In the Cerpt of Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in and four Penella's County,
Florida Civil Division. Terry Jean Bola, professionally known as Hulk Hogan,
plaintiff versus Gawker Media LLLC at All Defendants. Excerpt from trial proceedings before the
Honorable Penella A. M. Campbell and A. Jordy Testimony of Terry Bolena,
March seventh, twenty sixteen, Penella's County Courthouse. The following is an
excerpt from the proceedings. Oh, would you like to call as your next
witness? Yes, Judge, the plaintiff will call Terry Balaya to the witness
stand. Okay, r. The Plaintiff's witness herein being first duly sworn on
oath, was questioned and testified as follows. May I inquired, Judge,
Yes, direct examination by mister Turkle. Could you please introduce yourself to the
jury. My name is Terry Jean Balaia. I was born in Augusta,
Georgia, August eleven, nineteen fifty three. Mister Balai, Are you married,
yes, sir. What's your wife's name, Jennifer? And do you
have children? Yes, sir? And could you tell the jury who your
children are. My son Nick Allen Balai is twenty five years old, and
Brooke Ellen Balaya is twenty seven years old. I have two kids now for
her career or living. Brooke is a songwriter in Nashville. Nick got a
degree in mastering mixing with sound, so he works between LA and Miami mixing
and recording. You mentioned, I'm sorry, he's also a DJ sometimes.
Okay. You mentioned that you were born in Augusta, Georgia. Where did
you grow up? Port Tampa, Florida, south of Gandy? How old
were you when you moved here? I was a baby, you know,
four or five months old. For the jury, if you could taking it
from sort of the Gandy Bridge and then Tampa, could you tell them where
Port Tampa is? Excuse me? Sure? Could you do? Could you
describe for the jury using Gandy perhaps as a reference where Port Tampa is.
Well, Gandy runs east and west from Clearwater to Hillsborough County, and south
of Gandy Boulevard is known as Port Tampa. What kind of area is that?
Well, you know when I grew up there, it was low income
and just everyday people there. Did you have any siblings? Brother, sisters.
Yes, I did. He passed away and was it a brother,
Yes, sir. What was his name, Alan Balaya? Were you close
with him growing up? Yes, sir. What did your dad do for
a living? He was a pipe fitter. He dugged the huge ditches for
the storm drainage, like for malls and stuff like that. I'm going to
talk a little bit about your youth. What was it like growing up down
in Port Tampa. I thought it was good, you know, I mean
we kind of got to run around, you know, and how to be
home when the street lights came on. Just normal childhood. Just played a
lot of baseball and just the normal kids stuff. You mentioned baseball. I
mean, were you very athletic growing up? I wasn't really athletic. I
was very fat when I was growing up and a heavy child. But I
did play baseball and I played third base and pitch and I was really good
at that. And when I played little league baseball, you know, the
big joke was I couldn't you know, if I hit the ball in the
center field, you know, I couldn't get to second base because if I
tried, you know, go around second base, I wasn't fast enough to
make it, you know, to second base. But as I got older,
I kind of like lost some of the weight and I got better at
running. So that was the main part, you know. I played a
little bit of football, but that was about it. How good were you
in baseball? I got to be pretty good, you know, by the
time I hit high school. I played Little League in Pony League, in
Babe Ruth League, you know, and they said I had a good arm,
and I was doing very well in baseball and had some scouts from the
Yankees and Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Red's looking at me in tenth grade until I
broke my arm. Where did you go to high school? At Robinson High
School that dead in Port Tampa. Yes, sir, I think mister Vote
may have mentioned in an opening, but I want to talk to you to
the jury about it. You said you were heavy when you were a kid,
but how big were you when you were twelve years old? Well,
well, when I was eleven years old, I made the Little League All
Star team and interbayed Little League Little League in South Tampa by the Air Force
Base. I weighed one hundred and ninety six pounds and I was eleven years
old, and I was about six feet tall, but it wasn't distributed very
well. I ate a lot of junk growing up. Did you have any
interest other than sports growing up? Yes, sir. You know, my
father bought me a guitar when I was eleven years old, and I love
to play the guitar. Did you play the guitar through your teen years,
yes, sir, I did about through your young adult years, yes,
sir. I want to talk a little bit more about the music, because
in a time in your life, were you actually considering maybe being a professional
musician. Well, you know, we played about for ten years, you
know, and went from playing birthday parties in high school dances to where we
got you to where we could play good enough and to not play the clubs
and stuff. And then there did come a point in my early twenties where
there was an opportunity to go on the road and open up for a national
act, and a couple of the guys well actually one guy was married,
another guy had a girlfriend and they both had kids and they didn't want to
leave. So that pretty much put an end to it for me because I
didn't want to keep playing in the local clubs over and over. I thought
maybe we had a chance to go on and no one wanted to go.
What did you do after high school? Oh, my gosh, Well,
I spent about two and a half three years going to HCC at h Hillsboro
Community College and didn't get a degree there. But right before I got an
AA degree, I went to the University of South Florida and majored in finance
and management and a minor in music. Did you finish college ride? Did
not? Had anybody in your family ever been to college before you started at
HCC. Did you want for anything growing up? What was your youth like?
In your house? Excuse me as a child, I mean, how
big was your house? It was a small house, it was. It
was a small wooden frame house, about half the size of this room.
And my brother and I were big kids, so we couldn't really put We
had one room, so we couldn't put a bed in there on que beds,
I mean, and we had to kind of sleep from one corner to
corner with our feet because the room was really small. Did you did you
have any other sort of jobs before before you became before you became a wrestler,
or what else did you do? I mean, we talked a little
bit about baseball. We have talked about college. For a little musician,
what else did you do for a living before he became a professional wrestler.
Well before I became a wrestler, my main focus was music, and the
bands would break up and they'd start over. So I was probably in seven
or eight different bands throughout the years. But after the first couple of bands,
I had a friend of mine who played in a band that was in
the Labors Union. So when the band broke up, he took me down
there and I got in the Labors Union. And so when you go to
the Labors Union, you would get you sit there in the room with a
bunch of men like this, and you'd get a ticket to go poor concrete
or go work with a construction woodworker or a metalworker or steel worker. So
I did that off and on and in between bands. I'd also got lucky
enough to get a request to go to work on the docks to work with
a longshoreman, and I I got really good at loading the ships to where
I finally ended up on top of the ship working with a stevedore. So
all that went on, and all those odd jobs went in between different bands
and different music before I became a wrestler. Was that after college. During
college, I was mainly in between and after college both because I love the
music so much. Sometimes I would have a chance to go play in a
band and I would quit, like I actually quit college for a short amount
of time to go play in a band or go on the road. So
when the band would break up and it wouldn't be time for college, you
know, so I'd have to go to the Union Hall to get a ticket
to go work somewhere so I could keep making a living in between bands.
What led to professional wrestling? Oh? I loved it. You know.
My father took me to the My father took me to the wrestling matches on
Army Armenia Howard at the Armory the Armory Usser on Howard Avenue in Tampa when
I was about nine years old, And the first time I saw it,
I I just fell in love with it and it was just so addictive to
me. I was always a wrestling fan. I'm sorry if you had a
question. My question was what led you to professional wrestling? So? Oh
that led me to just becoming a fan and then growing up and then finally
I got an opportunity. How did you get your first opportunity to get into
professional wrestling? You know, I would kind of chase the wrestlers. I
will kind of chase the wrestlers around because we didn't have any It didn't have
a football team or a baseball team or anything. So baseball was I mean,
wrestling was the it sport for all the kids. And so we kind
of would chase them around and found out where they would eat lunch or at
or would go sit there and watch the meat lunch. And then during the
week they would take the TV show off Kennedy Boulevard, and so would kind
of like chase them around there. And I just started working out. You
know, I didn't realize I was not in good, you know, great
shape yet. So I'd stand there and try to look as big as I
could, and I kept asking and asking and asking who to talk to.
And I think I drove them crazy enough to where they finally had gave me
an opportunity to get in the ring. And I didn't know at the time
they were just trying to get rid of me. So the first day I
got in the ring, they took me in there and they exercised me with
a bunch of exercises I wasn't used to, and then when I got in
the ring with them, they broke my leg the first day, and that
really upset my dad. You know, we're really bad because he didn't know
what I was up to. And then once I got better, I went
back and made a decision no one was going to hurt me again, and
that kind of led me to stick in with it and spent it about two
years learning how to wrestle before I had my first real chance to wrestle a
match. I want to go back to something you said, this is around
what time is it mid seventies, yes, sir, or early mid seventy
about seventy five seventy six. And at that time down here, we didn't
have any professional sports, right, No, sir, we did not explain
the wrestling industry at that time to the jury. Give me give them an
idea maybe of how different it is now compared to what it was back then
when you broke into it. Well, you know, it was very different
now because nowadays you get paid to train, and they've got performance centers and
different wrestling schools you can go to, you know, and I try to
explain to people. I say, nowadays you can get a pair of boots
from Santa Claus and then you can go to a wrestling school and get paid
to wrestle, you know. Back you know, but back on the day
when I was wrestling, there weren't very many wrestlers. So if you were
to walk in the locker room like HI did the first time, you know,
if there were six men in there, you had to take somebody's job
away from them, or be better than them to take their spot to get
into the wrestling business. And there was no wrestlings fake or wrestlings a show.
You know, you didn't have you didn't even say those words because they'd
punched you right in the face because they weren't. You know, there weren't
any lawyers, so no lawsuits or none of that stuff. There weren't any
lawyers, so no lawsuits or none of that stuff. So it was a
different environment back then. It was a very aggressive and you know, they
were very protected with the so called fake wrestling word. A lot of people
used what's the was there a word they used for that back then? The
sort of the way they kept everyone in that disguise that it was real all
the time. Well, you know, there was a general word called kayfabe
brother, which means if you and I were talking about wrestling or something and
someone was to walk up, would go kayfabe quit talking about it, you
know, And that was the general theme that you protected the business. And
you know if someone said it was fake or someone said it was a show,
that was a reason back then to become aggressive and put them in their
place. And it was so portrayed as a legitimate sport at that time,
right, yes, there it was. You had mentioned the training and getting
your leg broken. You kept using the word they who was your initial coach
or trainer or mentor in this sport. You know. There was a Japanese
wrestler named Kiro Matsuda that was very very hardcore, and they put me with
him, and he's the guy that broke my leg the first day. And
the funny part of the story is we became good friends. I sat out
and I came back, you know, and then later on in my career,
we actually actually came with me to Japan because I spent many many years
in Japan wrestling. He actually came to Japan with me as my mentor he
was very proud of me then, whether it was then or we're going to
talk about how your career progressed into more of the product that's out there today.
