty. Had I known you were going to do this,
I would have tried to stop you and said to issue a simple statement.
It would have positioned you in a much more positive light and throwing water on
this story to extinguish it versus fuel on it to keep it going. Do
you see that? Yes? Sir? Okay, Now I take it you
did not heed miss Cotter's advice, did you? No? I did not,
because you came to a different judgment. Saw what she wrote, but
you reached a different conclusion. Is that fair to say? Well, I
was listening to my attorneys and there was a whole bigger issue than justice one
interview and she says this is her specialty and it's not. She was a
publicist like twenty years ago, and a lot of stuff has changed, and
it was her opinion. I value it very very much. But she said
something about my attorney's decision to agree to do the interview. She shouldn't understand
all the legal stuff that was going on. You know that led us to
do it. Let us do this, Okay? So you considered that and
you came to a different conclusion, yes, or we did? You know,
we decided to do what we did with the benefit of conversations with council.
Yes, sir, okay, fair enough. Let us move again.
Now we're going to move forward in time and we're going to talk about We're
going to focus our attention on April twenty and twelve, all right, So
we're moving just about a month, and I'm going to direct your attention to
defend Exhibit fifty seven. We saw this during the openings yesterday. This was
that post that came out in the dirty Yes, sir, mister blaya,
do you recognize that exhibit there, defendants, Exhibit five fifty seven, I
do, okay, So we're focused on April of two thousand and twelve.
You heard that there were still photos, yes, sir, surfacing at that
time, Yes, sir, okay. And when you look at this photo.
Do you recognize this as Bubba's bedroom at the time in April? Did
you recognize that as Bubba's bedroom to the best of my recollection, Yes,
all right, you know I can't vividly picture the room, but that's what
it looks like, okay. And you thought that you recognize that at the
time at the time, But when they came out in April twenty twelve,
I don't remember. I don't recall if I saw it then. So many
skills were coming out and pop it up of the same thing. I don't
remember if I saw this then, but I saw it yesterday and I do
recognize this, yes, but I'm focused on the period when it came out
in April of twenty twelve. Well, if it would if it would have
come out then I then and I saw it, I would have recognized it.
Yes, I've seen I don't know if this is what I saw on
whatever it is the dirty but I do recognize it. Okay. Let me
see if this will help. I just don't know where I you know,
when I saw this in April twelve, I know I saw this, Okay.
If you could look please at Volume three, page three fifty nine three
fifty nine, Yes, sir, Yes, sir, okay, if you
would look please at line two, line two? All right, now do
you see where it says? Question? Okay? Would you look at this
photograph? Do you recognize this as Bubba's house? Do you see you?
Answer there at line five, the witness, I can't tell if this is
Bubba's bedroom or not from this pick. Okay, yes, sir, So
at the time you didn't recognize that, did you? I'm sorry? Where
where was the line again, dude, judge, just for the record,
that started at line two, not line three. I can't tell if that's
Bubba's better. I mean, it sure looks like it. I mean,
I wouldn't bet my life on it, but it looks exactly like Bubba's bedroom.
Broke. Okay, you want line too. That's where I started,
right, But when you announced it into the record, you said line three.
Part of me, okay, what line too? Did you see where
I line two? Question? Okay, yes, sir. Would you look
at this photograph? Do you recognize this is Bubba's bedroom? Answer the witness
at line five. I can't tell if this is Bubba's bedroom or not by
this picture, Yes, sir, Okay, do you see that? Yes,
I do. Now. At the time that you saw this photo,
you indicated that you couldn't tell who it was that was in the picture,
right, I still can't tell who it is. My best guess would be
me brother, best guest. Now, yeah, I mean if I had
a guess right now, I would say that would be me if that's Bubba's
bedroom. And but I can this is so he's such a bad picture.
Okay. You can't make yourself out exactly, got you all? Right?
Now? You heard at this time in April of two thousand and twelve,
you heard that there were still photographs circulating out there, right, yes,
sir, okay. And when you did, you contacted Bubba, right yes,
I called him and talked to him in person to talk to him about
the situation, okay. And you asked Bubba about this, right yes,
sir, I did, okay. And you asked him about where were these
still photos came from? Right, yes? I did? And Bubba told
you at that point in April of two thousand and twelve, he said,
well, Heaven must have done it. Right. Well, that's that's who
we blamed, yes, sir, okay. And you believed him, right,
I sure did. All right. Now, after Bubba told you that
Heather did it, you never tried to contact her, did you? No,
sir? Okay, Now, let me ask you this. When these
still photos came out, and now we're in April of two thousand and twelve
and the rooms started circulating, you contacted Bubba, right, yes, sir?
All right? You did not contact the other brunettes that you told TMZ
about, did you. Well, no, sir, I would have no
way to contact at anybody. Okay, it didn't contact any of these other
brunettes, did you. I have no way even if I wanted you.
Brother. Let us now move forward again in time, we're going to advance.
Now, we're going to go to the fall of two twelve, in
particular October fourth, two twelve, as we know that as when Gauka posted
its piece on its website. Right. Well, I don't know if that's
the exact date, but if you say it is, I believe you because
I'm not good with dates. All right, So for purposes of our discussion
this morning, yes, sir, we'll say October fourth, twenty twelve.
That's fine, yes, sir, okay, Now let us do this.
We touched on a moment ago how you were going to do that publicity tour
for TNA. Yes, sir, okay, So to focus on that,
let's look at defendants Exhibit seventy six, mister Balaya. Can you see that?
Is that big enough for you to see? Okay? Yes, sir,
it is okay. Now, this is or I believe it is your
itinerary for your New York City media tour to promote the TNA Bound for Glory
tour. Is that your understanding the itinerary? Yes? You may want to
look. Well, I don't see anything in cash for an itinerary, brother,
Tim. If you could display the second page, did you see there,
mister Blay at the very top of the portion that's displayed. Yeah,
I see it now, hul Kogan, New York City Media to a Bound
for Glory, Yes, sir? All right, now, for the purpose
of your media tour, in what do we have there? The dates?
Can you make out those dates eight through ten at the very top? Tim,
October eighth through ten, dude, Yes, there you go. Okay.
The purpose of that tour was to promote this pay per view event that
was coming up, right, Yes, sir. Now the first appearance you
had on October ninth was on the Howard Stern Show. What it says?
Do you see that? Yes, sir, that's what it says. Okay,
And we saw some of that yesterday, didn't we, Yes, sir.
The next entry, if we moved down the page, we have the
Today Show. Do you see that? Yes, I do with Kathy lean
Hoda. Do you see that, yes, sir? Okay. If you
look over on page four, you'll see it refers to an appearance on Pierce
Morgan CNN Live. Yes, sir, do you see that? Yes?
I do? All right, And you interviewed by Piers Morgan, weren't you?
Well, I have been, yes, sir, I just don't know
you. I'm sure if they if it's there, we interviewed because we went
right down this high tinerary and if there were you know, if that was
on there, then we did that interview. But plus there may have been
other stuff added as we went during the day. You know where they can
say, you know, okay, you before Pierce Morgan, you can stop
here and give a quick radio thing. But if it's on there, we
did it. I do not remember canceling anything. I just remember adding on
stuff on the tour. Okay, so you did you fulfilled your commitment.
I'm sure I did, yes, sir, and made these appearances. I'm
sure. And what you explained into us is you probably did more. Yeah,
I'm pretty sure I did. Okay, Now, what we're going to
do is we're going to focus your attention again on your appearance on How It's
Stirred on October ninth, twenty twelve. We looked at that a bit yesterday.
Let's look at a clip from defendant's Exhibit three zero two, which is
your appearance on that show. Video clip published as follows. Doesn't the tape
in away, I'm not going to present something too Yeah, make you look
like a god? I mean you don't look physically man, you look good.
Well, that's part of you, know, screaming about your big thick
cock, your brutal, dude, brutal. If I was on the tape,
the girl would be like, when are you going to put it in?
Oh my god? I mean you come out like a stud, honest
to god, are you kidding me? Do you think you come off bed
in that tape? I mean, let's video clip concluded. Now, you
explained to us yesterday that you were familiar with how it stearns program? Right,
Yes, sir, judge, can we ask him to play the balance
of that clip please. We think it's out of context without his response to
that last question. His response to that last question. In other words,
they show the question without the response. Okay, for the record, judge,
it's three O two D of the exhibits, your honor. I thought
the way this was going to work is we would play clips, they would
play what they preferred in their case. But we're happy to do this,
but it's going to take a few minutes to find it. So rather than
having folks all right, why don't we take a quick comfort break while we
sought out these technicalations. Thank you all very much. The jury exited the
courtroom at ten and fourteen am at the bench. So, if you're going
to do something for the rule of completion, I what sort of back to
I'm not sure if it's an impeachment or if it's something inconsistent, or you're
just getting him to comment on what his comments were. But I imagine then
that if there's the remainder part, you're going to ask him questions to make
sure that he understands whether this whole tape is going. That's kind of my
point. Again, I go back to what I was saying, and I'm
going to emphasize this, Judge, I don't want to walk in anybody's style.
I don't like having to bring some of this up. And I have
a lot of respect for mister Sullivan and mister Berry and the way they're handling
these things. So I want Mike to know that coming out of the block.
But I just don't know what he's doing ninety percent of the time.
So when a clip just comes up against a question and I can't tell if
it's impeachment or if he's going to show the clip is substantive, which in
his statements would be admissions, and that's fine. I think if he's going
to show the clip and the clip is a question of an interview, and
then we don't see the answer and my client is going to be asked questions
about it, I don't know how I can control the And it's an issue
of really preserving my right to make sure and I want to keep going back
and forth to replace it because some of it is offensive language and we really
don't need to continue to break those same issues. Yeah, I let this
go a lot yesterday. So is there a way? Is there a way
without revealing your cross You can at least say here that here are the next
few things, so that they can catch up with you on some of these
clips. Well, here's the thing, your honor. I think the way
this goes as I play the tape, I play an excerpt. Right,
this is cross I understand. I ask him questions. Right, mister Turkle,
If he thinks it seemed unfair, you've got redirect. You play the
whole tape. Okay, you don't make me. You don't keep interrupting my
cross examination and make me play other segments. You know how this works,
Judge, to make your trial move along and not board these poor souls to
death, we have to proceive at some pace. It's unfair to do it
this way. It is so in Henna. Can I say one other thing?
You got up ken, You played a huge segment from how it's turned.
We're thinking he can't actually get this in because that's like letting this to
Bella testifying that tape. For us, it's a party opponent admission. For
him, it's not okay. But he didn't obstruct his exam. We sat
there and I bit my tongue and I let him go on. The point
is what I don't do on those And if you look at the context of
what we're using, if they think I'm offering it for the truth or something,
that's fine, we can talk about it. Most of those aren't being
offered for that. They're frankly being offered for ancillary reasons. But the bigger
picture on this is very simple, and I agree with everything he says and
judge, like for the TMZ tape where they just showed a snippet, I'm
going to show the rest on redirect. I just don't think you show an
interviewer asking someone a question and then you don't let him have the benefit of
seeing his answer if you're going to question him on it. That's real time.
That isn't something I can cure on redirect. That's kind of my point,
your honor. It's hard for me to rule specifically on that because I
don't have the full clip ahead of time for me to even know what to
follow your objection right, perhaps, missus Sullivan, if you're going to ask
them questions about have him make comments on his clip, let me tell you
where we're going. Okay, I'm going to show him some clips of stuff
he's discussing with Howard Stern. Howard's Stern is asking him things, and we're
going to I mean, this is now revealing where I'm going in my cross,
which I think is a little much dicey. But that's what he seems
to want is a preview. I'm going to ask him about the discussion he
had there and how that made him feel. But I guess here's that if
you're only showing him one part and then it's almost like a refresh your recollection
kind of situation, then well, this was discussed, I think he would
be entitled to see the rest of it. Well, no, these are
that's where I was coming from, little segments. These are little segments.
Okay, I'm not like cutting off his answer. This isn't like a deposition.
Here is something you discussed on Howard Stern. I've tried to be mindful
of the Court's admonition to me before we were about to do this back last
June, and I told you I would be judicious in my selection, and
I've tried to honor that with the courts. So I don't go on and
on and where out my welcome, either with you or with the jurors.
Okay, Judge. At the end of the day, I think, and
I'm looking at this one clip, and there is a question in front of
my client, and when he's about to answer it, they don't play it.
And I don't know if he intends to play. He doesn't have to
reveal his cross to me. The way I'm looking at it is, if
that's that big of a deal, If it's that big of a deal,
I'll just go back and I'll show it during my redirector Okay, good,
So can we get that? Is this one fixed? For now? All
have to ask him? We just lost mister Barry. Judge, may I
run to the restroom. Certainly you should have a comfort break. You know
what's bizarre, Judge? Every day the same snack. Barry eats apples,
he eats bananas. I've noticed that we all eat protein bars, they eat
apples and bananas, and it doesn't change. Thank you. Are we done
with this? I think? So? So what do we do? He's
gonna play the rest of this one and then come back in open court?