But as the sport hard on your body, yes, sir, it's
one of the things I try to explain to people. You know, the
word fake doesn't really describe it. It is predetermined. We know who is
going to win or lose. But like my instance, it's very physical.
And in the twenty five plus years I wrestled, I've had two ning replacements,
two hit replacements, nine back surgeries, vision in my eye in all
kinds of surgeries, and I have even have teeth marks on my fingers from
people biting me and just crazy stuff. So it's very physical, or it
was physical then, it was very physical now. But the equipment is much
better with ring as much safer. There's not holes or bombs or anything,
you know, so there's a much better chance, you know, much surviving
in there. You know, but even even the young kids still get hurt
all the time in there. So we're up to a point where you maybe
break in and have your first professional matches. Was there a time that came
when you actually started wrestling for money, Yes, sir, there was.
Could you tell the jury how that started for you, the early early days
of your career and what that was like. Well, you know, when
I first started wrestling, you know, I wrestled in it was called a
territory. It was Florida Championship Wrestling. It wasn't the big WWE as we
know him now. And I would go from like Tampa to Miami and drive,
or Tampa to Tallahassee and drive, or would actually wrestle in Tampa,
and I pretty much made twenty or twenty five dollars a night, which you
know, by the time you paid for gas and ate something and stuff.
It wasn't you know, it wasn't even back then, it wasn't enough money.
And give us let's try and help the jury a little bit time wise.
When are we talking about. We're in the seventies obviously, right,
Yes, sir, Ye, best of my recollection late seventy six seventy seven
is when I was just starting out in this area. Did you keep it
up? Did you ever quit once you started, yes, sir getting paid?
Yes, sir, I did quit a couple of times. And why
did you do that? Well, I just couldn't make enough money to eat
or live. What did you do in the periods of time where you stop
wrestling, whence you had actually started professionally. What did you get within those
times that you quit? Did you have other jobs? Yes, sir,
you know, I pretty much go back to the docks or go to the
union hall and get a ticket to go to work and construction somewhere. Did
there come a time when you were actually able to make enough money to at
least live on as a professional wrestler, you know, before I got kind
of resourceful. I went back to wrestling after I started here in Florida.
And when I went back to wrestling, I went up to the Alabama area,
and it took a while. In the first two years, I slept
in my car, and it was, you know, it was a pretty
good test. It was kind of like you gave me a foundation to appreciate
things, you know, and really get things in perspective. So I didn't
take things for granted, and I actually became kind of like a chief skate.
After about the first year, I kind of, you know, like
had enough money to get an apartment, but I realized I was saving money,
so I kind of stayed in my car, but I finally rented an
apartment. And how long did this You said you were in the Alabama.
How long did that last for? Oh Man? I lost probably six eight
six to eight months. Where did you go after that? Well? I
had to quit again because you know, they were done with me, and
I don't have anywhere to go. So and when you're doing wrestling in an
area or territory, you need to have another job lined up. And I
wasn't skilled enough to have another job lined up. So I came back to
Florida for just a couple of months, and then I got rehired again in
Memphis, Tennessee. When you say another job lined up, you mean a
wrestling job, yes, sir, another wrestling territory to go to continue wrestling,
all right? And when you came back to Tampa, did you go
to work on the docks again? I don't recall that time if I did
or did not. You went to Tennessee next? Is that what you just
said? Yes, sir? Where did you go in Tennessee? Well?
I drove to Hendersonville, Tennessee. You met the promoter, Jerry Jarrett,
and he hired me, and he gave me an eight hundred dollars a week
guarantee, and he bought me a car because I was driving about twenty five
hundred to three thousand miles a week going from Memphis to Evansville, Evansville to
Louisville, Louisville back to Tupelow, Mississippi, Birmingham, Alabama. It was
just crazy. So I had six guys in the car and we were trading
off driving and some nights would wrestle, get in the car and drive all
night long to where you're going and barely had time to work out and wrestle
again. So it was pretty good test about this time. Are we talking
late seventies, Yes, sir? What was your next step after Memphis?
Was your next step after Memphis to what's now known as the WWE or were
you somewhere after Memphis before that? Yes, sir. I was getting ready
to quit again and go back to the docks. And I got a call
from vinciic Mann, Senior, and he had heard I was in pretty good
shape and was getting good response around the Memphis area, and he asked me
to come up to New York for an audition. Let's take a couple things
I want to follow up. One, when you talk about this idea of
driving around in the car from Louisville, Birmingham, wherever. That wasn't just
your life, that was a wrestler's life. I take it. Oh,
yeah, that's what you did. You drove. I mean some guys had
a worse than others, especially if you had like a championship belt. You
know, sometimes they even ask you to go farther to other areas, you
know, other territories, to wrestle one night and come back. So no
one, no one that I knew of flew at that time. What was
your name, your professional name back then? What were you wrestling under?
Well, I was started as the Super Destroyer, and then I went to
Terry Boulder, and then somebody, a promoter Atlanta changed my name to Sterling
Golden, and then I changed it back, you know, myself, back
to Terry the Hulk Boulder, and then I when I got to New York.
Then it's like Man said, he liked the name Hulk, but he
put Hogan at the end of it because he had a territory in New York
that all the wrestlers were ethnic based, like Chief Jay Strongbow was a Native
Americans, you know, Bruno sam Martino was for the Italian Americans, and
he wanted me to be Irish like Hulk Hogan, an Irish wrestler. And
for the jury's benefit, this would have been. Were we in the eighties
yet? No, when you officially got that professional name, No, sir,
we weren't. It was about seventy mid seventy eight, seventy nine.
Where did the at the time, it's what's it's what's known on the WWE.
But back then, what was it called? It was? Well,
when I first went there, it was it was called World Worldwide Wrestling Federation.
Then it changed right away to the World to World Wrestling Federation WWF.
Where did they build the character as Hulk Cogan coming from Venice Beach, California.
Were you born in Venice Beach? No, sir, Did you grow
up in Venice Beach? No, sir. The move to ww wel let's
call it. I'm going to call it ww just for everybody's benefit unless I'm
not going to be calling it WWWF right Ryan, So we're on the same
page, right, yes, sir? All right? So the move to
ww at that time, was that a big move for your career, I
was huge because ww was known as a Madison Square garden area, like where
the you know, they said, this is where the big men wrestle.
So a lot of the guys that I wrestled back in that time were a
lot bigger than me. Even though I was around three hundred pounds, I
was considered a medium sized wrestler back then. You know, back then the
wrestlers were much larger, with big arms and big bellies. You know,
they may look like wrestlers. Did your career reach a sort of new level
or let's take it this way. Did that character, that Hulk Hogan character,
take you to a new level of popularity as a wrestler? Yes?
Or did Can you explain to the jury sort of this point in your career
where you're in the WWE and this character starts to gain some popularity. Oh.
You know, when I was in the WWE, it was much different
than the other areas on wrestled because I was usually wrestling in high schools or
VFW buildings and stuff like that, and when I went to the WWE,
it was the large arenas and it became like the Philadelphia's Spectrum or the Madison
Square Garden or the Boston Garden, So it was day and night from where
I'd been before. Or you're wrestling as a good guy or a bad guy?
I saw it out as a bad guy. There. Could you tell
the jury in this industry because it may be thrown around in this trial.
What they called bad guys in the territory. Well in the industry, well,
bad guys are called heels and good guys are called baby faces. Did
you at some point become a good guy a baby face? Yes? Or
I did? And at that time, how was the reception you were getting
in these bigger auditoriums as a bad guy, as a bad guy? How
about let's do this. Why don't you tell the jury when you changed to
a good guy? And why? Well? I wrestled for the WWE from
a seventy eighties to rout about nineteen eighty, and then I got a call
to do a movie by Sylvestor Stallan, the Rocky three movie. And when
I told Vince mc mann Senior about it, he said, you're a wrestler,
You're not an actor. You know, that was the mentality back then.
He says, if you do the movie, you'll never work here again.
So I went and did the movie and he fired me for doing the
Rocky three movie. So after that, I went back to Japan, where
I'd been wrestling part time, and I got a call from a promoter,
a guy named Verne Gagney up in Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. And when
he brought me in, I was supposed to be a bad guy. I
was supposed to wrestle well another wrestler named Jesse Ventura, and the moment I
got in the ring with him, even though how was this evil wrestler,
all the people cheered for me, and the fans kind of predicted who I
was, and we just went with it because it worked. You talked about
Rocky three. Did that change your career? Yes? Or it did because
everybody thoughts of us. Slone was a seven hundred foot tall monster in the
eyes of the public, and then he saw me and they were They saw
me standing next us alone, they went, oh, my gosh, it
was out there. What a wrestler is? I mean, so immediately I
could tell in public that the movie had made an impact. You know,
I was not recognized before at all, and all of a sudden, you
know, most of the people knew me from Oh, that's the guy from
the Rocky movie. They didn't know who I was, you know, they
didn't know I was a real wrestler. What was the name of the character
you played in Rocky three? Thunderlips and taking it back to where you were
just telling the jury a little more about your story. When that was done,
you still had to go back to wrestling. I take it. Oh,
yes, sir. That movie only took ten days of film. That
movie only took ten days of film. You went to Japan, you came
back. You were wrestling this man verne Ganya. Was that a different organization
than WWE, Yes, sir. It was called the AWA American Wrestling Association.