Recess Taken from ten twenty am to ten twenty four am Wrestling podcast with Ja's
The raps Fan Wrestling Podcast. So can we take the stand? We'll bring
in the deputy the jurist. The jury entered the courtroom at ten twenty four
am. Thank you very much everyone. Mister Blair, you can take the
stand. I'm not sure we will resolved the technical issues, but we're moving
forward. Mister brother. Now, you explained to us yesterday that you were
familiar with the how Its Stern program, Yes, sir, okay, and
you had appeared in this program between five and ten times. Correct? I
would say ten? You know, between five and ten? Yes, sir,
you know there that may have been. That's way too much. Five
and ten? Do you think that's I haven't. You know, it's been
hard to get on this show because of a schedule, So I would say
between between five and ten, but I wouldn't go as far to say I've
been there ten times. That doesn't sound right. Five to ten, brother,
If you would look please at volume four, page four fifty eight yes,
or four fifty eight yes, sir. If you would look, sir
at the question starting online eight to that page, here you go. Do
you see that somewhere in that range. You said that at four, five,
not more than ten, right, yeah, yeah, that's just different
than what you said before, because but I said four or five, not
more than ten. I didn't say five to ten. So you got me
thinking literally about the number ten, and it didn't work for me. I'm
sorry. I didn't understand that. You didn't understand this product. And you
told us yesterday when you go on Howard Stern's show, yes, sir,
you expect discussion questions about sexual matters. Is that fair to say? Yes,
sir, you know you have to take the good with the bad,
okay. And when you were appearing and discussing these matters with Howard Stern and
he was talking about the sex tape, we saw some of that yesterday.
Yes, sir, I take it that you didn't like whoa, whoa.
I don't want to discuss this. You didn't say that. You never said
to him, did you? You never said that to him, did you,
mister Stern? Mister Stern, Well, I just like dropped my head
in my hands. I was like, you know, it was just embarrassing,
humiliating just to hear it. But I didn't say it. I mean,
I know I was on an entertainment show, and I had to be
an entertainer, so I was just I just kept going. I didn't say
it, no, sir, okay. So I take it that at no
point in the discussion with mister Stern did you say, well, this is
not a legitimate topic to discuss publicly. You never said that, did you.
No? On an entertainment show. I never said that. Okay.
You never said to mister Stern on this entertainment show, no, this is
not a legitimate topic of commentary, right, No, sir, you have
to take the good with the bad, as I said. Okay. And
when mister Stern was making characterizations of the tape and what folks would see on
the tape, you didn't object to those characterizations, did you. No,
sir? Well, you know, when he's you know, that's his show.
He's in control, and he wants you know, if he wants to
talk about characters or characterizations, you just have to follow his lead because that's
how his show works. Okay. And at no point, I take did
you tell how it sterned it. Look, this was a private moment between
me and Heather, and you would prefer that he respect your private So you
didn't say that, right, No, sir, you know I didn't want
to bring Terry Balaya the man and separate the man from the character and bring
that into the conversation. So no, sir, I did not say that.
I did not want to do that, all right. At one point,
Howard Stern says something to you like, this is going to be the
biggest TNA Impact Wrestling event with you in the news like this. Do you
remember him saying something like that to you. I don't recall, but you
know he probably would have said something like that. That sounds like something he
would say to help promote the show. Okay, I understand what you're telling
me about. You're sitting there in the moment and Howards making his you know,
he's talking and saying this, and you're talking with him, and you
don't say, how I feel uncomfortable. This is a private matter. You
don't say that to him on air? No, I don't. Okay,
But before you go on air with Howard Stern, you come to the studio
you're ready to do this appearance. Yes, sir, I take it you
didn't go to Howard before and say listen, I'm here to talk about the
TNA bound for glory. Matta, I'm not here to address the sex tape.
You didn't do that, you know, No, I didn't. But
that always happens. You know, my publicist goes to you know, does
go to whoever we're talking about a specially a situation like this, and you
have to try to say, Howard Stern, you know, can we just
talk about wrestling and please don't talk about it anything else personal? And sometimes
there's a compromise where if it's not Howard Stern and somebody else, can you
say, please don't talk about my personal life, they have to kind of
like touch on it and move on. But that's not what I said.
That's what I said, you have to take the good with the bad.
But that would not have been my job to do that. My publicist would
go to Howard or whoever it was. And that's a conversation that standard protocol.
You always have that conversation. The publicist does it. I would never
have that conversation. Now, are you telling us that in this instance you
went and had your publicist take Howard's people aside and say, look, mister
Hogan is not going to talk about the sex tape. Matta. That didn't
happen, did it? No, I did not in this instance. Do
that. You know that standard protocol whenever you walk in you try to stay
on the subduct that you're talking about. Do you know for a fact,
as you sit here today that your publicist went to Howard and said this sex
tape business not going to be discussed. I was not pretty to that conversation.
So you don't know. No, I don't know what was said in
the conversation. I was just telling you what usually happens. Yeah, and
what you and I wouldn't have that, you know, usually any conversation,
all right, And what you know is that you Terry Balah Hulk Hogan,
Yes, sir, did not have such a conversation with how It sterned.
No, I did not yourself, No, sir, all right, And
at no point I take it during a break in the program or when there's
you know, at no point did you say that after the interview or the
appearance started. You didn't say that, did you. I don't recall there
being any breaks in Howard's show. You know, after the interview usually are
off and running to the next one. You know that we're kind of scheduled
for usually late for but it's a type schedule. So after Howard's interview,
they usually take a picture with you in the lobby with all the staff and
they've got like a wall you know, what do you call it? Like
a wall of greatness or a wall of shame or whatever he calls it,
and you get your picture put up there every time. So it's usually a
quick stop in the hallway when you're done and you take off for the next
appointment. There's no talking business once, you know. Once you're you're done,
you're out of there now. If we look at the clip, I
think it's three O two B. If we can take a moment to look
at that, and then I'll ask you some questions. The Deolip clip published
as follows. Wow, I can take a breath. This is going to
be the biggest TNA Impact Wrestling event ever. With you in the news like
this, it's not a bad time for it to be called team Oh God,
stop robbing? Are there other bad wrestlers going to be fucking with you?
Going, hey, mister big shot, big cock? Probably not cock,
But do you think they're going to work it into the storyline? You
know, maybe maybe instead of dropping a leg on people's neck. I'll start
dropping something else. That's right, you're dropping the tripod brother, you know.
Robin's right. Yeah, I've been fighting with that TNA, which is
total nosstop action every time I'll bring it up there, tits and ass,
and I've been fighting for you two and a half years since I work since
i've worked there. Yeah, we changed the impact wrestling, but they still
refer to it as TNA. Bro, you were fighting on every fucking level
of your life. It's unbelievable. Let me plug. Yeah, maybe now
we should call it tits and as. Yeah, I'll be the general manager.
You were the king of that. You got me to laugh. Thank
you, dude, You're the man. Video clip concluded. Mister Bala,
there was I want to ask you this that discussion that was just had between
Howard Stern and you, Yes, sir, in the context of how with
Stern, was that, in your view a legitimate topic of commentary in that
context, well, that context, I was trying to make the best out
of a bad situation. You know, Howard was making me laugh. We
were talking about total NonStop action. You know, people think of TNA and
me. You know when Howard said, you know, instead of the I
hate the TNA because it makes people think of tits and ass you know,
excuse me, you know, but I just said, well, maybe I
should drop something else other than the big leg if we're going to call it
that. It was all a joke, and Howard said it's a joke.
So I was just going along with it, okay, having fun. Yes,
sir, he actually had me laughing for a change. There you go.
When you said the thing, which were the one that said dropping the
tripod, what were you referring to? Well, you know, we were
in the context of the interview, so I as I was joking without saying
it. I was joking about, you know, my penis, That's what
I was joking about. Okay. I didn't say it because I was trying
to just end the interview and get out of there. Right, And in
that context with how with Stern and the joking and the poking of fun and
all that, that was a legitimate thing to put in that context, wasn't
it to make that kind of a joke. Well, I was just calling
me Hulk Hogan and we're keeping it in character and laughing and joking. I
just had fun with it, right, It worked. In context. Yes,
So as you said that, you weren't thinking to yourself, well,
this is highly inappropriate for me to say this, were you You weren't thinking
that well? In context? Yes, sir, Well, you know,
with what we've been talking about and him trying to die in my personal life
and separate the man from the character, it wasn't highly appropriate and context of
the whole conversation with us talking about entertaining people. Not in that context it
did bother you. No, I was way beyond that. I was bothered
about the beginning more than the ending. Well, let me ask you this.
I get what you're telling me about your go on the Howard Stern Show
and he raises these things, these sexual subjects, and there's the joking to
be had and all of that. But at times you volunteer topics, don't
you. I mean some of this you brought up right, Well, that
might have been my verbiage, but I didn't volunteer the topic of sex.
Okay, let's do this. That was the topic we were on. Pardon
that was you know. The topic we were on actually was sex and wrestling.
I didn't volunteer the sex topic to start that. He did, fair
enough, Tim, if we could look at I think it's clip your honor
D three O two F. If we could just take a look at that
video clip published just follows. I don't know, brother, I wasn't in
on it. I swear to god, I had no idea. You know,
they didn't know you were being taped, No, sir, because if
you knew we were being taped, you wouldn't be on there talking about,
Hey, I feel so fat, I just did another meal or something like
that. Right, Well, I'm not trying to be a really his ass,
but I'm going to say something I'm probably you know, probably gonna live
to regret, you know. And this thing has totally up en in my
world. But the situation I was in, I didn't want to be overly
aggressive, right because it was my friends girl, If you know what I'm
saying, Yes, yes, things you know could have been to a whole
other level. And I was trying to be cool. You know what do
you mean? I'm not getting this. He was being polite, he was
being a gentleman. Thank you, Thank you, Robin. You didn't want
a banger, no, I you know, when I wrestle guys in the
ring, guys that are my friends. I'm cool with guys that aren't my
friends. I get really, you know, much more aggressive. I don't
understand what you're saying. How Come I'm not catching on, because you know
I was. I was just trying to be Robin. What does whole COVID
mean? He was laid back. It was sort of like a like training
the pipes as opposed to a full on affair. Yeah, he who wasn't
in there doing what he really does. What you're saying is, in other
words, your performance would have been way more intense. Video clip concluded now
having that passage in mind, Yes, sir, you volunteered that topic,
didn't you. No, I didn't volunteer. He started the verbiage, and
I was talking about the topic he started. You began with that talking about
the manner in which you engaged in sex with Heather by saying, quote,
I'm going to say something I will probably regret. Then you said, I'm
not trying to come off like a pompous ass, and then you basically told
a story with the discussion with Howard and his colleague Robin, about how you
weren't as aggressive in the sex that has seen in that video as perhaps you
would be other times or otherwise, right, Yeah, I did say that,
okay, and you raise that. Howard didn't raise that, did he?
No? He Well he started the topic of sex right now in that
context, sitting there at that time, Yes, sir, you obviously thought
that was a legitimate thing to a discuss on Howard Show. Right, well,
I'd have a problem discussing it, you know, I was on his
show entertaining in character. He knew he was going to dig, you know,
take the good with the bad, you know, and I was trying
to move through the interview as best I could. When you're under that type
of heavy fire from someone that pushes you, that that hard on you,
you just you know, you're praying that you can move on, you know,
the next subject and eventually accomplish what you're there for to talk about the
show DNA. All right, fair enough, let us look. Let us
look at the final of these clips. Tim, if you could please pull
up D three zero two F video clip published as follows. Look, let
me understand what's going on. Yeah, last time you were here, let's
backtrack. You said you looked me in the eye point blank and you said,
man code, I would never break the man code. I would never
bang another guy's wife, a buddy's wife, a buddy's wife. You want
me to play the clip? Yeah? Please, Just so you know I'm
not making this up. Here we go. Clip published. Would you ever
fuck Heather? No man, law man, law bro, even if they
were divorced for ten years. Dude, you would never fuck Heather or if
I met your ex wife simply because she's wouldn't fuck max wife, No way.
I love that you won't do that. That's man law breaking. Man.
I love that you understand that you don't do that. Clip concluded,
Well, what happened, Well, I was protection mode. In protection mode,
he was lied to us. You lied to me. Well, I
had my fingers crossed, my toes were crossing the word the F word,
Yes it is. I mean I would call it a different type of word.
Well, you're still friends with Bubba, right, We're very good friends.
So Bubba, I know, can't talk about this because he has a
divorce agreement. Well, the video clip concluded, Now, how would start
asks you when you made that prior appearance? He says, you lie to
us, right, Well that's what he said, Yes, sir, Now
you weren't truthful with him before? Were you well on this show? As
we're talking on a character driven show, I did not want to talk about
Terry Beale and his personal life. What was going on with Terry Bala?
You know he's asking me, Hulk Hogan. You said you never did this,
So I basically didn't want to stir up a hornet's nest by all of
a sudden talking about the man and saying, oh, yes, I did
break the man code. You know there was there's no reason to do that,
right, And now you're telling us that you were there as Hulk Hogan.
Yes, sir, okay, So what was there? Was that another
bound for Glory tour? Because I had different clothes on? Was that the
year before? Yes? That was okay, thank you. The thing where
he asked you, I will represent to you that that was after you and
Heather had had your sexual infect But I'm asking you, is that a year
before the LA last clip was? Although actually what I'm saying was that the
bound for Glory before when I was there before. I can't give you that,
but if you would like, I will find that out and I will
give you precisely. It doesn't matter when you're on when you're on his show.
Dude, you know it's a character driven show, so you just have
the role with him. Yeah, it doesn't matter. I will represent to
you two things that it was after you had had your sexual encounters with Heather,
the point being that you had lied to Howard. Okay, but if
you want the precise date, I'll get it for you. No, that's
fine, that's fine. Okay. Now you said on that occasion, he
says you lied to us. You said, well, I was in protection
mode, right, Yes, what is protection mode? Does that entitle this
person to basically lie? Protection mode? Well? Are we talking about the
person or the character? Well, let's start with the person. Well,
you know, the person is sitting here today under oath, and I don't
lie under oath as Terry Balaya. Now as the character, we can talk
about the tripod. You know, we can talk about you know, like
I said, I body slammed elephants. You know, I'll serve on tiger
sharks and all those lies. You know, I pulled bumpers off Cadillac Jack.