It was based in Minnesota, but it went through all through Canada and
sometimes would go to Chicago, and then we mainly drove. But when we
went to from Minneapolis to Chicago, we actually flew. So that was the
first time we got to fly on a plane. Did you eventually get back
to WWE, Yes, sir, I did. Could you tell the jury
when that happened? And why? Well, you know, out of wrestled
in Minnesota for about three years and I kind of figured out how to be
the Hull Coogan character, the good guy with the shaking and just the whole
voice say hey, brother, let me tell you something, dude. I
figured all that stuff out. And so we had this great group of wrestlers
in Minnesota, and we planned a gun going to New York and going into
the area in the w W area, and the promoter of Verne Gagney,
you know, bought TV time on Channel nine in New York and all up
and down the East coast, and the word was out that we were coming
with this whole really good wrestling crew. And Vins McMahon junior you called me
up and said he wanted to talk. So he flew up to Minnesota,
came to my home and we talked for five or six hours and we shook
hands. And then the next day I left Minnesota and went back to the
WWE, where they said they would never ever hired me again. But Vinis
Junior taken over for his father and he wanted to come back and be the
good guy there. So the jurors may remember the earlier some may remember some
of the very sort of prominent years in your career. Was there an event
when you went back to WWE that started you on a completely different level of
popularity as a wrestler. Oh yes, sir, can you tell the jurors
what event or events were for that matter? Well, you know, when
I went back, it started out that this horrible character named the Iron Cheek
who was a wrestling character. But the man who was of the wrestling character
the Iron Cheek was the real deal. You know. He was actually the
Shaw of Iran's bodyguard and he was in the AAU. He was a national
champion, and he was a real wrestler, but he just happened to use
the character the Iron Cheek. So he was the real deal. And when
I came back, the political environment was the United States was having a lot
of trouble with Iran at the time in politics, so it was a perfect
storm. Hulk Hogan came back as a good guy. You know. The
people knew they should cheer me because I was in Minnesota for so long,
you know, being cheered that when I came back and they played the Eye
of the Tiger music from the Rocky movie and I went into the ring.
I just remember on the weight of the ring before I wrestled the Iron Cheek
to when the would be titled it was just I had never heard anything that
loud before. So the moment I won the belt, everything really took off.
And then shortly after that we first WrestleMania, where we had you know,
that was one of the that was of the first of the entertainment sports
entertainment, where we had Cindy Lauper and Muhammad Ali as a referee, and
Billy Martin the manager of the Yankees, and it was you know, the
list just goes on and on. There were so many celebrities there, but
those couple events really launched my career as Hulk Hogan, the good guy.
When was when you say when he had WrestleMania, What was the first wrestle
Lania Well, I won the belt in Madison Square Garden from the Iron Cheek
on January twenty third, nineteen eighty four, So the best of my recollection.
It was like the next year, the following year, in our own
March or April, we had the first WrestleMania. And this, as you
were describing, would have been a time where the sport, the sort of
raw nature of it as a sport, it was presenting more at that time
as more of an entertainment thing. Yes, you know, we had we
had come out publicly and said wrestling was an exhibition, and what we were
trying to do, we were trying to get all the beer drinkers and the
cigar smokers in the front row that wanting to see blood. We're trying to
get rid of them. And we're trying to get the families in the front
row. So we told everybody, look, wrestling is an exhibition. You
know, we know who's gonna win or lose, and it's fun and you
know, it's safe and there is not going to be the hardcore wrestling like
before. And so that's what it really took off, is when we took
you quit trying to insult the public's intelligence and said, hey, guys,
look this is entertainment. You know, this is not a real sport you
have. This is not a real sport. Everything we're doing here is wrestling,
and as whole Hogan, it is just to entertain you. But that's
when it really took off. Does the words sports entertainment accurately describe how they
were referring to it at that time? Is that a fair characterization? That's
fair. You know, it took a little while to get some of the
guys up to speed. But that's very fair that the physicality of a change
at all, No, sir, you know, the physicality became worse,
I want to talk. Sorry, the physicality became worse because we started trying
to outdo each other with the entertaining part. So it got a little crazier,
all right. So for the jury's benefit, if they have watched wrestling,
or if they watch it, when they see someone jump off the top
rope and land on somebody else, that part of it is physically what they're
seeing. Right. Well, if I was to jump off the top rope
onto you, I would do everything I could would do. Well, you
don't want to do that, not in here, anybody. Well, you
don't want me on the top rope either, you know. But if I
was to go to the top rope and jump on you, I would do
everything I could to protect you. But you have to make contact and what
we call you have to lay it in. You know, a lot of
the promoters would tell me, you know, when you kick somebody, make
sure you leave, you know, bootlace prints on them. So they went
full They want full contact, but in the right areas. Going back to
the injuries, you've suffered, though, those were injuries that were a consequence
of some of these moves not being fully protected, or maybe just whatever happens
in the ring. Is that fair? That's kind of fair, you know.
I think a lot of the injuries that happened, you know, the
nine back s injuries were probably because I wrestled too long and I probably should
have quit ten years earlier. We've talked about the character. We've used the
word character, the iron cheek character. Yes, sir, the whole Cogan
character. I want you to try to explain this to the jury. When
you talk about the Hulk Hogan character. What's the personality of that? Oh
my gosh. You know, the Hulk Hogan character is the all American guy,
loud, sometimes not loud, but always in character, using slang like
brother or dude ten, using slang like brother or dude, tan, you
used to have a full head of hair. You're just the all American good
guy, and I'll fight for the rights of every man. That whole character
theme driven was kind of like the perfect storm. It was like the perfect
character. Okay, this is a good time. The judge wants to take
a comfort break. I think right now Okay, We're gonna take a little
bit of a comfort break to rearrange some technology issues that are okay, having
some problems within the courtroom. Okay, so let's do this. Has this
not been working the whole time and I didn't know it, So if we
can, please, if the jury can please take a break, let's rearrange
some technology and then we'll come back and continue with mister Balaia, thank you
all right. Fifteen Judge yes, ten the jury. The jury retired from
the courtroom at one fifty nine pm, a recess taking at two pm.
Court called to order it two o seven pm. The jury returned to the
court room at two o seven pm. Thank you, everybody can be seated.
I'm sorry for the little technical difficulties. We'll have it worked out shortly
here, I hope. Thank you all right, Miss Charkill, you can
proceed. Thank you, your honor. Mister Balaiah, are you good?
Yes, sir? Okay, where where were we at before that recess?
Was you describing the attributes of the personality of the Hulk Cogan character? So
just to kind of take the jury back to where we were before we had
that break, could you describe the character Hulk Cogan for the jury. Please,
well, the character is larger than life, you know, it's the
all American character. The theme of the training, prayers and vitamins and believing
yourself is like what we call the four demandments of the whole Kamaniacs and the
all American image of the characters tan a full head of hair. You used
to just even my theme song is fight for the rights of every man.
He's the all American hero in a nutshell, the character Hulk Hogan. And
with respect of these characters, I mean as a wrestler, when you get
a character like that, do you create it yourself? Does the w W
work with you? Is it a combination? Please explain that. You know,
while I start in wrestling, you had to come up with your own
character, and it's changed completely now because they have writers in the WWE,
and they have got twenty five writers and nistic Man and his staff develop your
character. So you could come in as a college athlete and All American athlete
and they could change your character to a cowboy or a lawyer or anything they
want to change it to. When are you in character? When are you
in character as Hulk Hogan? Me yes, sir um. Well, you
know it's changed, you know, over the years, it's pretty much a
wrestling related character. But as the years have passed by, I realized at
the moment I leave my home to get you know, to go get to
the mail, and nobody says, you know, hey, Terry, how
you do and everyone goes, hey, Hulk, how you doing? Or
Hey Hogan. So when I'm away from my house, it's pretty much twenty
four hours a day when I'm not at home, because no one calls me
Terry anywhere, it's always hey, Hulk, how you doing? You know
we love you? Or you know you should have lost are you? You're
the greatest wrestler, So it's always Hulk Hogan when people see me away from
my home. Have you been accepting of that fact? In other words,
the fact that when you walk out on the street, you're going to get
approached like that, Oh god, my god, yeah, you know,
thank god, is still happening after all these years. Does that include things
that would commonly happen autograph selfies, things like that, I'm sorry I didn't
hear the first part of that question. Sure, not just getting wreck ignized,
but would it include things like you being approached for autographs or pictures or
things like that. Oh, yes, sir, would. And have you
always tried to accommodate fans of yours when they would come up to you in
the middle of the day on a public street for that stuff. Well,
over the years, I pride myself I'm not turning my fans down. I
mean, there are a few situations where people have been overly aggressive. I
remember one time in particular, I was eating dinner with my wife and kids,
and some guy got between my wife and I, you know, and
I had to ask for autograph and cigarettes fall out in her dish. You
know, dude, It's like right, you know, but I try as
best I can to be accommodating everybody. You certainly have accepted the fact,
have you not that you have lost an amenity as the character Hulk Cogan,
Right, yes, sir, and I as part of the deal is Hulk
Coke and you lose your anonymity. You've mentioned that when you walk out of
the door of your house. Are there other places where you feel like you
can beat Terry Balaya? Well, you know, I've got a few friends
in the neighborhood. Now, doctor Cressbo is a good friend of mine and
aim when I go to his house, I can be Terry Balaya. I
mean, there are a few places, you know, a few relatives when
I you know, when I go to where my children live and I'm in
their house, you know, I can definitely be Terry Balaya. But other
than that, you know, nowadays pretty limited, you know, because the
Hulk Cogan's character is known worldwide, so it's hard not to be Hulk Hogan.
Everyone calls me Hulk Coogan everywhere I go. And I want to talk
about this issue a little more. But before that, I want you to
tell the jury a little bit about who Terry Balaya is, as that person
differs from the character Hulk Cogan. Well, you know, Terry Balay is
a normal person. You know, Wrestling is his job, is what you
know, Hulk, Well, Terry Balay is a normal person. You know,
Wrestling is his job, is what Hulky, what Terry Balaya does for
a living. I don't argue, I'm not lowed. I'm pretty soft spoken
to a fall. You know, don't know how to really say no,
even though I'm learning how to say no to my kids. You know,
sometimes I've been at fault with saying yes when I probably should have said no.
But it's you know, the character Hulk Hogan is completely opposite of Terry
Balaya. You know. The only similarities to me are maybe, you know,
sometimes the look, you know, and for different reasons, I wear
a bandail my head is Whole Hogan because I's the established look, and sometimes
i've you know, sometimes I wear a bandana as Terry Balaya for other reasons.
Okay, oh well, why does you know, why would the person
that you are, the person that grew up on the docks and all that,
why does that person wear a bandana as opposed to wholek Cogan. What
it was kind of goes back to everything I understand now, like about kind
of like when I was growing up, Yeah, I didn't want to take
my shirt off. You know, I had a real problem with taking my
shirt off, even though we lived in this area, because I wasn't in
good shape. And when I was married, there were the normal you know,
when I was married to my first wife, there were the normal things
that would go back and forth, little arguments you would have and sometimes I'd
hear, you know, you're too old, you know, you're too slow,
You're too bald headed, you know, you know, so you like
to get somebody younger, you know, find somebody younger. And the bald
headed thing kind of hit me because as I've gotten older, my hair has
gone way far down. I've actually a really large head, and so sometimes
when I wear a bandana as Terry Balay, it's just because it's like a
self confidence thing, where if I I don't have the bandana on, it's
just kind of like hard not to look at, you know, how bald
headed I am and how big my head is because I have an exceptionally large
head. So it's like a confidence thing or a personal thing, I guess
it's the best way to describe it, you know. But Hulk Hogan,
Hulk Hogan is different because when I'm Hulk Hogan and I wear the bandana,
it's part of the wardrobe, and the first thing I do when I'm getting
the ring is I ripped the bandan off, you know. While I'm on
characters Hulk Hogan, it's totally different, you know, because I'm out there
in the zone as Hulk Hogan. You mentioned feeling comfortable at friends houses.
Has it been hard since your career sort of reached that next level after Rocky
three, WrestleMania and all that. Has it been hard for you to make
close friendships, yes, or it has because you know, there is a
period of time where I thought I had a bunch of friends when I was
working full time and I was flying three hundred days a year and wrestling four
hundred and four hundred and fifty fifty times a year, you know, twice
on Saturday, twice on Sunday, sometimes three times, you know, during
the day. If we had a bunch of you know, sometimes a film
TV shows during the day and I had a wrestle at a wrestle at night,
you know, I was I was always with a big group of guys,
and there was a camaraderie which I considered a friendship. But as soon
as I started wrestling part time, or as soon as I wasn't at work,
I realized that, you know, they were business friends and not real
personal friends because there just wasn't anything to talk about unless we were actually in
the locker room or wrestling on the road. And as far as I you
know, as soon as I came home to Florida, it was like everybody
has their own lives and stuff, so they didn't reach out to me,
or they didn't you know, at a time, there weren't many people that
actually would call my phone, or even if they did live here, they
were busy. So I just you know, I was just a couple of
days off. You know, there was really no close type bond when I
wasn't at work, so I didn't have anybody, and I didn't have a
lot of close personal friends. I had one or two or three at the
most. I thought, is it hard for you to trust people? Not
at the beginning, you know, by as things went long, I kind
of learned something that some of the old timers told me that if you got
one close friend in your life, you're a very lucky man. You know.
I didn't really understand that until I became a little bit older and realized
that by default or by finding out who the people really are, I only
had a couple of close people around me that I considered close personal friends.
Who are these people over the course of let's say the last fifty and twenty
years, who you would consider your close personal friends. Well, you know,
the guy that I'm still really close personal friends with his my wrestling manager,
he's not my real manager. He's a character. His name is Jimmy
Hart, the Mouth of the South. But his real name is Jimmy Hart.
But as a character, he's the Mouth of the South, Jimmy Hart.
So I've been with him like thirty five years. You know, he's
about ten years older than me. He's seventy one years old, so he's
I considered him a close personal friend. And I did have another close personal
friend, a guy named Ed Leslie who wrestled as Bruce the Barbara Beefcake.
But he got remarried and his new wife and I don't see ey andhyte about
a bunch of stuff. So he lives in this area, but we don't
really talk. And the other person that I fob was my best friend was
Todd Clem Bubba the Love Sponge. His name has obviously come up. I'm
sure it's going to come up more in the course of this trial. But
I want to talk a little bit about mister Clem and how you became friends.
Could you tell the jury how you first met him. I'll tell you
what before we talk about that, let me ask you this during the time.
Are you friends with mister Clem right now? No, sir, during
the time you were friends, if you could maybe describe for the jury who
you knew was Todd Clem aka Bubba the Love Sponge versus the radio personality they
may have heard or maybe not heard. If you could just describe him as
you knew him. Well, you know, before I met Todd Clem or
Bubba the Love Sponge, I knew who he was before man him on herb
on ninety three point three, and I was a radio station in Tampa and
could I just could not stand him. It was character was just nasty,
overbearing, just that horrible things on the radio. So I couldn't stand the
character Abobba the Love Sponge. So my ex wife was opening a new restaurant
called the French Hen and Bubba the Love Sponge had the most popular radio show
in this area. So she wanted me to buy advertising on his radio show
for her restaurant. So and so, when I did that, they got
a hold of Jimmy Hart, my manager wrestling manager, and said, oh,
would Holp come on the air. And Jimmy kind of told me and
my ex wife at the same time, and my wife wanted me to do
it, So I did it, and when I was at the radio station.
He was that character, that Bubba the Love Sponge, arrogant, cocky,
nasty to people on the phone, you know, you hang up on
people, very demeaning. And I was in this radio studio and I just
couldn't wait to get out of there. And then it was a few weeks
later up on Northdale Maybury in Tampa, a friend of mine named Ryan Boyer
was opening Goal's gym. I was there for the grand opening, and low
and behold, a couple of chairs down for me. It was this five
hundred pound Bubba the Love Sponge sitting there. He was at his biggest at
that time. And I got there early because I knew, you know,
that there was some special children in wheelchairs. There were some VFW guys there,
and so I got there early because once the line gets going, it's
it's hard to spend time with them. And I really like to meet people
looking in the eyes, shake their hand and kind of like interact with them
so they know that I appreciate what, you know, what they've been doing
being a fan and supporting me. But it goes you know, it's extra
special with these children, kids and veterans that I like to really make them
realize I appreciate who they are and what they do. And when I went
to this autograph signing, Bubba was there, and I watched him treat these
people with such grace and such dignity. It just just kind of caught me
off guard, and I'm like, God, you know, I couldn't believe
that. You know, I judged this guy but what I had heard on
the radio and his character. So I watched him throughout the day. And
the autograph signing was supposed to be two hours, as I remember, it
was about, you know, a five hour autograph session turned into and this
guy treated every single person with respect that came up for the autograph and this
and that and the other. And then I went up to him. I
said, you know, I'm at a mistake. You know, I thought
you were a nasty person, and I'd watch you all day and I appreciate
the help you've given me and my wife and thank you for everything. And
that kind of opened up the door. And I don't recall how it happened
for future communication, but we became so close that we started training every day
together, and he went from five hundred pounds over a period of seven years
down to two hundred and fifty pounds, and I got him on the cover
of you know, I didn't get him on the cover, but he got
on the cover of Muscle and Fitness, which is a bodybuilding magazine. And
we listened everything together to the point where he helped my daughter with her music.
He helped my son with the stuff he wanted to do. And I
went through a really tough time, you know, when my father passed away
and Bubba was there in the room, and Bubba had one of my father's
hands. I had the other one of my father's hands, and as he
took his last breath, Bubba was there with me and he held he was
holding my father as my father passed away. So there was never any question
of, you know, who he was or what he meant to me.
You know, I believed in my heart he was my best friend, and
he's the guy that I valued as the go to guy. And I was
having a problem with my man, my marriage, or if I was having
business problems, I needed somebody to talk to. And it just evolved over
the years. This guy was, you know, I believe was really my
best friend. And I mean we would go on vacations together. We did
Everything Together. Wrestling Podcast with Jack and Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast. You talked
about problems with your first wife. Is that Linda Bala? Right? Yes,
sir. Why did you marry Linda? How long ago did you get
married her before you divorced? We got married December eighteenth, nineteen eighty three.
When did you start having problems? I don't mean like day to day
problems, but real marital problems with Linda. Well, after like three years
of marriage, before we had children, I had a conversation with her mother
and I said, you know, I'm having a little bit of a problem
with the personality and a few other issues. And that's the first time I
remember saying anything to anybody about having some problems. And her mother looked,
you know, looked me in the eyes and she said, well, you
you had married her. I was like, okay, and what does that
mean. So kinda started then, but it was just the normal mar stuff
because we were just trying to do We were three years into the marriage and
we were kind of like really figuring each other out and kind of getting you
know, everything was okay, except just a couple of weird, little weird
things that were going on. I just talked to her mom about it.
Yeah, that's when I first remember the first little glitch in the system.
It wasn't something I couldn't live with. Why did you start experiencing marital problems
that ultimately led to the divorce? Well, yeah, escalated. I would
say it really started to escalated around two thousand and four or thousand and five,
thousand and six, and peaked, you know somewhere around two thousand and
six or two thousand and seven. Who filed for divorced? You were Linda?
Oh, Linda did and do you remember when that was? What year
and month? If you can remember the month, it was November two thousand
and seven. To the best amount of my recollection, I want to focus
on this time frame you just described for the jury because at her about that
time two thousand and four, two thousand and five to two thousand and seven
was when the reality show Hogan Knows Best started being filmed and put on TV.
Right, yes, sir, can you tell the jury how that started
the process if you're getting this reality show, well, I've been helping my
daughter with her music and reality Excuse me, you know VH one was a
music channel and they had a series of one hour specials called inside Out,
and you know, they found out that Hulk Coogan's daughter was doing music.