You know those are all live. But that's Hulk Hogan is saying.
A character driven. So I answer your question, I was there. I
didn't want to talk about Terry Balay. At my experience on the radio,
it was, you know, if there were stills out there, I was,
you know, the media was attacking us, and I was actually using
this show, you know, to try to stop things from moving forward.
I had to talk to Howard about whatever he brought up. All right,
let me ask you something this, Terry, I get. I think I've
heard Bubba on the year. Bubba talks about being in protection mode, doesn't
he. Yeah, I think he calls it cover his ass mode. Yes,
I think he calls it cover his butt mode, cover his ass,
right, yes, okay, but in this world cover your ass protection mode,
it's the same thing, right, yes, So basically, in that
mode, it is okay to be dishonest, correct, Well, in that
mode is entertainment. In that mode, you can be a character and say
things like, you know, I fell off the top of the Empire state
building. I'm so powerful I got back up. You know. In character,
you know you have the artistic liberty to you know, go way out
there. Well, in protection mode, right sir, I take it you
can do whatever's necessary to protect yourself, right. Well, yeah, especially
when someone is trying to talk about your personal privacy and an invasion of your
privacy as Terry Bleya the man. Yeah, I protect that as Terry Balaya,
and I protect that as whole Cogan. Not wanting to talk about Terry
Balaya. But when you appear on How It's Stern, when you appeared on
all these other programs we saw yesterday, I don't know about you, but
I didn't hear Terry Boleya mentioned once? Did you? Did I hear Terry
Bala mentioned? No? I did not. Okay, Now, if we
could move forward and focus your attention back on that bound for glory, this
media tour you were doing, you were aware obviously when you were doing these
appearances, these public appearances, that Gawka had published a story on its website.
That's what's being a disgusted right. This is before the video came out.
No, sir, this is when you were doing all these public appearances
in October nine, so that Gawker had only in October tenth. Now what
I'm asking is Gawker had only published the story at this time and the video
wasn't out there yet from Gawker. No, the story is posted and it
is those brief excerpts of that video with the story October fourth, twenty twelve
is when that happens. Okay, well, you know what was your question
again and the Latin and that was this last video I saw, you know,
when I have that blue shirt on on you know you said that was
the year before. No, no, no, again, I think you're
confused on the chronology. Let me do it this way, And this is
why I came back to this. I believe you were confused yesterday and your
direct examination with mister Turkle, and you told us that Gawka posted the commentary
and four or five hours later you're doing these interviews. Do you remember that,
I think he was the video hit And then four or five hours later
I can't recall exactly, you know. All I know is that is when
the news came crashing down on us, that Gawker said we've seen the video
and Bubba's on there turning the camera. That's the first time anybody has actually
said we've seen the video and told me personally. Because other than that,
I thought they were rumors. I was praying there wasn't There wasn't one,
right, mister Balaya. We saw Mike Walter's back in March of twenty and
twelve, saying I've seen part of this video, Yes, sir, You'd
known for months that the video existed, yes, sir, And he said,
you know, he said, he said part of it. He said
he didn't know if there was a whole video. So I was just praying.
There was just a part of it, and it wasn't a whole praying
video. Then in April, this dirty publishes steals from the video, right,
yes, sir, okay, And I didn't have a problem with them
publishing the steals. That wasn't a problem right now, Well, we aggressively
went after them. We have the same season to Desist that we sent to
your clients saying that if you take the videos down, we can try to
live with it, So please season desist. But where the problem came is
when Gawker put the video up and we asked for a season to desist,
and they played it for months and months and months and months and months,
and it made so much damage we had to live with it. I see
now. Just so you know, I'm just trying to get the chronology straight.
So are you with me? I'm trying to be Okay, you said
that last video where I had the blue shirt on. So what That's what
I'm trying to say. We were talking about Bound for Glory before. Right,
here's the deal we've established. I believe that Gawker posted its piece on
October fourth, twenty twelve, right, okay, okay. Now we go
back to defendants Exhibit seventy six, which is your itinerary. Remember we looked
up at the top of the thing and it said the date was for your
Bound for Glory Tour October eighth to tenth. Right, do you make a
little bigger please? Is that twenty twelve or twenty eleven, twenty twelve,
twenty twelve? Okay? I didn't see that on on there anywhere. Bound
for Glory Tour October eight to ten, okay, okay, so this is
it is twenty twelve, right, yes, okay, cool, because I'm
sure the year before we started out with the same schedule. Two go on,
Howard Stern, right, you know? Okay, So I just want
to make sure we're on the same year because it's not on here. Tim,
If you could scroll up ever so slightly to folks so folks can see
the other way. There you go, Howard Stern right, October nine.
Do you see that? Yes? I do. I'm sorry. I still
didn't see the date. You're trying to tell me the year. I don't
see it on there, so I didn't. I was confused. I thought
it maybe the other one. Okay, you can trust me on this.
If I were misrepresenting the date, this sample collection of lawyers scaled advocates would
be jumping up and down saying, Urana, he has the date wrong.
You think. I think they're kind of maybe waiting for us to figure it
out it for ourselves. I don't know, Okay, I don't know what
they're thinking. So whire you with me. I'm trying, brother, you're
doing level best, yes, sir, I am all right? Fair enough?
Now this is simple. October nine is if we could subtract four from
nine, we have five days that passed between the time Gaucket did its post
and you appear on Howard Stern. Right. Well, yes, sir,
five days, not four or five hours, right, No, it's five
days on hours right. So my question to you is, if you had
five days you knew that tape was out there, it's hot news. Everybody's
talking about this tape. You knew when you went into those media appearances that
folks were going to be asking you about this sex tape, didn't you?
Yes, sir, okay, all right, you never you personally, Miss
Terrible lay A Hull Coogan, whichever character you personally did not tell any of
those producers on those media programs that you were going to start appearing on the
ninth of October and thereafter say to them personally, listen, I need you
to do me a courtesy and not go into all this sex tape stuff.
You didn't do that, did you. Well, it's I testify before,
No, sir, I didn't. That's the job for a publishers, not
a talent. Fair enough. We'll get to that later in the case.
But my question is simpler, and it is more precise. You personally did
not do that, did you. No, I personally did not do someone
else's job and do that. All right, Now, what we're going to
do now we're still on October nine, twenty twelve, and this is something
I know from talking with you in the past and your deposition. There has
been some confusion a little confusion about where this fits in the chronology. But
mister Bola, what I want you to focus your attention on. Is the
interview that you did with TMZ in October nine, twenty twelve. You're in
New York on the media tour. You saw it on your itinerary. You
were staying at the Park Meridian Hotel. Right, yes, sir, you're
a call that you did an interview from New York on the phone with TMZ.
Do you remember that one? Yes, sir, and you're turning mister
Houston, he too was on the phone, right, yes, sir.
Okay, he wasn't in New York though, was he? No? He
was not, No, so he's remote. He's on the phone too.
The same day that you did the interview with Howitt Stern that we've been looking
at. You did this TMZ interview. All right, now, what I'm
going to do, just so you have this presently in your mind, I'm
going to play a brief indroductory clip just so that you can kind of focus
that. Okay, Tim, please, video clip published as follows. Oh
joins us right now along with his attorney, David Houston. Guys, welcome
to TMZ Live. How are you. We're good? We're good? Are
you there, Hulk? Yeah, brother, I'm here, dude, adeo
clip concluded, mister Belaya, did you recognize your voice? I realized that
was a brief snippet, but do you recognize your voice in that recording?
Yeah? When Harvey says, Hulk, Hulk, are you there? I
go, yeah, brother, I'm here. You know I just answered him.
I recognized my voice. Okay, do you recognize mister Houston's voice on
that? I wasn't paying attention. Was his voice on there? All right,
that's fair, I'm sorry I didn't pay attention if he was on there.
Okay, what we'll do is we'll play a little more. Okay,
you'll let me know after you here, Sure, some more clips. I
didn't want to take the time, but let me know if we play a
little more. Okay, if you hear mister Houston. Okay, now we're
going to play a second clip. I would like you to focus on this.
I think this will bring to present for you. All right, sure,
okay, Tim, if you could play, please play D two seventy
B video clip published as follows. This is the end of the tape.
You leave and Bubba comes back in the room, and Heather's on the bed,
and Bubba says, I quote, if we ever do want to retire,
all we'd have to do is use this footage of him. So I
just want to get your reaction to that. I know you thought this might
be one of the tapes. I can tell you one hundred percent that is
what Bubba says when you leave the room. I didn't hear day including I
didn't hear David Houston's voice on there. No, sir no, I said
there will be other clips. Oh okay, yeah, this let me see
if I can help you out this clip we just looked at. That's the
fellow in the black T shirt. That's mister Walters again, right okay,
and he says, right, this is exactly that is the end of the
tape. You leave, and Bubba comes back in the room and Heather is
on the bed, and Bubba says, I quote, if we ever did
want to retire, all we'd have to do is use this footage of him.
So I kind of wanted your reaction to that. That's what that's Mike
Walters saying that I know you know that this may be in one of the
tapes. I can tell you one hundred percent that is what Bubba says when
you leave the room. Now, you remember learning that in October nine and
that TMZ interview, right, Yes, sir, was that the first time
that you learned that Bubba, who was a buddy, had made that statement
about retiring off of this footage the best about recollection. That's the first time
I heard it, and that's the first time it was confirmed by Mike Walters.
And I think another producer came on the phone and said I've seen it
too, because when Harvey said he didn't see it, I said, well,
then I don't believe you. So there's some kind of you know,
so there's some of the tape missing. Okay, take a look at another
segment, tim, If you could please play D two seventy d video clip
published as follows. I know that I know you know that this might be
in one of the tapes. Video clip concluded. That was pretty quick.
Sorry about that. Could you play that again? Please? Are you okay?
Do you have that? You know? It's kind of confusing, it's
so fast. I wish you could play it again. I don't really know
what you're you know, let's do it this way. Mister Walter says,
I know you know that this might be in one of the tapes. All
right, yeah, yeah, he's telling me. Yes, he's telling you
that. Now, as of when did you know that that might be in
one of the tapes? Just told me he just told you that, Yes,
sir, No, he said, I know, you know, well
I thought this maybe in one of I have no idea why he said that.
Okay, let me ask you this. Do you find this out before
the interview? Not that I can recall, because you know, when he
told me the part of all Bubba doing what Bubba did, it made me
go violently. I mean, I was this was the closest guy to me.
You know, when I realized he was on the tape, it got
a crazy reaction out of my body. So, you know, to the
first of the best of my recollection, there was the that was the first
time I heard about it. You know I heard about Bubba. Okay.
Let's because I would have probably reacted the same way if I would have heard
it before. So, mister Walters didn't give you a preview before the interview,
No, sir. You know, we came right from my interview right
to the hotel room. We were supposed to have a little break, Like
I said yesterday, I think and either David called the room or Mike Walters
called the room and said this is urgent, all right, And when TMC
said it was urgent, you said, okay, I'll do this right.
Well, I don't know what I said. I mean I said it to
David. David must have taken the call. I don't recall the exact verbiage.
Well, I really don't. It looked from us looking at you itinerary.
You had a pretty packed schedule for that tour, didn't you. Yeah,
you know, and I could have misspoke also because I'm sure they added
stuff and they might have canceled stuff too, So I mean it just it
was busy, yes, brother, it was busy. Yes. And when
TMC called, you said, well, i'll fit that in, right,
Well, I don't know if I said i'll fit them in. I just
took the call, okay. David told me to get on the phone.
You made yourself available, yes, sir, okay, fair enough. Now
you talked about you mentioned your reaction to this. You took this pretty hard,
right, Yes, I did. Okay, let's play a brief clip,
Tim if you could please play D two seventy c video clip published as
follows. Well, that's true, then I'm you know, I'm sick to
my stomach right now, video clip concluded, and that I take it that
was the truth, right if what is true that you was sick to your
stomach when you said, if that is true? Just so you know,
this follows the revelation that Bubba made these comments about it if he ever wanted
to retire. Oh, yes, sir, you know. Yeah, when
I heard that, it made me sick because then it made me realize he
actually was in on this camera that was put up there because they said that
he was turning it off when he said that. So I got sick immediately.
And I believe you've explained previously that you had a very strong reaction.
You started shaking violence. Yes, sir, you know, my attorney had
to call me and talk me down, you know, talk about it took
me about five minutes to calm me down. And you thought that you were
going to have a heart attack at that time, right yeah, I'd caught
me off guard. I never would have expected that from someone I loved and
trusted. In fact, you physically almost had a breakdown when you learned that
Bubba had betrayed you, Right, yeah, you had a tough time with
the whole situation until I figured out who he really was. And then I
once I figured out who he really was, it didn't bother me the same
because I knew he wasn't my friend and he never was, so I kind
of like had to shift gears and realize, you know, man up over
this Bubba thing, and you know, it is what it is. Now.
At least I knew who he was and I rationalized it, so it
didn't get me upset anymore, I see. But I'm focused back on the
time. You know, I've tried to do this chronologically back in October nine,
when you learned this from TMZ that Bubba had betrayed you, at that
point, that was one of the toughest things you ever had to deal with,
it, wasn't he In that moment, with everything that was going on,
I was very stressed out. And when I found out that he was
the last person left after my personal situation with my family and everything else.