So they called me and said, hey, you know what you do want
these inside Out specials? So I said yes, you know, it was
to help Brooks career and it was called Hulk Hogan Stage Dad. So we
did the one hour special about Brooks music and me trying to get her go
and you know, and they aired it and got really good ratings. So
they came back to me and asked me for asked for more programming, but
they asked, you know, for in the form of like an Ozzy Osbourne
Kardashian type reality show. That's how it all gets started. Did you talk
to your family about it? Yes, sir, I did. And could
you tell the jury what you told your family, who at that time was
Linda and Nick and Brooke right, Yes, sir, what you told them
about the opportunity and whether it was something that was a good idea. Well,
I did have a meeting, a family meeting with them. I remember
sitting there and telling them about the opportunity from VH one. I said,
but I need to warn you guys, this is real work. You know
that they actually put a microphone on you in the morning and you have to
work all day until you're off work, and it's you know, they sometimes
have very very long days. And I want to also warn you that all
the stuff you see happen to me. You know, whenever I go out
in public, whenever I walk out the door front door. You know,
whenever I walk out the front of the door, there is always an autograph
and a picture. And when you're going to the airport and when you're eating
dinner, people are going to come to you, and you're gonna lose your
anonymity. And I explained to my family what would happen if they if the
show took off and it became popular. But I was also in my mind
thinking about it if I kind of like did the show that might help my
marriage because it was pretty much dysfunctional at that point, and I thought maybe
it would get us back on track because my lex wife it was you know,
you know, you know what about me? What about me? You
know, I'll support to you all these years and I didn't follow my dreams
and stuff like that, and I thought maybe this would help. And so
when I asked my family if they wanted to do it. Everybody raised their
hand. They wanted to do it. And it was one of those things
that I thought in my heart, I thought it would really help. And
so when they did it, I was, you know, I didn't worry
about it too much at the time. I thought this would be good for
us. Explain if you could to the jury how this particular reality show was
shot in the sense of maybe describing whether it's really true reality every second of
the day with no script. Well, and I found out very quickly that
reality TV is not real TV. It's real like you know. What happens
is they come up with the themes of the show, and Hogan knows best
was the see was the theme of the show. And for example, the
first week was Hulkogan takes his dog to a psychiatrist, you know, and
then the next week is Hulkogan and his family decided to ride horses in Montana.
And it would you know, they had themes that they would come up
with, and it was either eight or ten different you know, different shows
per per series. If they had themes they would come up with, and
then every day we'd get a sheet and on the top of the sheet would
say the call time, which means what time he had to be on camera,
and you know, you know, for each theme, they would have,
Okay, you know this morning, we want to accomplish this before lunch,
we want to talk about the family of ak And then everything was written
on about you know, what the plan was for that day. And then
when we put on put the microphone on and then okay, you guys are
all sitting down for a breakfast. You know, they would tell us what
they want us to say. You know, we wanted to talk about how
running the eggs are, or you know, we wanted to talk about how
your freid of horses, and we want to talking about you know, you
know, should we go to whwais had a Montana to ride horses? And
usually I don't ever remember getting the okay the first time. Usually we would
do it in two or three times. We'd get into a rhythm. You
would get the magic, you know, the little argument between me and my
wife where the kids would argue and if we missed a point, the prewsters
would go, Okay, Nick, you did everything great, except you want
to you want to ride a horse bareback? You know, you got to
say that, and they would tell us exactly what to say, you know,
until they got what they wanted. They'd go, okay, cut,
all right, you know, let's move on to the next scene. So
it was it was lightly scripted, but they actually told us what to say
to the majority of the time, so it was kind of easy, you
know. But he kind of like tried to have some magic or they were
praying for magic, you know, such as if the dogs weren't allowed in
the house. They were hoping Nick would accidently left the dogs in the house,
and they were hoping that the dog might go to the bathroom on the
floor and cause an argument or something. So they were hoping for magic.
But they told us what to say and scripted it out. Were you in
character during the filming of the show, Yes, sir, even down to
the voice you used at times. Well, you know, the show was
called Hulk Hogan Knows Best, and it was a broadening of the character instead
of the character. You know, hey, brother, what you doing,
dude. It gave me the artistic liberty to be Hulk Hogan the father,
Hulk Hogan the dad, you know, Hulk Hogan the parent. But it
was all character driven because it was called Hogan Knows Best, not Terry Bala
Knows Best, and that's why they sold the show, because it was Hulk
Hogan and how he was interacting with the Hogan family, Linda Hogan, Nick
Hogan, Brook Hogan. There was no real balleta show, so it was
from top to bottom. It was character driven. So it do anything to
help what was then your rough relationship with Linda At first, it did.
At first, she was very excited about filming, She was very excited about
going on press tours. She was very excited about being on the red carpet,
the camera and kind of like at first, it got to the point
where she seemed to like the celebrity and liked working and like the hours at
first. Did that go on or did it change over time? It changed,
you know, I think the thrill war off, you know, pretty
quickly when everybody realized that it was actually hard work. You know, in
the days were really really long and then and there were a lot of extra
things. You know, you had to do voiceovers after each show, you
know, you would have to drive to Orlando and go in a studio and
talk over your own voice, you know, even if everything was recorded perfectly
all day long. You still had to go over and wash yourself on the
screen and talk over your voice, and that was long too. And then
I think it got to the point where by the second, you know,
maybe going into the third series of shows, you know, we were having
a hard time getting everybody to come downstairs, getting everybody to work, you
know, getting everybody to step up and keep doing this hard job. How
was Linda treating you at this time on camera? She was very professional,
you know, as soon as the cameras were off when we win our separate
directions, and she was kind of neutral at first, but then I noticed
something kind of changed, and she was very aggressive about wanting to live in
California and move home and distance herself from me to where things changed completely due
at some point did she move, Yes, sir, do you remember when?
Just maybe to give you some guidance if the show was on from O
five to Z seven, I don't know if that helps you, well,
no, you know, but there was a point before the last season where
she did move to California, and she showed up lated for the beginning of
the final season, and once they set up production and once they set up
the cruise and there's fifty sixty or seventy people in town on the payroll in
hotels with production facilities. VH one is losing money when you're not working.
So when she didn't show up the first first week, they kind of called
me on the carpet for it, and I said, you know, she'd
be here Monday. And she didn't show up the second week, and then
they were threatening to sue. And then when she did come back, you
know, we worked really really hard to play catchup, and all the last
week was very important to make up, you know, all the work she'd
missed the first two weeks. And she left, you know, before the
last week, but she had already moved over her you know, moved her
stuff to California, and she was chopping at the bit to get back there.
But you know, that was the big move. But that was a
big move to California. But before that, before the final season, she
kept going to back to California all the time, and sometimes, you know,
sometimes wouldn't even tell us. How did you feel when she moved out.
I felt that, you know, there was going to be a chance,
you know that maybe she would come back, but it was tough because
it was almost like instead of just moving out, her actions changed, you
know, like if I went out by and said good morning to you or
just touched you, it went from good morning to almost a snarl when she
looked at me. So I couldn't really touch her because something had changed dramatically.
And I'm not exactly sure how or why did the marriage ever get back
together after she moved out. No, sir, I want to shift years
now. At some point in time while this is going on, had you
been had Bubba the love Sponge, Bubba Clam, Todd Clam, whatever we
will call him here and Heather started talking to you about potentially having sexual relations
with her? Yes, her there did, And can't you tell the jury
about how that started when they first started talking to you about it. I
remember when I was approached. It was a phone call and best of my
recollection, Bubba and Heather were together in a car and Bubba asked me over
the phone, Heather, he called me who he wants in a in a
while as a joke because that was the name of his dog, just joking
around as a friendly joke, and he would say, hey, hoody.
Heather said she wants to see you naked, or Heather wants to have sex
with you, or Heather wants to see the size of your penis. And
it started out like that, you know, where it was kind of like
joking around, but it was, you know, kind of caught me off
guard. You know, it was very weird because I'd never been approached like
that, and all the time I ever knew him, you know, and
I'd have been around him a lot in my environment, and I just was
not you know, caught me off guard when they first approached me. How
well did you know Heather? I don't know her very well at all.
I mean Heather, you know when I met Heather when they first started dating.
And then you know Bubba as a racetrack and that he raced at East
Bay. I saw hard East Bay. He bought a racetrack somewhere in okla
Ocalla. I saw her there, you know. Then I may have saw
her at Bubba's house and Thanksgiving one time when they invited me over. Other
than that, I've only seen Heather about a handful of times. Did they
continue to talk to you about possibly having sexual relations with Heather? They did,
you know, continued on You got to the point where I said,
look, man, it's knock it off. It's not funny, you know.
And then it got to be such a consistent thing it was it almost
turned into a joke, like okay, knock it off. It was almost
like poking at me, you know, because they would get me, get
a response from me. So it got to the point where it was he
had been talked about over the phone, and even one time when I met
Heather on the racetrack and Bubba, you know, they joked about it in
person where I actually thought I'd turn into a joke. I thought, you
know, I knew they had an open marriage, but because we talked about
all the radio, but I thought with me, you know, it was
so many times that they talked me about it that it kind of turned into
a joke, you know, made fun of the ball, you know,
make fun of the ball guy's head, or making fun of me because I
used to be fat, or tease me about the sex thing. So I
actually took it as a joke for quite a while, up to the point
that I was did it ultimately happen? Yes, Sarah did tell the jury
how it happened the first time that you actually had sexual relations with Heather Clem,
you know, his situation where a lot of things were happening at the
same time. You know, I tried unsuccessfully to get back, get my
wife to come back. You know, she verbally, over and over would
say, fu f you. I'm not coming back. You're too old,
you're too slow, you don't turn me on. I'm gonna find somebody younger.
And it was constantly being said to me. And I was constantly trying
to get her to come back because my work was up and down the East
Coast and I try to and I try to live in California, you know,
I went out there and try to make it work, flying from LA
to New Yorker or LA to Atlanta, you know, two or three times
a week, and I was so worn out I couldn't see straight. So
I was trying to get her to come back because I was the guy that
believed, you know, once you put your hand on the Bible and you
made an oath under God until death drew's part, you know, better or
worse. I believe. I was real old school, and I believe that
you should stay married. And I always dreamed that. I always thought that
I would, you know, not be the guy out of all the other
wrestlers to get to get divorced, and I would stay married and this period
of time would pass and she would grow out of it and calm down.
I figured, you know, I kept praying it was just a rough spot,
and just got to the point where I unsuccessfully tried to get her back
several times. My son wasn't a lot of trouble. I wasn't working,
i'd have a job, and she basically said, I'm filing for divorce.
I'm done, I'm not coming back. I'm filing for divorce. You know.
All I did was called bab up and I was just crying like a
baby on the phone with him. You know, I just broke down because
if if he you know, he knew everything, he knew what I was
going through. I told him everything that was going on with her, and
he encouraged me to try to get her back. You know, it will
work out. And I just got to the point where, you know,
I was depressed. You know, it was just I was like at a
low point in my life. You know that when Bubba said, hey,
man, you know, come over to the house, let's talk. I
was so just so desperate I went over there and one thing, let do
another, and I just let my guard down. I thought that those people
cared about me. I felt like I bottomed out. I felt like I
just gave up. I just gave up, gave in, let my guard
down, and it just happened. How many times were you with Heather,
to the best of my knowledge, three, one, two, you know,
maybe four, But it was, you know, it was only it
was only place that I actually felt safe. As crazy as that sounds,
you know, those people made you know, Bubba made me feel like I
was he was my best friend. You know, those people made me feel
like they loved me. And as weird as it felt, as crazy it
sounds, at the time, it just felt like the only thing I had.
It was just it didn't even make sense, but it just happened.
If you could, without have getting too graphic described for the jury, what
happened when you went to Bubba's house falling at the crutch? Well, when
I was at Bubba's house, it was a situation where, you know,
I mean I was. I had a hard time getting to the house.
You know, I was so rattling, upset about everything. But I when
I got to the house. It was like a group hug. When I
came to the front door, the door was open, I just you know,
pushed it open, walked in. I'd only been to Bubba's house three
or four times. You know, he didn't invite me over his house,
and I'd only been there three or four times. A couple times to work
out, and we had a gym in the house a couple you know,
one time to watch Super Bowl game, and I remember Thanksgiving, you know,
and then when I went to the house, I saw the door was
cracked open, so I pushed the door open. You know. It was
kind of like a group hug. And then Heather just kind of started walking
into the bedroom and pulling my hand and I walked with her. You felt
really crazy. And Bubba walked in right behind us and goes, okay,
okay, you guys, I'm gonna go go to my office and here's a
condo. And Bubba handed me a condom. And it was all of a
sudden, it was just so weird and so crazy. You know. My
gul was telling me that this was off, you know, this was wrong,
and you know, my New Year from the feeling I had, I
said, Bubba you're not, Bubba, You're not You're not filming this,
are you? And he just laughed at lashed into me, What the hell
is wrong with you? I'm your FF and best friend? How dare you
say that to me? I would never do that to you. And it
was just kind of like frozen me my tracks. And that's how I ended
up staying in that situation. I just everything was just so surreal. I
just that's how it was. Why did you first hear or gain the knowledge
that there was a tape out there? You know? You know, the
first knowledge that I heard that there was a tape out there was, you
know, some still images came up and TMZ called me and said, you
know, hey, there's rumor there might be a tape out there, a
sex tape. That's the first time I heard a rumor. Do you remember
what year that was? Gosh, I don't recall. Do you remember when
you first heard that it was actually published, that a tape was actually put
out by Gawker? Excuse me? Do you remember when you first found out
that Gawker had actually put the tape up? Yes, sir, I was.
I was on a publicity tour for Total NonStop Action a very small company
that I was not wrestling for because I can't wrestle anymore because of the injuries.
But they had hired me because of my name and wanted me to be
the character of a general manager. And you know, I really wasn't a
general manager. It was just a character. And they used the Hull Cogan
name and status to get me on certain shows that a lot of other wrestlers,
you know, couldn't get on in New York for a media swing,
and they had booked a media tour months ahead of time for their biggest pay
per view called Pound for Glory, and I went on Howard Stern and I
went on a show with Kathelee Gifford and a lady named Hoda, you know.
And then in the hotel room, I got a call from my attorney,
David Houston or TMZ to get on a conference call with TMZ and they
confirmed, they said, you know, there was a sex tape out there
and we have seen it and that so to use that as a point of
reference time wise, how many months before that when you were on the Bound
for Glory tour, did you initially find out from TMZ that a tape maybe
out there? Does that help you? Time wise? It all you meet
three or four years, three or four years or months, you know,
I know, the skills came up and it just started escalating. Do you
remember what year this was when you first got these calls? Seven? You
know? It all kind of happened around the same time. Yeah, but
the stuff with Heather was like years before, like five years before, is
what I'm saying. Right, when you know five or six years before,
right, that's kind to my point? Bound for glory was in what year?
Seven? Sure it wasn't twenty twelve. I'm sorry, Yes, I'm
confused on twenty two twelve, many years before that it actually happened. So
when you get these calls, how many years after the incident occurs after when
you have sexual relations with Heather or Clem? Is it? Well? That's
why I'm misunderstood. It was five or six years before. That's when this
whole thing popped up. I was like, Wow, when you got the
first call from TMZ about the steals, what did you do? I'll call
my attorney, David Houston and to find out what was going on? Did
you did you do an interview with TMZ at that time? You and mister
Houston. Yeah, I think David, to the best of my recollection,
got on there and told them that I didn't know anything about still pictures being
taken and that he would go after and prosecute whoever did this illegally to me?
Did you find out whether any other sites had put steals up? And
we found out that there were several other you know of these sites with like
that, you know, with the pornotype site that put it up. Were
their stories floating around before you find out Cocker puts the video up? Were
people writing stories about the steals or the existence of the tape? Yes,
sir? Did you sue any of them? No? I didn't. Are
you used to having stories written about you? Yes, sir, you talked
about why you were in New York. I guess for this TNA bound for
Glory. I don't know if we talked about TNA. Could you explain to
the jury you know what TNA is or was? Are they still in business?
Kiss is Total NonStop Action Wrestling, And like I said, it's a
smaller wrestling company I was working for, and I was having a lot of
surgeries and stuff during that time. You know, I had several surgeries before
that during that time, because it was just a job, I could have
to be a general manager, you know, I didn't have to physically wrestle,
because I couldn't anymore. You talked about some of these different interviews you
did. I want to show one of them to you. I will show
it to the jury right now, and then we're going to talk about it
a little bit, if we could. Exhibit two twenty nine, whereupon a
video clip was played in open court as follows Alkalgan. He's right here with
me tonight on Showbiz. Tonight, Hulk Helgan, one of the greatest wrestlers
of all time, just got totally sucker punched after someone leaked a sex tape
secretly shot of him five years ago. Obviously an incredible invasion of privacy,
and the Hulk is rightfully fighting back, even just going to the police to
get some help tracking down whoever did this. Hulk is now with TNA Impact
Wrestling, seeing every Thursday on Spike TV. For this Sunday night, it
is a big TNA pay per view event with the Hulk. There's a lot
I want to know about that as well. But first of all, we
welcome you to the show. At this time. Thank you, It's good
to see you. I have to start off by saying, not that you
need my sympathy, but I have a lot of sympathy for you because you
endured what we all saw play out as a very public drama years ago.
You went through some really, really tough times, but you got through it,
and you seem to be on this great path. You sort of stayed
low, you got married, and you have been working. Yeah, and
then this follows in your lap. I realize that you take responsibility for the
decisions you made back then, right, right, But the sex tape,
first finding out that it was shot, and then being released has to have
turned your world around. Yeah. You know, I've been through a lot
of stuff and this single handley has flipped my world more than the divorce,
you know, more than the eight back surgeries when they say you're not gonna
walk, or my son's accident, going to jail, and this came out
of nowhere. You know, Yes, I'm accountable, Yes I was the
guy, you know, don't You know. Nobody wants to hear the woes
me story, but there is one, you know, and you know I
was an all time low, a bad decision you know, these were these
two people were fra ends, you know, and at the time, at
the end of the day, and at the end of the day, at
a really weak moment, I made a wrong decision. To be clear,
for some people who may not know the whole background of this, this tape
was shot around five and a half years ago. It was at a time
when you were still married to Linda. It was you having sex with your
best friends then wife. Yes, sir, they were still married, but
it was all consensual. They all said, yes, you can do this,
go ahead and do it. However, you didn't know it was being
filmed your best friend we're talking about here, radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge,
who was apparently nearby. And then, from what I understand, how
about six months ago or so you actually found out that this tape existed all
these years later, Tell me what went through your mind when you found this
out. You must have been like, tape huh, Well, well,
you know, the whole thing sounded crazy from my best friend's wife to say,
you know, I want to have sex with you. But for you
know, for over two years I said, you know, this is this
is crazy to the sounds you know, even though you know he's saying was
fine. You know they were both you know, we're cool about it.
So finally I was, like I said, at a low point where my
personal life was them out, I said, okay, sure, fine,
And all of a sudden, I remember saying, you're not feeling this,
are you? You know, with security cameras, I'm your best friend.
I would never do that. And so all of a sudden, when the
first pictures leaked out, I asked my best friend and he would no,
I didn't have anything to do with that, So it kind of went away.
So in those pictures first leaked out, who had no warning they were
coming out? No, no, just out of nowhere they show up.
What went through your mind when that happened? Well, I figured that it
was on Bubba's watch, and he's responsible, but he swore he had nothing
to do with it. So if we fast forward it today, I'm in
New York to talk about a wrestling tour in a new time slot, you
know, and all of a sudden, before I come here, you know,
these things come out. So I didn't want to be here. I
just want I just I wasn't going to back out right, to be clear,
you were booked on the show to talk about wrestling, yes, long
before any get this, yes, sir. And so I didn't want to
hide with my tail between my legs, you know, I want to tell
the truth. So I called Bubba and said, you're my best friend,
brother, you know, please tell me because you're you got a family now,
you know if you did this, because if you didn't do this,
I love you forever. If you did this, we were never friends,
you know. He swore to me he had nothing to do with it.
So I was of yesterday last night people were calling me from TMZ saying they'd
heard his voice. I said, I have to see the tape and have
you yet? No, I haven't, you know, I haven't been back
from here, you know. And they said, it's the tail end of
the tape where they write down what was said. Right now, it's transcribed
transcribe. Yeah. Just to be clear, what TMZ told you was that
Bubba is heard at the end of this tape talking about the tape, meaning
if the reports are true, he clearly knew that this was being taped,
yes, And if the reports were untrue, they said he was laughing when
he went up to the camera and said, Heather, this is this is
our retirement before they ever turned the camera off. And I said to Hardy,
the guy at TMZ, I said, you did you see the tape?