When I found out that he was the last person left thinking he was still
my friend. To hear that news, yeah, it hit me pretty hard
in that in that darn moment. Okay, now we're going to return.
Ever so briefly to the program we looked at yesterday, remember the program sway
in the morning. We looked at some of those clips. Yeah, we
looked at a bunch of stuff, but it seems very familiar. Okay,
Tim, if you can please play D two three one C video clip published
as follows. Yeah, I've never had a day in my life like yesterday.
And I've been you know, my marriage, my marriage, lawsuits.
I've had people tell me I was never gonna walk again after back surgery.
I had all that stuff laid on me, and this that yesterday is finding
out what was probably the toughest and the most traumatic and just turn my world
upside down more than anything else ever has video clip concluded When you made that
statement to Sway in his views, were you being honest? Yes, sir,
I was in that moment. You know, it flipped my world upside
down. You were being truthful. Then, on top of everything I was
going on, you know, that was the icing on the cake. It
pushed me over the edge that day. In fact, Bubba's betrayal was indeed
one of the worst experiences of your life, wasn't it. You know it
was one of them, Yes, sir, and Bubba's betrayal was one of
the toughest things you've ever had to deal with, wasn't it? Yes,
sir, one of the hardest things you've ever had to deal with, wasn't
it. That was a tough day. I really had to figure out,
you know who he was fast to get over that one. All right now,
before we move on from these TMZ discussions about the sex safe, one
last thing. You never saw TMC's copy of the video that showed Bubba making
that statement. Did you the statement? If we ever wanted to retire or
all we'd have to do is use this footage? You never saw that,
did you? I know, sir, that rock your world, didn't it?
Yes, sir? And you never asked TMZ to show you the tape
that they had, did you, No, sir? All right now,
at this time, all these events are going on, there's all this focus
on the sex tape and all this talk about this. You didn't take the
position that you could not talk about the sex tape publicly. Did you?
Excuse me? Please repeat that, Yes, sir. I'm trying to get
you to focus. Now we're in the aftermap. The post has come out.
You've been on the New York media tour. Life is moving on.
You didn't take the position at that point that like, well I can't talk
about the sex tape. You didn't say that, right, No, I
didn't say that, Okay? Noah. Did you say, well, look,
this is going to be the subject of litigation. I'm going to gather
all these attorneys together and I'm going to soothe these folks, so I can't
talk about this because it's going to go to the courts. You didn't say
that, did you on to recall saying that? Okay? And in the
time, I take it, then you weren't concerned that by going out and
talking about the sex tape and what have you, that you would actually keep
the sex tape story in the news, right, Well, I was concerned.
I just didn't have a choice. No, No, we talked about
that before. You weren't concerned that talking about it would keep in the news,
were you? Well? I was concerned, But you know, it
was very It was okay to talk about it. You know, it was
okay to talk about it. We were just you know, getting barraged with
the media, and we were trying to make it go away. And but
the problem was you know, when we try to get Gawker to take it
down, they wouldn't. They wouldn't take it down. It just kept it
was just it just kept fueling this fire that just you know, it just
wouldn't stop. It was overwhelming. Okay, I see now, at the
time, the media would ask you, is it true that you were knowledgeable
that this was being filmed? Right? They would ask you that. Yeah,
They've asked me that. The media would say, is it true that
this is all just a publicity stunt so that you can make millions and millions
of dollars off of this sex tape? Right? They asked you that,
yeah, they asked me, right. And would it be fair to say
that you, for your part, were concerned that a lot of people thought
you were just doing this to make a bunch of money. Well, I
was concerned because there were people that thought I might have something to do with
this. We even had calls from Vivid Entertainment, who does all these porno
pornographic films, that that said, there's an open checkbook, will pay you
as much money as you want, you know, And if I was in
this thing to make money, there were there you know, there were all
these wrestlers, all these offers out there. I was concerned that, you
know, the the vivid guy calls and even though we're in it for the
entertainment part, you know, we said no, brother, you know,
we don't want to take money on this, so we want you know,
we don't want this happening. Brother. So I was telling I was very
concerned that people thought I did it, you know, on purpose, to
set up cameras up. I would never do that to my in my personal
life. Right. One of your concerns when you told people that you had
nothing to do with this, one of your concerns was that people would say,
oh boy, here we go, this is just another wrestling angle,
another wrestling angle. We'll Hull Coogan is trying to con us looking to make
millions of dollars or a bunch of money off this sex tape. That was
one of your concerns, wasn't it. Well, I was concerned that they
thought it may be entertainment and it's just Hule Cogan, you know, try
to make money. But that wasn't it. It wasn't about Hulk Hogan making
a sex tape. That's not what happened, all right. Uh, you
know it's never been about that. I've never had a problem with the words
that are said. Because you have to take the good with the bad,
you get hit with it. I never have had a problem with the article,
you know. My problem is is this whole the video tape that you
guys put out the lives forever, It will be there forever on the internet.
That's the problem. So it's the video, yes, sir, it's
the video excerpt brief portion. No, it's whatever. It's whatever Gawker did
that Gawka chose to put put up whatever they put up. I don't even
know, dude. And you tell us that you never had a problem with
the article that mister Delirio often well, I wasn't happy about it. Let
me let me ask you this. You sued mister you sued mister Denton,
You sued mister Delirio and Gauca, and you sued them in your initial complaint,
and you included the article. Right, Judge, objection sustained. Can
we get a curative that he's not suing on that portion? My question,
The objection is sustained, thank you. My question is a bit more precise.
When the suit was filed, it included it, I stay in the
objection. Thank you. All right. Now, let us return to something
you told all of us yesterday. You explained that when this happened, when
this went down, you were in an all time low. Right, Well
what went down? The sexual encounter with heaven? Oh? Yes, sir?
Okay, And if we could look please, I think the clip is
tim it's two D two thirty one D. If we can look at that
video published as follows. Well that so you know, that's so why you
know nobody cares about whoa is me? Because everybody they care about what now
you know? Okay, So here's where we're at, bro, I want
to come back. This is my show inaudible, Yo, this is your
show. Did you just say that we're not going to play any songs?
Did you? Did you say that let's just finish this thought brother inaudible?
Yeah, thank you? All right. So anyway, you know, so
where we're at now. As you know, at the end of the day
I did this. I wasn't on draw us. I made a choice.
But the Woe is Me story is on a personal level. You know,
dude, my life has already screwed with my situation. I was at an
all time low. These two people that I prayed to God are friends of
mine. You know, for two years they were going, Hey, you
know I want to get I want to get with you, and I want
to do this. That's that's cool. Are you talking about the threesomes or
no? No, him offering his wife to me. Did you think that
was weird? Well? I knew they partied, and I heard some stories
and his wife was was gorgeous, and she kept saying, you know,
I want to I want to get with you, I want to do this
and that and other stuff. I went to, I want to have sex
with you, but and I said no, no, no, no.
So at the end of that time, I bottomed out. You know,
I was with my big I was with my boy, you know, you
know, we we went back to the house. When I was at an
all time low. I just said the hell with it, you know,
let's let's do this thing. Video clip concluded, Okay, out That is
you on Sway's program, explaining to his listeners that when this happened, you
were at an all time low. Right, I was, yes, sir,
Okay, were you telling the truth to Sway and his listeners when you
gave that account you know, I don't remember the verbiage of you know,
let's do this thing or the whole Coogan edge I put on it, you
know, but you know, I was acknowledging what we were talking about,
so I don't know if that was the exact of verbatim truth. You know,
I know I didn't say, hey, let's let's you know, go
at it or whatever I just said, you know, that was that was
on the show. But the substance, I'm not going to hold you to
the verbiage. Well, okay, I'm trying to understand what you're what you're
saying, brother, oh hold you to the precise language. But the point
you were conveying to Sway's viewers, Yeah, yes, sir, And to
Sway, is it this happened? I was at an all time low.
I hit rock bottom? Is that true? Yes? You know, my
personal life and everything was not well at all. I was pretty much bottomed
out when I didn't think I could get back to together with my wife and
she was filing for divorce. So I take it the answer to my question
is yes, sir, that's true. Yes, sir, I'm sorry,
Yes, sir. Now you also told the story I don't mean the story
like made up, but you let me do this, let me do it
this way. You also provided an account to the viewers that said, basically,
you described how Heather was so persistent, right yes, sir, okay,
in pursuing you. Right, yeah, you know when I talked her
on the phone, that was the only thing she would ever say to me,
whether it was once a month or once a week, or whenever Bubba
would put up, you know, put her on the phone, that was
what she said to me. There was no how are you or how's the
weather? It was that. So she was persistent. Would it be fair
to say that she was relentless in this? Well, I would say persistent
is a much better word. All right. Now, So when you slept
with head that you were an all time low. This is one of the
worst periods in your life, right yes, sir, that's why you finally
gave into a persistent pressure. Right yes, sir. You can say that
wasn't the kind of thing you would normally do, right no, sir?
Never? Okay, Now, let me ask you, this was that true
each time you had sexual relations with Heather? Well, I was a tough
period there, you know, I had a real, real rough period there
where I didn't think I was going to pull the nose up on it.
Brother, I had a real, real rough period there where I didn't think
I was going to be able to pull the nose up on it. So
I would say when I was in you know, that time of my life,
during that period, I was at an all time low. And that
would include those those times I had sex with Heather. I see, now
you had sex. I think it was by your account four times, right,
three or four as I said, three or four, okay, And
what you're telling us is that you had an all time low each time.
Well, I was pretty much bottomed out during that period, yes, sir.
And you were giving into Heather's persistent pressure each time, right, Well,
I wasn't, you know, after the first time. It wasn't like
persistent pressure. It was just I was in that situation and my guard was
down. I still remember being assistant, you know, I remember persisting pressure.
You know, they kind of like broke the ice with me. So
the ice was broken, you know. It was just nothing was said like
persistently like it had been in the past for years and years. All right,
So you told us your guard was down. Yeah, yesser. How
long did you go before you were able to get your guard back up?
How long did that go? Well? As far as getting my guard back
up after the last time I had sex with Heather, I would say it
was a couple of months before I came out of that low, you know.
But but then trying to get my guard up, I just have never
been able to get my step back or feel like myself because, you know,
even trying to get my guard back up, there's just there's just been
this overriding haunting of this sex tape because Gawker put it out there. So
instead of having my guard up when I'd look at somebody and meet somebody,
or go out in public, or i'd sign you know, someone's, you
know, a kid's autograph, instead of being up with my guard, I
still felt like I was turning inside over this thing. I just haven't felt
like myself. So just you know, it changed me from I never got
my guard back up, Like you said, you know, when did you
ever get your guard back up? I never have. This is still tearing
me up with this whole you know, I never recovered from my guard up.
When from when I bottomed out before my marriage, through all the you
know, through having the sex with Heather, through this crazy sex tape being
released by Gawker. You know that I didn't know about. I haven't been
able to get back up and and and be who I was before podcast with
Lapsed Wrestling podcast. So your guard has been down since? Yeah, I'm
not the summer of two thousand and seven. I would say, yes,
sir, I don't. I'm not the same person I was before all this
craziness happened. Okay, so you've been at an all time low ever since.
I didn't say that. I didn't. I said I didn't get my
guard back up. You know, I'm trying to stay what you're talking about.
Brother, You asked me what I did get When did I get my
guard back up? You know, my guard is not up like Hulk Hogan's
guard is usually up. It's not the same. I don't have the same
guard up. Brother. Do you fear that other women are going to come
onto you and since your guard, since your guard is down, you'll succumb
to these they're wild? There is no fear of that at all. Okay,
all right, fair enough. Now what we're going to do is continuing
with our chronology. We're now going to move forward in time yet again,
and we're going to direct I'll ask you to please direct your attention to a
press conference that was held on the courthouse steps, all right now, when
you decided to initiate suit, you decided to sue, which brings us all
here together. Right you held, you and your council held a press conference,
right, yes, sir, okay, And let's just take a very
brief look, tim if you have a clip, I think it's D two
six nine D video clip published as follows, Oh Cogan, We'll take all
reasonable steps necessary to ensure that all persons and nties who were involved in this
are punished to the fullest extent of the law. Video clip concluded. Did
you see that? Yes? I did. And in that clip you see
one of your attorneys who's at the microphone and you see yourself over his shoulder,
Yes, sir, Now, video clip published as follows. I'm going
to turn this over to Attorney David Houston, who has some additional remarks.
Good afternoon, everybody. My name is David Houston, Thank you for being
here. I video clip concluded, and do you recognize your attorney David Houston.
I take it, yes, sir. All right, now, was
it your idea to hold a press conference? I will recall whose idea was.
Okay, weren't you concerned that by calling a press conference and issuing a
press release that you would only draw more attention to the Gawker story. No,
sir, that wasn't a concern of you. Was that if we didn't
do something about this, this would ramp up even more. And since Gawker
said they wouldn't take the video down, everybody else had put the video,
had put the video down, that it was fed to you or they lashed
onto and it would never stop. The bleeding would never stop. I had
to do something to try to stop Gawker from what they were doing to me.
All right, that was my concern. Okay, So you really weren't
worried that this would just increase the attention. That wasn't your concern. I
don't know how you could increase the attention more than Gawker did. All right,
let me ask you this. That's just my opinion. But they did
a pretty good job of getting it out everywhere. Let me ask you this.
When asked about your reaction to the press conference, you testified that there
weren't a lot of reporters there compared to the OJ trial. Do you remember
that testimony. I don't recall that, but it's possible I could have said
that. Okay. Would you like to see it? No, if you
want to show it to me, it's fine. But if I said it,
I said it. Okay. When you said there weren't a lot of
reporters there compared to the OJ trial, did you expect that your press conference
would draw that level of attention? Why? I do not know what to
expect. Okay, all right, now, let's shift to focus once again
and talk briefly about the privacy of Hulk Hogan. At your deposition, you
were asked if you were concerned about the privacy of Hulk Cogan right constantly deposition
please page in line number absolutely. Do you have your volume four, page
six hundred basics hundred Yes, sir, yes, sir, okay, If
you could look with me and you see the question starting at six line six,
do you see that page six hundred, line six yes. I'm sorry,
I'm just having a hard time hearing you, brother. Sorry, Look
at line six, you were asked this question question, are you concerned about
the privacy of Hulk Cogan. Answer. Hulk Cogan is a fictional character or
as a character wrestling character, and the privacy of Hulk Cogan is something that
is part of the character. So it's not a major concern when it comes
to Hulk Hogan's privacy. Do you see that? A yes, sir,
it is that kind of what you were playing explaining to us earlier. Maybe
I can maybe I can help you help me a little bit. What was
I explaining earlier? Yeah, I take it when you were telling you were
kind of telling us, well, there's Terry Balaa, there's Hulk Coogan.
Mister Balaia is different than mister Hogan and all that right, and you were
concerned. Are you concerned about Hulk Cogan's privacy? I'm concerned, but it's
pretty much take the good with the bad. You realize that when you're a
character, they're going to invade. You know what, if there was a
privacy, you know, if Hulkogan had any privacy, you kind of give
that up when you walk out the front door as character. I would have
loved to have privacy in my car on a cell phone or something, you
know, as Hulk Coogan, but you know, people take pictures and stuff
like that. I walked out, I walked out in public, and you
know, I went to a Raise game and I went to the bathroom and
everybody was calling me a Hulk Cogan, Hul Coogan. Next thing I know,
I turn around, I'm staying at the urinal and somebody is taking a
picture with picture of me. So I'm concerned about Hule Cogan's privacy, but
you kind of give it away. So it is a concern, but it
really doesn't matter anyway, because once you walk out the door, you know,
front door is Hulk Coogan. You know, your anonymity is given up,
and there's really no privacy anymore where you work in the public. So
that's what I meant by it. So if Hulk Coogan is gonna is going
to the bathroom, it really should be a private moment. But there are
people that have been taking that. I have taken advantage of it by taking
pictures of me going to the bathroom or after a wrestling match. You know,
when I'm in the shower, I've had people sink a picture of me
when Hulk Hogan in the shower. So it's a cost of doing business.
Like I was trying to explain, you have to get you give it up.
But in the privacy of your own home. I'm not Hulk Hogan,
so I don't have to worry about that and the provacy of my own home.
I'm Terry Balaya, and nobody invades my provacy in my own home or
in a private setting when I'm with my friends. So no, I understand
that as the whole Cogan characters, it is a concern, but I do
give it up. I understand that. Yes, I think you explained in
your deposition that when fans, for example, fans come up to you and
they ask you a question about your personal life, you answer the question as
the character Hulk Hogan. Right well, I try to, you know,
that's what they expect. They want to talk to Hulk Hogan brother. You
know, when the fans are asking questions, right and if the fans ask
a question about Terry Balaya's personal life, you answer and the character Hulk Hogan.
Right well, fans don't usually ask about Terry Bala and they say,
hey, Hulk, you know, how's your daughter Brook? I go,
oh, she's awesome, brother, And they don't say, hey, Terry
balleya, how's your daughter brook? And they don't ask them that context.
Like I said, when I leave my house, everyone thinks I'm Hulk Hogan.
You know, I can't remember a situation where someone's come up and said,
hey, Terry Ballet, I heard your wife got in the jet ski
accident, and you know, hey, Terry Ballea, how's your whizzle?
You know it's always Hulk Hogan. So I don't know, it doesn't happen
that way. If you can, then could look at page five fifty pardon
me, page five forty two, Way five two, Volume three, Volume
Free, Yes sir, yes, sir. Now this continues on to five
forty three. Question when you say that you were, I'm sorry, brother,
you need to tell me what line you're starting on? Line twenty.
Thank you? Okay, You see it says question all right. And when
you say that you were, it's this statement here is true for Hulk Hogan.
But you're talking about your personal life. Is that Hulk Hogan's personal life
or Terry Blaya's personal life? Answer, it's the character answering a question.
And if they ask a question about Hulk Hogan's personal life, I will answer
in character as Hulk Hogan. If they ask a question about Terry Blaya's personal
line, I will answer as the character Hulk Hogan. I never in these
things go down to Terry Bola. Do you see that? Yes, sir
okay? And is that true that when they ask you about Terry Bolia's life,
you answering character as Hulk Hogan. That's true, is it not?
Yes, as up and trying to explain to you, right. And it
is also true that you never go down to Terry Bola, not once I
leave the house, not once I leave the house. And I'm a Hulk
Hogan. You know, it's expecting me to always answer like Hulk Hogan,
such as line outside the old man mailman goes hey Hulk, I say,
hey, how are you doing? Brother? They don't, you know,
the mailman doesn't say, hey, Terry Bolia, how you doing. So
I always you'll never expect me to answer as Hulk Hogan, even if they
ask me, even if they did ask me a question about my personal life.
So whatever questions fans ask, you're going to answer as Hulk Hogan.
Yes, yes, sir okay. Now let's talk a bit. You talk
to us yesterday about emotional distress that you experienced. Do you recall that?
Yes? Now, you did not seek any medical treatment in connection with the
emotional distress you experienced, did you, No, sir, it didn't see
a doctor in connection with your emotional distress, did yet, sir? It
didn't seek psychological counseling in connection with your emotional distress. Oh, sir,
you never went to a psychiatrist in connection with your emotional distress, correct,
Oh, sir? All right. Now, you also talked to us yesterday
about professional wrestling. Do you recall that testimony? Sir? All right?
And you've explained to us that wrestling isn't fake. It's not fake, right,
it's predetermined. What's a better way to describe it? If you're just
doing a general analysis of it? Right? And I think you explained to
us that folks in the wrestling community are kind of offended when you talk about
it being fake, right, at least there was a time back in the
day when they were. Yes, Well, that second statement of yours is
correct. Okay. Now, when we say it's predetermined, that means that
the outcome of the match, we all the people involved, no going in
who's going to win? Right? Yes, sir? Okay, I think
I read somewhere where you've only been in one bout in your career where the
outcome was not predetermined. Right, I don't know if that's correct, you
know, I don't know. Look, I don't know where you've read it.
You know you said you read it somewhere. I need more detail,
you know, you need to help me more. Let me ask you this.
You're about the one you had Landre the Giant, Yes, sir,
that one you didn't know who was going to win, did you. Well,
that's one instance. Yes, that's true, Yes, sir, Okay,
you know he was in a very bad mood and we just did not
know if he was gonna let me win or not, because I couldn't have
never beaten him if he didn't let me know he was They said five hundred
twenty pounds, but he was closer like the seven hundred pound mark that night,
So if he did not want me to win, I could not have
won. You know, I kept asking Vince McMahon on even what are we
doing? You know, is it's something zop or thumbs down? You know,
Vince didn't have an answer, So I actually went the ring not knowing
if the giant was going to be kind enough to let me win. You
know, it's very nerve wracking. It was nerve wracking, very nerve wracking.
Yes, sir, I knew he wasn't happy. Let me ask you
this one last thing before we move on to another subject, this business about
professional wrestling. Let's talk about the wrestling term. I believe it's referred to
as a work woh r okay, work, Yes, sir, you're familiar
with that term, yes, I am, and I take it. A
work is when both wrestlers are in the ring and they decided they're going to
work together. They're going to get physical, right, They're going to get
as physical as they can without injuring each other. But they're working together,
right, Yes, sir. It's like dancing with someone there, you go.
It's like dancing. And like with dancing, you have someone who wants
to dance with you, right, yes, sir? Okay? And when
this like dancing, when a work is done, well, it flows quite
smoothly, doesn't it. Well, I guess you could say that. I
mean there's a lot more to it than that. Yeah, But if someone
is working together, well, you know, the match seems to be better
and everything is more fluent, you know, and it looks really really real.
If someone off two guys are good workers, two dancers that are really
good, you can tell who knows what they're doing in there. So if
you have two really good wrestlers, really good working together, it all looks
very real. Let's would that would be the hope? Yes, that would
be the goal. Well, that would be the goal, yes, sir?
Okay, Now can the term work will be used outside the ring,
outside the wrestling world. You can use it for whatever you want. You
can use it right now that however you want to use it. You know
that you're working together where the attorneys, you know, you guys are dancing
together, right, yes, sir? All right, mister Blaia. At
this point in time, you can city yourself to be a celebrity, correct,
Yes, sir, I do. After all these years. I think
I'm established and a lot of people know me. I think because of that,
they would say he's well known enough to be a celebrity by this point,
yes, sir, And hulk Hogan is a household word, correct in
my opinion it is. I prefer household world though, and I think,
as you explained in your deposition. You were on the cover of Sports Illustrated,
right, Yes, sir, you started doing talk shows and attained celebrity
status by the mid nineteen nineties. Correct, that was my opinion, Yes,
sir, I thought it took that long for me to get to that
point. Okay, and I take it you still consider yourself a celebrity today,
Yes, sir, I just told you I did. Okay. Now
I'm going to turn to the discussion we had yesterday about reality TV. Do
you recall that, yes, sir, okay, And I believe your reality
show Hogan knows Best and in the mid two thousands. You have a hard
time with dates. Sorry, yeah, all right, I think it was
two thousand and five to two thousand and seven somewhere in there. Does that
sound I believe you, Yes, sir. I don't know exactly, but
if that's what you have, I believe that. Okay, Your daughter was
on the show, right, yes, sir, your daughter Brooke, Yes,
sir? How old was she at the time, Well, the best
of my recollection, she was a teenager, maybe seventeen. Maybe I'm guessing.
I really don't know. I'm not good with dates and times and stuff
like that. You know she was younger, and your son Nick was on
the show as well, right, yeah, he would be two years younger
than Brooke. All right, what we're going to do is we're going to
take show a brief clip just to give you the introduction to the show.
If you can take a look at that, Tim, do you have that
video clip? Published as follows Linda, can you call the kids? Neck?
Mom? Where are you? Well? Where is everybody? Hogan knows?
Best video clip concluded? Okay, is that introductory portion we looked at?
I take it you recognize yourself, right, Yes, sir? You
saw your wife at the time, Linda, Yes, sir, and your
daughter Brooke, yes, sir, and your son Nick, yes, sir.
Okay, now we're going Now what we're going to do is we're gonna
take a look at a flip, Tim, if you have that, Yanna,
This is D two fifty four D video clip published as follows. Hi,
I'm Joan Ross. How are you hi? So? What brings you
here today? The last six months have just been like really bad fights.
There's just stuff, stuff erupting every day between her and I. Oh,
there is just all this unhappiness. It's kind of like Wow, you know,
it's just hard for me to understand how we got to this point.
You know, part of our argument is, you know, we both have
different levels of physicalities, and as far as the sex drive goes, you
know, I'm very attracted to her. You would I approach her. It's
hard to get a positive, reinforced response from her. It just never ever
happens. I'm just never in the mood anymore. It can just be something
that's a little bit more eased into, or something well, I don't know
how to ease into any other way. I just like need five minutes with
your magazine or something else besides going straight. Video clip concluded, You remember
the show and the discussions, yes, sir, the marriage counselor yes sir?
Okay, when you were doing this show, did you consider that was
something that was appropriate for the public to see? Yes, sir, you
know, we you know we were. It's like a clip you showed where
it's Hogan knows Best, you know, Hulk Hogan, Linda Hogan, Nick
and Brook Hogan. It wasn't Terry Balaya knows Best, and it wasn't Linda
Balaya, Terry Balaya or Nick Balaya. I think we discussed yesterday that everything
was scripted and set up. You know, they had storylines, so this
was one of the storylines that they wanted to go down. Let me ask
you this, when you did that particular episode and you showed sitting down with
the marriage counselor, did it concern you at all that the public may become
more interested in the state of your marriage? Well, I was hoping they
would become more interested in the show. That's why we were doing it.
Did it concern you at the time that the public when you discuss these kinds
of matters, that the public might become more interested in how your relationship with
your wife was going. Not that they would become more interested. No,
I mean on the show actually the final season of the show, you know,
a lot of people said it looks like you're not getting along with your
wife on camera. You know, I didn't really read into that, So
that was so normal for me to be at odds with or off camera,
you know, on camera, off camera, it just read on camera that,
you know, Hulk Hogan and Linda Hogan aren't getting along. You know,
sometimes already imitates life and to be in that situation where whether at the
dog massage or or the beach, or a psychiatrist or the marriage counsel you
know, you know, it's Hogan knows best. You know. I think
if we had been in there as Terry and Linda Balaya, we might have
really gotten into some serious private details. And if it was a private marriage
counselor to really save our marriage, I think it would have been a lot
different than what we saw just there right now. So I take it what
you're telling me. It really wasn't a concern of mine, right What are
you asking me now by showing this on the show, showing the marriage counseling
and all that, you really weren't concerned. No, sera was not.
You know, we had so much stuff so far out there with the show.