He said no, I didn't. Well, I said, well,
I don't believe it, you know. Then the executive producers came on the
phone with Mike Walters and said they saw it, right, And I said,
I have to see the tape. Have you spoken with Bubba since this
revelation that he was on the tape? Well, I had reached out to
him before I came here, and I said, you know, this is
full going, full blown at the end of the day, if he did
it, we were never friends, and it takes somebody that wasn't at an
all time low set them up, put a camera and they and then say
something about money. You know, I can't believe someone would do that to
another person. So that's why I'm praying to God that there's some I've got
to ask you though. If it does turn out that that is true that
Bubba was the person that leaked, or that he wants I want to sign
out who leaked it to a separate from that if he was aware of this,
as you say a legal activity of it being taped, that he was
aware that this was taking place and somehow involved. I mean, this guy
was your best friend. He's been in the show defending you in the past,
and I'm defending him. You'd have no choice but too Well. I
told my attorney, David Houston, you know, I said, David,
this is something we need to find out who everybody is now, we need
to find out who everybody is. I mean, I want to know who
everybody is. I want to know who's involved. You know why this happened.
You know why they would do this to somebody when with my kids brother,
you know, thank god, my kids have been through so much and
they're so old, and my new wife, Jennifer, who is part of
this media or any of this. Yeah, so, I mean, you
know, why would someone do that to another person. That's why I'm still
holding firm that, you know, I'm praying to God he's not involved.
Well, you have to realize that if you don't do something about this,
this could happen to another person, or whoever did this could do this to
another person, or maybe you know, there are others that this has happened
to already and all of a sudden, you know, they sit on a
tape and all of a sudden, ten fifteen, twenty years later it shows
up. I mean, this happens, brother, I understand you're correct,
but I've been with Jennifer five years. This happened before I met her.
The video clip concluded, Judge. For the record, that was defensive,
ghibit to twenty nine. I believe, Judge, And it's already the data.
That broadcast was sometime in October of twenty twelve, ten nine, twenty
twelve, Judge, it's been read into the record through it being played.
I assume our court reporter was taking that down. I would offer at this
time the DVD and ask that it be admitted into evidence. No objection,
your honor received, as we'll get two twenty nine to twenty nine. Eight.
We can clean that up on the break. Maybe it'd be good,
okay, Exhibit received. Mister Bullia. Do remember that interview? Ah?
Yeah, I do. Now, how soon after you had found out that
Gacher had published this video? Were you in that studio on Showbiz tonight?
Is that what it was? Yes? Sir, do you remember how many
hours after you had found out that was it was like five or six hours
later, because I did Howard Stern earlier in the morning at seven something,
and then I did the Kathy Lee Good Morning Show, which is about eight
o'clock. You know, we took a couple hours break, and that's when
the TMZ call came in. And then later that afternoon, you know,
four or five o'clock in the afternoon, and so probably around four or five
hours later after I got this news, I was I went on that show.
I was pretty all over the place, you know, And it was
the same day when I found out. How did you feel? I mean,
I was pretty raw. I felt I felt numb. I just you
know, the news had just hit me. You know that they told me
that Bubbab was on the end of the tape turning the camera saying, Heather,
if we ever needed retied on, this is our retirement. And when
Mike Walter said he saw it and the executive producer saw it. I remember
being on the phone with David Houston and I started, you know, my
arms had ever done this, and my hands started shaking violently, and I
got off the phone and I didn't go into a spasm, but it was
one of those things where I couldn't quit shaking and David, you know,
I'll finally answered the phone back after David called me several times and he talked
me down because he was the only person that I had in my life that
I believed loved me and actually was just with my friend. And then that
interview happened that afternoon, so it's probably four or five hours later, so
I was I was pretty much an autopilot. You know, they're trying to
just still make sense of everything and again just maybe to clear for the jury.
When you say the call from TMZ, this was the call you got,
not telling you about the existence of the tape, but actually that it
had been put on Gawker. Is that clear, yes, sir? Yeah,
yeah, well you know that was within TMZ called and said, yes,
we have a tape and we've seen it. That was the first time
anybody verified that they actually had a tape and saw it. I want to
show you another interview. You mentioned you were on the same tour and I
don't know that the host name of that show, but these were these interviews
were scheduled already for your wrestling promotion, right, yeah, months ahead of
time. Yeah, because you have got you know, like Howard Stern has
several guests. If you want to get on his show, you know,
I'm good luck getting on there, you know, because you have to do
schedule months in advance. It's the same thing with Good Morning America or any
of those shows because all the different TV shows and stuff trying to get the
talent celebrities on the show. So it's scheduled way ahead of time. And
so now you're in New York and this new topic came up right before this.
Did you still go on all these shows? Yes? I did,
if we could judge, at this time, we'd played Defense three zero two.
I think it's the same day, October October ninth, twenty twelve,
where upon a video clip it's played in open court as follows, why don't
you find out there was a tape? Like? What did you hear first?
I'd heard rumors there was a tape of that. Yeah, and it's
been on the air for a while. Yeah, I got it. You
know, let me think for a second. It was six months ago or
seven eight months ago? You know, God, who told me? Yeah?
Who breaks it to you? I can't remember who told me? Do
you like someone calls you up and says, hey, there's a tape of
you fucking Heather. No, no, no, no, that wasn't said.
There was your first off. I never made a tape. I never
said. I swear you were not in on this. I swear to god
I wasn't. Because some people have the theory there's three theories floating about.
One theory is when Bubba made the tape, he liked, that's his thing.
He gets off on someone. I don't. He gets off on someone
fucking his wife, and he saw that he tapes this stuff with a hidden
camera. That's one theory. The other theory is that like maybe Heather and
Bubba were into it and that was in the taping. And then the third
theory is that you were in on it and you were like, hey,
let's release this fucking thing and we're gonna make a ton of money, because
why would I wait six years? I don't know, No, brother,
I wasn't an I swear to god, I had no idea. You know,
you didn't know you were being taped, no, sir, because if
you were being taped, also, you wouldn't be on there talking about how,
hey I feel so fat, I just ate another meal or something like
that you probably would be. I'm not trying to be a really pompous ass,
but you know, I have to say something right now. I'll probably
live to regret, you know. You know, and this has totally up
been in my world. But the situation I was in, I didn't want
to be overly aggressive, right because it was my friends. Girl, you
know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, because you know, things could
have been to a whole other level and I was trying to be cool.
You know, Oh, well, what do you mean? I'm not getting
this. He was being polite, He was being good gentleman. Thank you,
Thank you, Robin. You don't want to banger. No, you
did it as a well. I you know, I wrestled guys in the
ring, you know, guys that are my friends. Yeah, you guys
that aren't my friends. I get really much more aggressive. I don't understand
what you're saying. How come I'm not catching on, because you know I
was, you know, I was just trying. What does whole cogen mean?
He was laid back. It was just sort of like draining the pipes
as supposed to full on affair. Yeah, he wasn't in there doing what
he really does what you're saying then, in other words, is your mormans
would have been way more intense. Well, I'm saying anything. I'm just
saying. I'm just saying. It was a bad situation. Oh, I
get what you're saying. Now, you're saying when I bang a chick or
whatever. But I'm really into I behave a certain way in the bedroom.
No, no, you know everything was off. You know it was I
felt, you know, I felt guilty about being there. You know I
should have. So Bubba said to you, Hey, what's mine is yours.
She's up for it. Go ahead. It's not going to upset me.
But it does change the relationship. And I mean that was awfully nice
of him and hard, I guess in a way right in a sense,
well, you know I because there are both people close friends, you know
right now, there was ongoing dialogue for over two years about this, about
this, and I said, you know, honestly, I just give me
a break. Stop. You know you're joking. It was almost to a
point of being funny, right much. And when I bottomed out, you
know, when my whole personal life was you know, I was in a
bad situation with you know, Oh, it was even before then. It
was just you know, i'd been you know, this this thing is over.
You know, you're too old, too slow, I'm moving on,
you know, it's it's it made you feel good, right, No,
I wasn't that. It was just I knew my marriage was really screwed up
bad, right, and i'd been in the you know, until I went
through the divorce. I really didn't believe all the stuff like that, there's
such a thing as verbal or mental abuse, right. I didn't realize that,
you know, because plus you're the big wrestler tape well yeah, plus
yeah, you know, but you know, at the end of the day,
it's the you know, once I realized, you know, what was
going on, I said, okay, I'm not trying to make any excuse
other than I was beaten down like a dog, and you're feeling low and
you were looking for comfort too. Well, I wasn't even doing that.
You know. My wife, you know, it just made a decision that
she was going back to California and I was at home with the racing team
that we had at the time, the drifting team, right, And it
was just one of those things that after a phone call, which was this
that and the other end with you know and don over with F this,
F that, F you click. I just you know, when Bob Bubba's
to say, hey, Broy, I'm going to hang out, and it
was just one of those moments I said, you know, what the hell
would it? Go for it? And it was a huge, horrible decision.
It's totally you know, I never dreamed a million years there would be
a camera in Bubba's house. The video clip concluded, Judge that for the
record is defense three O two, which will clean up with two twenty nine
and the next break. But we would offer that into evidence also, okay,
and objections, No objection, your honor? Who received? We'll figure
out the numbers later exhibits received. First things first, how many times have
you been on the Howard Stern Show? You know, maybe three or maybe
four? Can you explain to the jury there was obviously some graphic language,
Yes, sir, the way the conversation goes was completely different than the showbiz
Tonight's stuff indicates affirmatively, can you just explain to the jury what it's like
going on those shows, your expectations as a guest, Well, you know,
Howard Stern is a show where you have to say the good with the
bad. If the good part is if you're lucky enough to get on the
show, it kind of predicts what we call the New York media swing.