That was just another beat. They'll forget that episode in the next episode
they'll watch. So it was just just storylines, you know. I didn't
go, oh, my gosh, you know, we're gonna do some character
driven piece that the producers want us to do that's gonna make things worse or
make people you know, I wasn't thinking of that. I was thinking of,
let's do the show and get a good scene in here. Do the
show get a good scene. Yeah, that's what you're doing. You know,
you're a pro. You're on camera and they usually tell you exactly what
they want out of the scene. So we wanted that drama intention. I'm
sure, Tim, if we could look, please at clip D two fifty
four Crana video clip published as follow us Linda, Yes, today's my wish
day. I hope you're ready. I'm sitting down here. I'm ready.
Why don't you come upstairs? You know I'll be up in a few minutes.
All right, love you by, love you too. She's in for
a surprise. Video clip concluded saw that clip, Yeah, I saw,
I saw it you sir? Did you can see that to be invasive of
your privacy? Well, no, sir. Once again, we were all
we were all here. We are filling a TV show, you know,
and whether it's in the wrestling ring and someone pulls my trunks down or I
pulled Rick Flair's trunks down, you know, there's certain artistic liberties when you're
in character, you know, and if the producers are asking you to shoot
a scene, you know, it's pretty acceptable when you're filming a TV show.
So you weren't embarrassed there being depicted on National TV sitting on the commode
with the trousers around jankles. Right, you weren't embarrassed. Well, I'm
not going to say I wasn't embarrassed. It's just, you know, it
is humbling to be seen like that. But it's part of the show.
So it's part of the deal, the good with the bad of being an
entertainer. I see. And I take it you a comfortable having that depicted
on your reality TV show that you thought this was something that was appropriate for
the public to see. Well, you know for TV fourteen or the ratings
say that the rating system has said that this was acceptable programming for that time
slot. Yes, sir, my question, as you thought it was appropriate
for the public to see, right, Well, I never thought about it
that way. I just thought it was okay that they were just going to
get out a side shot at the cheek of my rear end on a toilet.
It'd be funny and a sound effection. They put a farting sound effect
in there. It was tongue in cheek. You have to take it for
what it's worth. When you're being entertained. It was humorous. I take
it, Yes, sir, you thought it was humorous. It's kind of
funny when they put the sound effect in. Yes, and I take it
to strike that. Just to wrap up on the reality TV business, after
your show, Hogan Knows Best went off the air, VH one came out
with a new series, Brooke Knows Best. Correct, Yes, sir,
And your daughter was the star of that show. Yes, sir, you
appeared on it. Correct. Yes, sir. All right, let me
see if we can wrap up your mister boulay up, I would like you
to direct your attention to defendants Exhibit sixty eight. Do you see that there,
Yes, sir, I do. And that is your book, My
Life Outside the Ring? Correct, Yes, sir. And this book,
Hull Coogan My Life Outside the Ring was co authored. You co authored this
with Mark Digistino. Correct. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by co
authored. You know, I told the story to Mark Agostino, and he
wrote the story. So I don't know if I've got a credit as a
co author, because I'm not sure I've never seen it, or if I
saw it, I don't remember it, you know. But I told him
the story about Hulk Hogan My Life Outside the Ring. I told him the
story, and he wrote the story. He was the author of it.
Is what I'm trying to say. This is your second book, right,
yes, sir, Now, you wrote this book because your life was moving
forward and you thought there was interesting stuff going on. Right for several reasons,
My life was moving forward. I got a chance to explain what was
going on in Hulk Hogan's life, you know. And I have the opportune
opportunity to make some money off of book because there are interesting things going on
in my life. So there was an upside that if the book was popular
and sold, it would help bring in revenue. And you did think there
were interesting things that you chose to share with the public in this book,
right, yes, sir, Now, I take it when you wrote the
book, you hope that folks raids and what have you would find this to
be an interesting book and they would buy it. Right well, I was
hoping the way the book was written, it'd be compelling and interesting and exciting
and entertaining and they would be interested in it. Okay. Now, one
of the things you chose to include in your book was an account of the
affair you had with Christiane Plant correct, Yes, sir, If we can
look please at page one eighty five and one eighty six of your book.
You'll see the text will appear here. See where it says one of those
handlers the record company brought in, and we're referring to handlers for your daughter
Brook. Yes, sir, so one of those handlers the record company brought
in for Brooke was a woman named Christiane Plant. Yes, sir, Christian,
I said, yes, sir. Christiane was so great with Brookes.
She did everything she could to look after her, and I loved seeing someone
take care of my daughter that way. She was just so positive and caring.
She was thirty four, but she and Brooke became really close, almost
like best friends in a way. Do you see that? Yes, sir.
Now, if we continue on, you see the passage starting next thing,
I know this is the last paragraph on one eighty seven. Okay,
there, If you could direct your attention there, and if you could look
at that, the next thing, I know, the two of us started
kissing. Not to sound perverted or anything, but it was fantastic. Here
I am in my mid fifties. Here, I am in my fifties now,
and this was a really attractive thirty four year old woman with dark hair
and a curvacious body, and just to have some affection, genuine caring mixed
in with that physical attraction. It felt good. It was such an emotional
and physical release. We didn't have sex that night, but it opened the
door. Over the course of the next two months we did have sex,
maybe five different times. That was it. Do you see that, Yes,
sir, I do see that now. I take it you felt comfortable
at the time you did your book sharing that with the public, right,
yes, sir, And I take it this as kind of part of the
interesting stuff that you hoped, interesting stuff going on in your life that you
hoped folks would find worth reading about. Right, it is part of the
stuff going on in my life, yes, sir. Okay. Now,
as events were to unfold, it looks like you were right about that,
as you report in your book. If we could look, please page two
fifty three, three paragraphs up from the bottom. You'll see the passage there.
So on February twenty eight, brother, if you would okay, if
if if you would read starting there please so. On February twenty eighth,
my affair with Christian Plant became national news. I don't think there's a blog
or entertainment show in America that didn't run with the story of Hulk Hogan cheating
on his wife. Do you see that? Yes, sir, Now that
was true, wasn't it. What was true? The whole thing about the
business with the affair with Christian Plant that became big news, didn't it.
Well, yeah, that was true, sir, widely reported. Right I
can't hear you. I'm sorry what widely reported? Yes, yes, sir,
yes, sir. Now, before we move on from this book,
there are other deeply personal things in your book, aren't there. Well,
I'm definitely sure that there are, Okay, and you're comfortable sharing notes with
the public, right, yes, sir? All right. Lastly, if
we could ask you to direct your attention Exhibits seventy defend its Exhibit seventy.
If we could pull up the cover of that book. Now you remember that
book, yes, sir? Okay, and this one you co authored with
Michael Jan Friedman. Correct, Yes, sir, And this was your first
book, yes, sir, and you reviewed it before it was published.
I take it. Yeah, you know, I told once again, I
told the story to whoever that writer was. You just said, well,
then there was an extra step after that. You know, I was working
for the w TOW at the time, and then they had their people go
through it and change stuff too, so soon as it was you know,
this book was different than the other one. This was released through the WWE.
So I told the story, you know, the writer wrote my story,
whatever parts you want or write of the story, and then w E
changed it and did what they wanted to it. So there was like an
extra process with this book. Okay, what we're going to do is we're
going to shift our focus one last time and we're going to talk about a
different subject. What we're going to do is we're going to look briefly as
an excerpt from an appearance you did in October twenty it's two thousand and six
on Bubba's show, So if you could focus on that period of time,
we'll look at clip D two forty two C. Video clip published as follows.
Hello, Hello, Hoodie, what are you doing? We're just giving
me We're just doing a Brent intervention right now. Oh yeah, who's who's
Brent interventioning? Brent? I think Hoodie is in the same condition you were
last Friday. I love Hoodie, Hoodie, what what are you running right
now? What are you running? Deep? Well, I can't tell you.
Video clip concluded, mister Belaya, Do you recognize your voice in that
clip? Yes, sir, I do. And do you recognize Babba La
Love Sponge's voice on that program? Yes? I do, and I take
it this is one of those occasions you told us about where you appeared by
telephone or can you tell sounds like it? I mean, I mean,
yeah, it sounds like it. I really don't know if I was sitting
there on the phone or acting like I was on the phone, you could
have been all the above, he refers. I believe he refers to you
as Hoodie, right, Yes, sir? Was that one of his nicknames
for you? Yeah? One who was teasing me? And that was a
name of his dog. He called me Hugh. He just to rile me
up, or I'd say to him, you know, I'd say to him
to rile him up. Tim, If you could play the next clip,
which is D two forty two, a video clip published as follows, All
right, how about how about people have emailed how big is your penis?
Man? You guys got you guys are brez, You guys are brothers.
You guys are bres I mean, is it over? Well, you tell
them, you tell all your fans right now, you'll keep brooking number one
while her record releases sold Tuesday all through the week, and I'll tell you
how big the Locknest Monster is, how big a cock is? So that's
the fans motivation. Yeah, Jimmy, we gotta get voting and we gotta
buy this record. That's fine, Bubba. Let's let's see you talk smack
to your your cult followers, Hogan. I talk so much smack to them.
Look what I've done. Well, if you want to see how big
the Locknest Monster is, you better talk some turkey prodible. I've seen it
before. I know how big it is. Shoot everybody at VH one seen
two. Yeah, exactly, and they called me king. Try exactly.
I would say, hard, you're probably seven and a half or eight inches.
Shit, No, that's what I'm saying. Well, dude, I
got sized fifteen feet. I wear a size fifteen ring on my wedding ring.
Figure it out. Well, you ain't got a fifteen inch cock,
Hogan. Well, it's about two thirds of size of your feet in your
hands. Jag Off, Wow, what's sixty six percent fifteen Brett ten?
What the fuck? I mean? What? What? What is? What
is five times three? So you're saying now Ned said you're right at ten?
Well Ned should know felt it felt like ten. So you're you're claiming,
you're claiming to maybe have a ten inch cock. I'm not claiming those
are the facts. Jack Clip concluded, Yes, sir, having listened to
that, I take it that as you telling Bubba's radio audience that if they
will keep your daughter Brooke, if they will keep Brooks record at number one,
you would tell them exactly how big your penis is. Right. I
didn't hear that part. I heard a lot of stuff, but you're solvid,
I could really hear you didn't hear that. I was trying to understand
the words, but it sounds like it's ecoly. Would you like to hear
it again? Sure, but you have to tell me because I can't understand
what's being said. You don't tell me words said so I can really listen
for it? All right, you'renna. Can we play it again? Do
we have to? Because someone just tell me what was said? Do you
have a transcribed We don't have a transport. You let me ask you this.
Do you have a recollection of going on Bubba's show about the time that
your dada's record was released? Do you have a recollection of working to help
promote Brooks record? Yes, sir, I do, I sure do.
And do you have a recollection of working to do that with the assistance of
Bubba the Love Sponge clem, Yes, sir, I do. We touched
on that yesterday, didn't we. Oh. I'm pretty sure how Bubba would
help you out on things? I asked you, Yes, sir, did
he help out you out promoting brookes career? Yes, sir. And now
did you hear the portion of the discussion about the length of your penis?
Did you hear that's part? Well, yes, sir. You know I
heard a lot of it where he said, you know, who do you
this? That? And the other? You know, I heard myself say
brez, which is a wrestling term because I'm you know, because I was
a whole Hogan. You know, Brez means brazoodle, all right, you
know when they're talking. I said, oh yo, that's brez brezootle.
You know. Then I did hear size fifteen inch shoe, fifteen ring?
I heard two thirds, and then I heard nine or ten inches, and
so I heard a lot of stuff. I just didn't hear that other part.
It was inaudible. Yeah, did you hear the discussion about the length
of your penis? Yeah, I heard a lot of it. I don't
know if I heard the whole thing because I couldn't understand everything, you know,
but I did hear numbers talked. I heard two thirds, and I
compared to hands and feet and you know, figure it out. I heard
that part. Did you let me ask you this? Just let's see if
we could simplify this. Do you have any doubt as you sit in that
witness stand that you were discussing the length of your penis on Bubba's radio program?
Any doubt? Yeah, well it's not mine because mine isn't that size.
But we were discussing the length of Hulk Hogans seriously, so you weren't
discussing No, no, seriously, I do not have a ten inch penis.
No I do not, seriously fair enough, So what you're telling you
believe that seriously is you were discussing Hulk Hogan's penis. Right, excuse me,
you were discussing Hulk Hogan's penis. Yes, because you know, Terry
ballet is penis is not Yeah, because Siri, ballet is penis is not
ten inches like you're trying to say. I take it. When that discussion
was being had over the radio in this community, you didn't think that that
was invasive of your privacy, right, my privacy, Yes, Sir,
Terry Balaya or Hulk Hogan. Well, we talked about Hulk Hogan several times.
You know, I need to get you know, make you understand this
that Hulk Hogan gave up his privacy the moment he walked out its front door
and became a celebrity and anonymity. So I don't like talking about Hulk and
his penis, but I've already tried to explain to you I gave him my
right as Hulk Hogan to have Hulk Hogan have any privacy. I don't know
how much clear I can make that to you. I'll do whatever I can
to help you, but you know, I don't know what else you know
to say to make you understand that. So fair enough, you're doing the
best you can right to help you, Yes, sir, okay brother,
Now, shortly after you appeared on Bubba's show. Doing this business about the
length of the penis right. If we move forward in time again, let's
look at an appearance you did on how It's Stern. All right, you
appeared on Howard Stern in the fall of two thousand and six, your reality
TV show was on at the time. And again this is focused around the
time where your daughter Brooke released her album, released her music. Did you
know which album that would be two thousand and six? Which when did she
release in two thousand and six? I mean she released two or three albums
during that time in two thousand and six, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I mean there was one roup before that she already had done that she had
done on her own, you know then that wasn't really released right until the
first one with Cecil Barker and Soby Records, And there were all a couple
back to back during that time period. Well, let's see if this helps
you. If you can play the introductory clip from Defendants Exhibit two ninety nine,
this may help you as well. Mister Palaya. Your appearance when you
went on Howard Stern was on October twenty third to two thousand and six,
and you appeared with members of your family. Let's take a look at that.
Well, it was a different subject video clip published as follows nice outfit,
baby, Well, let's an outfit. You know how to dress?
You allow her to wear that? I look great? You know, Nick,
you know how to dress too, Hulk? How you doing? Brother?
What's up? Hulk? How are you doing? Hey? Guys?
And uh, you look good? Video clip concluded. So that is October
twenty third, two thousand and six. Yes, sir, Now do you
recognize yourself in that video clip of the how its sterns show? Yes?
Or I do? And do you recognize your wife at the time Linda?
Yes? Or I Do you recognize your daughter Brooke? I take it?
Yes or I do? And lastly you said Nick you recognize him as well?
Yes, sir? Now if we could look at the next clip,
which is a D two nine video clip published as follows have you is that
as far as you've gone with guys? Is kissing? Could I leave?
No? No? You can hear this, gome on, Okay, I
haven't had sex, right, I'm not going to tell like you guys.
All I've done is kiss guys like I've made out with guys and stuff.
So they felt you up, Howard, Please, my legs are sweating,
all right. So you're saying third bases as far as you've probably like second
or third. How did that happen though? Under your father's watchful eye?
Well? Where did you get to third base? Where were you? I
had a boyfriend and stuff? Good god? Yeah, but how did she
get to third base under the watchful eye of Hulk Hogan? Did you have
that on video? Hug? Video clip concluded? Now you saw that clip,
you saw that discussion again and how it's Stern? Yes, sir,
did you consider that to be an invasion of Brooks privacy? Your daughter Brook
you know, as her on the show doing a publicity tour my family,
knowing that we're going on there as the Hogan family. It's almost like Hulk
Hogan giving up his privacy. You know it is for me. It's hard
to watch with my children because it's invasive, because Howard Stern was trying to
get go to Brook Balaia and find out personally. So Brooke to me looked
embarrassed, even as Brooke Hogan because she hasn't been around the media as long
as I have with getting embarrassed. You know, I've had more experienced getting
embarrassed with tough questions and funny things, so it didn't look like she was
embarras. You know. There was a little bit of a conflict with me
because I kind of know personally, you know, what was going on as
compared to what she was saying a relationship was with boys. You know,
I have a little bit different opinion of that. So I take excuse me,
I take it that you thought sitting there that that was something that was
appropriate for public discussion. Right, Well, we understood we were going on
Howard's turn as a Hogan family. We knew he was going to talk about
sex and stuff. So that's part of the deal. You have to say,
that's part of the public consumption that they come along with doing a media
tour, you know, So it was okay to do as a Hogan family,
right, And what you're telling us is, in that context, it
was okay for public discussion. You were comfortable with her with that talk about
her experiences as Brooke Hogan, and for her to get through a really tough
interview with a really tough interviewer, you know, she did the best she
could it. It's tough for me to watch my kid trying to protect herself
as Brook Hogan when Howard's frying away, trying to get some real personal issues.
If we could look at the next clip him, if you could please
play D two ninety ninety video clip published as follows. That is an awesome
outfit, Brook, hold on to inaudible. Now, that is a mini
skirt in a little What is that? Brook? How do you describe that
outfit? I don't know. It's like a vest with a bron hunder it.
Do you get nervous performing or have you been doing it so much?
My heart's actually beat it a little bit because I'm performing in front of Howard
Stern. Right now, let me tell you something, your future husband.
That's right. It's like Marilyn Monroe performing in front of the president and happy
birthday to you. I would love to take your virginity. Wow? I
would. I mean I've never had I've never been with a virgin. Wow.
He wants to inaudible her hour She's right, high dude. Video clip
concluded, mister Balaya, do you consider that to be something appropriate for public
discussion? Well, it's part of the Howard Stern Show, so yes,
it goes along with the territory. Okay, And what did you mean when
you said before your daughter, Howard said he would like to take her virginity
and you said, referring to Brooke, that she is the right height objection,
judge, relevance, maybe you approach yes at the bench. How much
longer do you intend to go anyway about? I think I've got one more
video clip and I'll just give your heads up. It's another Howard's stern,
So it's video. It's just for its appearance and to hear a talk about
that. Our ratio is more that they had you issue a curative instruction yesterday
to tell this jury he couldn't seek to testify about damages associated with his family,
and they just opened the door wide open. They've just played clips of
his family that have absolutely no relevance to this man's privacy in this case.
And you can turn around and instruct the jury that they're not to consider him
being upset over his family knowing about this when they just brought them front in
center. That was the relevance judge. My bottom line is you don't get
it both ways. They want this limiting instruction. They don't want to have
him talk even implicitly by slight inference about the impact this sex tape had on
his relationship with his family. But they come up here and ask him questions
about whether his daughter somehow was waiving her privacy rights because she was on a
show to sing a song. It creates a horrifically confusing impression in front of
the jury. Frankly, Judge, they've opened the door to it at this
point, not at all, Urana. It goes to the question of public
concern. It goes to the question of his damages and his notion of what
privacy is all about. And he has a thick skin when he talks about
his damages. He's going to get up there, He's going to testify about
the way the question regarding his feelings regarding the vigidity aspect, that objection is
sustained. So do you have any other questions regarding that clip? No,
that was the last question. Okay, So how much I'm trying to get
the luncheon time? That was my question. I don't know how much more
cross you have or do we break for luncheon come back? I can't speak
for him, Judge, I know I'm asking him. He kind of looked
at me. I have one more clip, I know, but I don't
know how much longer. It's ten minutes. Then are you finished with your
cross? Yes, ma'am, Yes, okay, I'll do it however you
would like. Let's talk about the clip is in cases an objection, your
honor. This is in regards the next one or the last one. If
the judge has sustained the objection, we're just going to move on. The
next clip is Howard Stern moving forward in time. It's Howard Stern and he
appears with Jennifer. Thank you. He appears with Jennifer, and we have
a couple of clips from that, and they again he talks about the size
of his Penis that kind of thing? Is that the only thing You're going
to have? No conversation or statements from Jennifer. Well, she's doing the
talking. It's the same problem. They can't slam a door on him saying
he can't talk about his damage is associated with his family, and then bring
in clips of his family. They can't have their cake and eat it too,
judge. I think that is fair game. He's sitting there talking with
her about what size condoms he wears. A week brother dude, they talk
about we can try, we can try at the luncheon recess to recut the
clips. So it's just him. He's sitting there with his bride and he's
talking about these things in all manner. He has every right at that point
if that's their argument, how they want to address his thick skin to discuss
about whether that thick skin was penetrated and concerned when this sex tape went out
about the impact on those relationships. It's completely opened the door to I'm not
going to tell them how to argue their case, but if that's how they
want to approach telling the jury that he waives privacy, then he should have
every entitlement in the world to discuss that. Judge, the objection is I
understand out of the plaintiff is one relevancy and two that it's opening the door
against the stipulation where you all had agreed to those damages aspect. Yes,
on that basis, I'll sustained objection. I'll move on. Great, thank
you. So you're just going to wrap up, then, can I confer
so everybody is clear, has there been any for redirect Is there any limit
in opening the door in that topic? Given that you sustained our objection.
Well, because the one there was the let's say one and a half video
with the family, because I sustained the objection, but the video was played,
So I think it's fair for there to be limited. We're direct about
that, but limited, keeping in mind the stipulation that y'all had as to
damages. Can I have the court's approval to be able to instruct my client
on the lunch break the extent to which you can talk to it. Yes.
Finally, Judge, I assume we're going to break after his cross because
redirect will be about thirty minutes. Yes, thank you, Thank you,
an open chord, missus Ollivan, anything additional, no, ma'am, mister
Balaia, I appreciate your attention. Thank you. All right, so,
thank you very much. We are now going to break for lunch and we're
going to come back and we'll continue with mister Blaya on redirect. By the
Planiff, I'm going to ask everybody to come back at one thirty. Please
remember the instructions. The jury exited the courtroom at twelve fifteen pm one thirty.
Yes, lunch and recess taken at twelve fifteen pm. Court called to
order at one thirty two pm afternoon. Everybody please be seated. Is there
anything to work out prior to the jury. We have one preliminary matter to
discuss very briefly, Thank you, your honor. I will speak for the
defense. Excuse me for the arms crossed. I seem to be freezing in
the courtroom for some reason. I did want to just reel briefly revisit the
not revisit, but ask for a clarification or a little guidance on the ruling
that you made at the bench when opposing council asked about the door being open,
and we chatted for just a few moments, and I really just wanted
to be double checked with the court because we don't want to be jumping up
at the bench when the jury is here and all that kind of stuff.
So our concern was the scope of whatever discussion will be had on redirect.
And I understand you to say that any inquiry that they may make now on
redirect will be very limited. And so my understanding of that, and that's
why I said it real quickly, is the testimony was simply relating to not
even testimony. It was a video that was presented of the family, the
limited video of the family on the Howard Stern program, And as we explained,
we were introducing that because that's relevant to the plaintiff's understanding, this line
between public and private and him bringing his family on the Howard Stern Show and
their private lives being made public like that. That was that was our relevance.
And when you sustained your objection, we stopped there and we didn't introduce
anything else. Then there was the question, and this is what confused me.
And you know, my mind starts wandering. It's my job here.
Right when they asked about the door being opened and then being allowed inquiry and
you said that it would be very narrowly limited, I was hoping you could
give us some guidance now so we can avoid any possible concerns during redirect.
I think right after that, I said, mister Turkle said you were all
going to be going to talk during the lunch break, and so I don't
know what's happened. So I don't know what it is that they plan on
what I what I told them before. She basically reiterated the entire speech we
had at the bench was that I'm not going to ask my client any questions
about that unredirect, So all right, that doesn't seem to be an issue.
Then they wanted to do this, so okay, I must have misunderstood
my I thought he was going back to the stip lation, and I understood
that plaintiffs counsel said he would be asking about their emotional distress from the videotape.
Our concern is more than that. It is also the fact that we
were stopped at that point. Okay, great, thank you, and Judge,
thank you. So let's go ahead and bring the jury in to be
extremely clear, so the court knows. Judge everybody was told, I'm not
asking him any questions about it. If it comes up later, we will
deal with it then. Okay. Wrestling podcast with Jack in Sorrow's Lapsed Fan
Wrestling Podcast. The jury returned to the courtroom at one thirty six pm.
Okay, thank you all very much. Everybody could be seated. Hopefully you
had a nice lunch. All right. So where we left off at the
end was mister Sullivan had finished his cross examination and now mister Turkle will put
mister Balai on redirect. Mister Turkle, thank you, mate. Please the
court redirect examination by mister Turcle mister Balaa, I have a few follow up
questions for you Roller. In this time period, you were in New York
between the or around the press tour you had mentioned, and mister Sullivan had
shown you his TMC interview where you find out that Bubba makes these comments on
the tape. Do you recall seeing that video where Bubba makes comments on the
tape, the comments about retirement, and yeah, I saw the TMZ video
in court today, right, yes, sir, all right, how many
days before that TMC interview did you find out that Gaker had published the sex
video? Well, best of my recollection is before I went on the publicity
tour, You'll be a four or five maybe a week. But when I
found out about the sex tape, I was just desponding. Yeah, I
was just you know, everyone was trying to talk me into a knock going
on the tour, but I just you know, it was before the tour
a week maybe or four or five days. And that's what I was going
to ask you. You mentioned and I don't know if the jury picked it
up in the long answer, that hearing about the Bubba thing was icing on
the cake. Would you explain what you meant by that it was, I
mean icing on the cake, because when the video came out, it was
just totally flip my world upside down, and you know, I just remember
going days without being able to sleep, you know, just it was a
situation where all this media stuff was affecting my personal life where I I just
had a hard time functioning or eating or anything like that. You know,
I just function on autopilot. It was just a constant barrage, whether I
was outside or going to the store or anything. Instead of you know,
saying hello, Hulk, how are you doing, It's like, Hulk,
you know we heard about the sex tape? Or Hulk did you make the
sex tape? Or Hulk did you you know are you part of the sex
tape? Or good job, Hulk, We love the sex tape. Brother.
So everything changed in my life from that point on when it flipped my
world, you know, completely upside down, and I had a really hard
time just functioning, you know, in my house. After I left my
house, my whole life changed. And then you know, when what I
was referring to is I hically on the cake. I was confiding in Bubba
during that time that, you know, when that tape was out and I
was like, it's down as far as I could totally go because of the
tape being out and trying to you know, and Bubba saying, I'm not
I'm gonna fight this thing with you. I'm your best friend. I'm a
lawyer. You know, Heather did it. You know, I was believing
in Bubba, and even though I was really down, he was my only
hope. I was hanging onto that. And then when I found out Bubba
on that day released the tape, it was just icing on the cake.
You know. Then there was a little shift that lasted for a couple of
days or so. I hadn't regroup and rationalizing this guy's not my friend.
And you know, it was still has been the same with my life being
flipped upside down as of you. I mean even yesterday I walked out of
the courtroom. You know, first thing, Hey yah, good luck on
the sex tape. I mean, before all that has happened, that was
never mentioned to me, that was never constantly thrown in my face, That
was never a twenty four hour a day thought that people had. And it's
still the same, it's worse I mean, you would talk to the jury
during direct about the difficult times in the two thousand and seven, but by
two twelve, had you done as much as you could to kind of regroup
in life? Well, you know, move forward. I met my new
wife, Jennifer, and I was doing everything I could to try to get
on my feet, you know, and you know, knowing that my past
life and everything that was going on here is a fresh new start. And
I met Jennifer and she was very spiritual, very aware, you know,
didn't read the newspaper or anything like that. So I had this new situation
where I was in a great relationship and I thought I had everything behind me.
And then when this sex tape hit, you know, my whole world
went upside down and everything changed from my personal life to life on the street.
And it's just you know, I thought I had my eye together again,
you know, I was moving forward, and this tape totally sabotaged me
again. It derailed me. Brother. Let me ask you, Mister Sullivan
asked you to tell the jury whether you went to see any doctors or counselors
or sought treatment for physical elements. But did it affect you physically? Yes,
or it did. Could you tell them how well? I mean,
not being able to eat, not being able to sleep, constantly thinking about
it twenty four hours a day. You know, saw something you can walk
away from you is something that sticks with you. And just my demeanor,
I just like I was turned inside. You know, That's the only thing
I can really describe it is it felt like I was turned inside. So
if I was a meeting a fan or building, a meeting a kid or
whatever, I felt like, you know, I was so used to protecting
these kids and being honest with them and telling them to do good and you
know, be cool and eat fruit or train so your proteins, your vitamins,
such a positive thought that I felt like if I try to talk to
anybody, especially the kids, but there was this aura around me that I
just felt like I was exposed and I couldn't say the right thing to these
kids and tell them the right thing to do, or people without them thinking,
oh my god, you know he's involved in a sex tape, and
just you know, it's just costly on my mind. And it's just like
this overhanging cloud that will not lighten up, because that is the topping that's
on everyone's mind. The sex tape that they put out the TNA, the
Bound for Glory tour had been booked based on your recollection, how far it
advanced of October fourth? Oh? Usually, you know you have to book
the things at least a couple of months in advance, so that would be
a couple of months for sure. Was there discussion about canceling the tour?
Yes? Or there was? Did you agree to cancel it? No,
sir, I thought we should do, you know, I felt that I
should move forward and not hide from this. Who was Jules Workman? Would
you tell the jury who Jules Workman is? Well? Jules Warman at the
time was a publicist that worked with for TNA, that set up all these
interviews and talk to all the producers and handled the publicity tour. So when
mister Sullivan asked you all these questions about whether you talk to Howard Stern or
the TMC guys beforehand about staying off this topic, and you kept referring to
a publicist, would that have been the person who you were referring to for
this particular tour, Yes? Or it would And you mentioned the word protocol.
Do you ever handle that part of it, No, sir, any
do not sex tape? No sex tape. When you're on a media tour
for wrestling, do you ever handle that part of it? No, sir.
We're going to show some of the Howard Stern clip that was cut off
where you were asked a question and then there is no answer. It's got
a couple of things timing wise for the jury. Was the Howard sterns show
that you were on on the b for Glory tour before or after you had
the discussion with TMZ? Oh, could you please restate that when you went
on the Howard Stern for Bound for Glory? Was that before you had this
discussion with TMZ where they talked about Bubba and all that stuff we saw,
Well, there's a call before where I was talked about. Were you on
Stern before that? Do you remember the itinerary? I'm sorry, I'm going
to confuse that question. I'm sorry. Sure when you go on the Stern
show, Yes, sir, you're in the aqua blue shirt. We're going
to show you. Do you recall if that interview, yes, occurred before
you had the TMZ phone call and all that. Oh no, no,
no, no, no no no. I went on I went on Howard
Stern. I was actually defending Bubba at that time, and I'll say,
you know, there's no way you know this tape that Gawker release, you
know, Bubba would never do that. And I take it from that that
was before you had heard from TMZ the Stern Show. Yeah, that day,
Yes, sir, that that day. Why you know, the jury
has gotten to see a little bit bits and pieces of Howard Stern and some
of these these more graphic shows. But could you tell them whether Howard Stern
when you're doing a wrestling tour is an important show to you. Well,
yeah, Howard Stern is very important because, like I said before, if
you go on the Howard Stern Show, it opens up opportunities to get on
other shows, especially as a wrestler, because a lot of news shows and
a lot of entertainment shows. Sometimes like Jay Leno or something like that might
say, oh, you know, I don't want a wrestler to on there,
you know, but Howard Stern kind of changes the game for you if
you get on Howard Stern, and that kind of like makes you more important
than if you don't get on Howard Stern. Does this, does his demographic
matchup with the demographic you're trying to reach as a wrestler across the board.
Yes, sir, you know it's Middle America, NASCAR male's eighteen to fifty
five. That's a perfect demo for wrestling. I want to show you now,
we're going to show that video. If you remember, undirect mister Sullivan
played you like a question and then there was some courtroom stuff going on.
I want to show the answer in part of that video there if we could
pull that up. I think this is defense three O two B. Is
that correct? A video clip? It's played in open court as follows,
showing the tape in a way I will represent to you. Yeah, it
makes you look like a guy. I mean, you look well, you
look physically man, you look good. Well, you know that's part of
it. Screaming about your big thick cop that's true. I mean, dude,
if I was in the tape, that girl would be like, when
are you going to put it in? And you come up like a stud.
Honest to god, are you kidding of me? Do you think it
came off that and that tape? I mean, let's analyze quite honestly,
you know, honestly, Yeah, how do you pull Yeah, I've seen
probably about fifteen seconds of it, because all right, well I've seen the
video why so you know it's so it got me so sick to my stomach,
in my chest. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
I'm telling you, dude. It was totally turned my life upside down.
But do you video clip concluded? If you could, could you bring
that back up for me? Please? Just a steal shot so we can
take a look. It's right there. Have you had a chance in this
trial. You've seen these tapes, right, How did your face look?
How did you feel right there that day? Well? I was you know
that day, I was on autopilot and I was devastated. I was I
was just overwhelmed in up to New York with a tape out. It was
like it was like I was numb. It was almost like it was not
really happening. You know. It's just I couldn't get by a moment of
the day without you know, someone bringing it up. Were you tired?
I had to slept. I was very tired. I want to you can
take that down now, judge. I want to shift gears to this book
they talked about had mister Sullivan asked you questions about the affair with Christian Plant.
I think it is at the time the book was written. Had that
already been put out in the news? Yes, sir, I think mister
Sullivan asked you questions about the Inquirer. Had the Inquirer already published a story
about this? Yes, sir. Was there anything in your book about Heather
Clem No, sir, there is a section of pictures in your book.
Are there any naked pictures in there? No, sir. Was there a
DVD inserted in your book showing you having sex with Christian Plant? No,
sir, the book was published in what two thousand and nine? Well,
I'm not sure you don't remember. Well, I'm not sure the date.
I want to talk about something off the reality show. Mister Sullivan showed you
a clip. First of all, let me back up. How many episodes
did you shoot at that show? Hogan knows best. You know. There
were four or five seasons, and I'm not sure if it was eight or
ten or maybe twelve episode order it depending on how much they believed in the
show. They might have ordered an extra show depending on how the ratings were.
So I don't have an exact number. It's four or five seasons,
a fair number to give the jury. Series. Yeah, yeah, series
of shows. You know, seasons made me think yearly, but a season
can be you know, I got it. There was more than one.
It didn't last. A season didn't last a whole year, right, yes,
sir, all right, the clip. I want you to explain to
the jury the dynamic that's at play on the set of the TV show when
you're shown there like you were with a shirt on, but obviously sitting on
the toilet. Does that idea come from you or the producer? That's the
producer, And would it be fair to say that that idea is no different
than perhaps on a movie set when a sex scene is shown, and I
mean a real movie, like in the movie movie theater, real movie.
Okay, yeah, I'm sorry. Well, you know, recently, I
just wanted to see a movie and I don't I can't remember the name of
it, but it had a friend of mine, you know, my John
Cena, and I want to see the movie because John Scena was in the
movie. And all of a sudden, in the middle of the movie,
you know, they got John Cena on top of a comedian you know Amy
Schumacher, you know, having having sex with this woman in the movie,
and kind of caught me off guard, but I understand it's part of the
storyline on the plot. You know, he's you know, John's an actor.
You know, John c is playing a character in that. So it's
kind of like the same thing, if aught the same thing when the producer
said, oh, you know, you know, get on sit on the
toilet, and you know, will even you know, they even, like
I said, they put sound effects, add comedy to it, you know,
so it was part of what they wanted. You know, I would
never personally say sit on the toilet and add noises and bathroom noises. You
know, that was all their stuff. With all the times you went on
TMZ and we've seen two or three different snippets from different interviews to TMZ.
Ever post the video, No, sir, they wrote about it, right,
Yes they did. And you talk to the jury about the fact that
you understood that was part of what you brought into it as a celebrity,
that you have to suffer those stories, right, Yes, sir, you
know the writing, you know that's part of what happens. Yes, sir,
they put up every sort of a grainy still. Pardon me, they
put up a sort of grainy still picture, did they not? Yes?
They did. Did you ever sue TMZ? No? But I had a
problem with the picture, I you know, I had my attorney sent a
season desist and they took it down. Did the attorney? I don't know
if anybody ever told the jury what the dirty dot com is? Do you
know what the dirty dot com is? Well, that's my understanding. It's
another website like Gawker that puts up stuff like this. Did the Dirty dot
Com ever put the video up? It's the best of my recollection. It
was the video or the still that we sent a season desist and they took
it down. Did you ever sue the Dirty No, sir, because we
realized they were pushing the envelope and they were wrong, you know, and
it was the wrong thing to do. And as soon as we send the
season desists, they pulled it down because they knew they were wrong. Did
Stern ever put the video up? No, sir. Did Sway ever put
the video up? No, sir, you did. Can you tell even
tell the jury how many different interviews you did in the media, tour,
radio or TV? Series filming. Can you give me a number, Well,
I can only guess. You know, there was a bunch of them.
Did any of the media outlets you talk to during that tour put the
video up? No, sir, as we sit here to day, has
anybody but Gawker put that one minute, forty second highlight reel sex tape up
online? So that's my knowledge. Gawker is the only one that would that
did this. And I'm not including people that may have linked it off Gawker.
I'm talking about when it was originally put up. You know, they're
the only ones I know that did it. And we send them a season
assist too, and they wouldn't take it down. I have just a few
more questions. You had a lot of interplay with mister Sullivan about your deposition.
Do you remember how many days you were under oath in your deposition?
Oh? Man, you know they called me a couple of times, you
know, three or four days all day long. How many volumes of transcript
is there up there in front of you? Did you look? Is this
ours? I think it's the one that you have been using the whole time.
You can count the pages, I says, six volumes whenever that means
how many pages? Eight hundred and thirty five pages? Mister Blaya, I
just have a few more questions. Did you ever consent to having video and
audio recording done of you having a private sex act with Heather Clem in a
private bedroom at the Clem's house. Never? Did you ever consent to Gawker
putting a highlight reel of that who recorded act on their website Gawker dot com.
Sir? Did you ever consent to gawk or using your image, your
likeness in any way, shape or form for any purpose on their website?
No, sir, A moment to confer judge. Yes, I don't have
anything else. Thank you, Hey, you very much, Thank you,
mister Belaya. Do any of our jurors have questions? Could you please write
them down? Do attorneys want to come forward? Yes, mister Turkle at
the bench? Okay? Can I okay? I have two mikes of you.
I don't know if you will know the answer to that question. I
think there is no dispute about the fact that we could stipulate. Probably a
stip to me would be March in April to October. The stills are April
April steals April. Yeah, it will come out and the video up to
twenty twelve, okay, in the video to October. Yeah, okay,
here's the last one. I don't think anybody knows a Burton. Do anybody
do one on Burton to Tony Burton Getty. I think that there is a
deposition that talks about that. Yeah, he doesn't know. Okay, he
wouldn't know that. He wouldn't know from any competent evidence. He wouldn't know
that. He would know as being a litigant and what he has heard in
this case. But I don't think that's a question on that. No,
Okay, he can't answer that question. Yeah, boy, oh boy,
I wish we could. Why don't you get your appellate lawyer up here to
talk about it again? We will keep that one. That's sort of why
I was not allowing the question about what was the original complaint? Well,
we need to that's different things. That's fine. I don't know how to
handle any of those. I think some of them, other than the first
one, the first one, he may be able to answer the rest of
them. I'll just give him the stipulated answer. Yeah to the first one.
Yeah, to the first one and to the other ones, it's not
for this witness the other one. I think you could say some of these
other questions. There will be subsequent evidence that will okay, Yeah, and
while we're up here, Judge, we're going to play Jules Workman's deposition next.
And there's just a couple of objections to resolve, so I don't know
if you want to have them to tell them. We're going to take a
break, quick break, ten minute break, okay, to set the video
up. That's good, thank you, an open chord. All right.
The first question, I have a question about the timeline. How much time
is between the still photos shown and the video posted by Gawka. The parties
have stipulated that the still photographs were in April of two and twelve, the
video was October twenty twelve. There was some additional questions, but those questions
are for this witness. You will have to wait until later in the trial.
Any other questions, all right, Thank you very much, mister Balaiah.
You can take your seat. Brother. One two for only foming in
the go down. One two for one forming in the flock down. The
video was posted sass go yes Hogan telling us he was overcome with emotion when
he realized that day one I think there is this a seating leading announce laser
production of the LAPS Entertainment Group. Its content is intended for private use only.
Turtle as Penis is not ten inches like you're trying to say.