It also influences all the shows in Los Angeles. You know, if you're
good enough or Howard Stern thinks you're worthy enough to get on his show,
then it kind of opens up a whole all the other doors, like Imus
or other people such as Wendy Williams might take you on the show. You
know, if you can get on the Howard Stern, you know, that's
the good part. The bad part it is he's going to destroy you when
you're when you're on there, and I already knew, you know, go
on the show because I've been on there a couple of times before that he
just tears into you, just destroys you. So you got to take the
good with the bad. And once again, you know, Howard is like
Bubba, you know, the off camera he's the nicest guy in the world
on America's Gonna Talent. You know, he's a different character other than the
Howard Stern the radio. So when you talk in there, you know what
you're in for. And it was a situation. You know, I just
got in the news a couple of days before I went on this media tour
that I was a schedule and all of a sudden, this whole thing with
Bubba's going down the tape. So I went on there and I'm just trying
to explains as best I could, thinking on my feet that this is what
happened with Heather. And at that point, I was still was holding on
hope that Bubba did not do this to me, knowing it proved to me
yet that Bubba had done this. You know, all I knew was that
Gawker had put up some sex tape up that I didn't know about, that
was filmed illegally, and I was praying to God that Bubba didn't do anything
to do you know, hadn't didn't have anything to do with it. So
I was trying to get through the interview, hopefully get to the point where
I could talk about TNA, I mean, Total nonstive Action Wrestling, Bound
for Glory, the reason I was booked there anyway, you know, And
that's what Howard's that's what the Howard Sterns show. It's kind of like it's
part it's kind of like, you know, it's it's kind of like the
cost of doing business. When you're in the entertainment business and you need to
go out on all these media things. You never know what questions you're going
to be asked. So that's why I was there on the Howard Sterns Show,
and that's why the content of the show is just so graphic and so
vulgar. And that's what you know, you know what you're going to get
there. Now, if I was on America's Got Talent, you know,
America's Got Talent, Howard Sterns other show, I'd walk on the stage and
say, hey, I mean, tell you guys about Bound for Glory.
You know, none of that stuff would have been talked about. But when
he's in the hour Stern character and I'm there as whole Hogan as the character,
it's harder to address these tip situations to get through it, and I
tried the best that I could. I found out about the tape a couple
of days earlier. Do you remember the time the difference the time difference between
the day Gawker published in those shows October ninth and tenth, how many days,
Well, I don't really recall how many days it was. It was
all like close per proximity. When you got that call from the TMZ sometime
around these two shows. And I will correct something you may have heard the
lawyers. I'll say, I think the show biz Tonight's show was on the
tenth. I think you know it was. I was there one or two
days. I can't remember. Wrestling podcast with Jack JP Sorrow, he's the
lapst Fan wrestling podcast. Yeah, the TMZ called what was different about that?
Having already known that there was a tape out there? What did they
tell you that you didn't know? Well, the TMZ told me something different.
You know, I knew before I went to New York that GOACHERD put
up the tape. But what TMZ called me, they confirmed my worst fears
at the only person that I hadn't left, because my wife had taken off
with my kids at that time, the only person I had left was this
camaraderie with Bubba, my friend. And as bad as everything was and as
horrible as I felt about it, and if everything was going to hell in
a handbag, I still held out hope because he was telling me he did
not do this to me. I mean every time I approached him and said,
anything all about about at all about you know, you have got to
tell me. I'm going on, Howard Stern, I'm leaving tomorrow. You
know I have to know Bubba this. I'm throwing myself on the firing line
here and throwing myself on the sword here. You have to tell me did
you have anything to do with this? And he kept saying, no,
I didn't. I never would do that to you. F you, how
dare you keep asking me? He kept saying it so almost like I like
slapped me in in place to where I went, and I fought for him,
and I told Howard Sternio, I know Bubba didn't do this to me.
He's my best friend. I said the same thing the very next interview
afterwards with Kathie Lee Gifford on Today's Show or Good Morning America, which every
one it is that I refused to believe he did this to me. He's
my best friend. No one would do this to another person, No one
would do that. So that's what I found out. Different we're talking about
the comment that he excuse me that the discussion TMZ had with you about what
was on the tape, Yes, sir, when they when they confirmed that
Bubba was on the tape, and Bubba went up and turned the camera off
and pulled and Bubba told Heather, this is our retirement. Heather, it
just it just started violently shaking. I couldn't stop. Let me ask you
this, This may be a silly question. Did you ever consent to Gawker
using naked images of you in a video for any purpose? No, sir,
I did not. How has this affected you, mister Balaia or it's
term my whole you know, my whole world upside down? You're the main
things I was concerned about at the time were my children and my new life
with Jennifer. You know, my kids have been through a lot of ups
and downs. Objection your honor approach at the bench. The thing about the
wife is off limits? What oh, yes, thank you, it's off
limits. As you recall, we have a stipulation that they were not going
to go into that. I don't think that's why that's Jennifer McDaniel, now,
Jennifer Balaia. I didn't think he had run a foule of anything.
Let me just check he's not. I don't think he's talking about their emotional
state he's talking about this, I will redirect the question. Okay, thanks,
I will make sure he doesn't talk about how they feel as much as
how he feels about them being exposed to it. Okay, what's going on?
That's fine. Thank you were an open court, mister Bala. I
want to what when you talk about this. I want you to focus on
your feelings about the fact that your failure was exposed to this. All right,
yes, sir, if you could focus on how you feel about the
fact that they were exposed to this, which is what I think you were
saying. Yeah, yes, sir, I was. And let me ask
you this question. Were you humiliated by this? I was completely humiliating.
My family has been through so much. My feeling was not again. You
know, I just completely cleaned my life up. You know. I accepted
Christ as my savior when I was fourteen years old. I drifted away from
that. I reaffirmed my belief. You know, my new relationship is very
spiritually based. You know, when I approached my children, I was I
thank God that they know who I am. And as as hard as a
hit as I knew it would be, I didn't know how they would survive.
You know, and I was worried about how it is going to affect
everything, my relationship with my children, and I thank God that they understand
who I am. Objection your honor, Judge, I don't overalled. I
understand what you're saying. Were you ashamed? Well, I was humiliating.
But the thing is my life has changed drastically. You know, I'm pretty
hardheaded, but I've learned, you know, and I'm praying that you know,
even in this moment, I'm praying that my new marriage stays together.
Might maybe approach is just on the same issue. He is okay, overruled.
May I have a standing objection to this line of testimony? No?
Brother? Can I Can I talk? Or what do I do? The
court overruled the objection just as you're talking. Just focus on what you feel
about the fact. I okay that your family was exposed without talking about what
they may feel and how you feel. Okay, if you understand that the
feeling I have is a feeling that I know. I'm torn. My feeling
is torn that I don't know if my new relationship, you know, on
a Terry Balaya level, is not media based. I'm torn, So I
have no idea if my new relationship in my life on a Terry Balaa level
is going to survive about it's not that great? Right now? Let me
let me ask you this. I mean, for people that saw the video
out there that don't have the benefit of sitting as a jury and listening to
you, describe the difference between Terry Ballet of the person and Hulk Cogan the
character. Were you embarrassed of what it did to you as a person?
Well, I was embarrassed with what it did to me as a person,
but he was, you know, he was even embarrassing as a character.
Say it, Say it. Hulk Hogan was embarrassed. Hulk Hogan was embarrassed.
Hulk Hogan was embarrassed. Brother, Judge, if I can ament was
embarrassing, Judge, if I can have a moment to confer, I think
we're about done, Judge. We don't have any more questions at this point
in time. All right, why don't we go ahead and take a break,
about a ten minute comfort break please. The jury retired from the courtroom
at three fifteen pm. All right, thank you. Can we discuss this
a bit more? Brother, Yes, mister Tcherkill, do you want to
approach at the bench. There is only one of me, Judge, I
think you can take it. Now there's four. Can I make three statements
for each of one of them? You have got back up now, your
honor. This whole thing is exactly what we are creating. It was not
going to be gone into. So that that's why we didn't depose Jennifer Boleia.
I don't think he was telling about Jennifer's position, her feelings. He
was talking about the reaction to him. During the course of discovery. We
told plintiff's counsel, mister Harder, that we wanted to depose Jennifer, Nick
and Brooke, and they said, no, we don't want them deposed.
We said, well, at his deposition he testified that his biggest emotional distress
concerned his relationships with them, and they said, we understand that we won't
testify about that at trial. That's not going to be part of the damages.
That's this whole garden variety of emotional distress thing. So we entered into
a stipulation that said we would not depose Jennifer, we would not depose Brooke,
we would not depose Nick, and he would not testify like he just
did. That is the agreement. Now that's not totally accurate. The agreement
was that he I have it, thank you, mister Malayah, would not
testify about the feelings that Brooke had, the feelings that Nick had, and
the feelings that Jennifer had. He would talk about the feelings that he had
as a father and a husband. He can testify that this went back and
forth. That's the wording that we agreed on. He will not testify about
these people's emotional states, statements, reactions out of D's facial expressions. He
didn't wait or any other person when they first learned he didn't, or the
subsequent communications with him about the footage. Nor may he testify about the effect
of any publication on his relationship with Jennifer, Nick or Brooke. That's what
he just said. To the contrary, I think what he just said,
Judge, if we're going to focus on the probably one innocuous comment was that
he personally was concerned but didn't know, and he was ashamed, and that
was about it. And frankly, I can promise you we're not going to
ask them to award damages for any of that, nor are we going to
argue it. You know, he may have in artfully said it, but
I don't think he violated that stipulation. He certainly didn't talk about anything up
to arguably thereon one potential comment, okay, his relationship with his kids.
He came back to it with his relationship with his current wife, and he
did it over and over again. And this is exactly what we wanted to
stop in discovery because this is the only aspect of damages that he talked about
in his deposition. It's just it's completely improper. Well, and we have
no defense. We can't depose these people. I don't think he mentioned anything
about what any of them said, did or felt. Now. I think
he was totally talking about his own response to the whole situation, right,
That's exactly what this says. He may not testify about the effect of any
publication on his relationship with Jennifer Nick or Brooke, but he didn't. He
just said he was embarrassed and ashamed and that you know, he did say
he was worried about the marriage. He did, but that was when he
that was when they objected. I mean, whatever it is, it is,
the cat is out of the back. I don't think the cat is
I mean, the cat is probably hanging out of the back I out,
I think of good day. You know, if you want, if you
want a curative, get a curative on it. I don't think at the
end of the day, unless we try to argue it or get them to
award money for it, it even matters. Anyway. We would like a
curative instruction. Yeah, what would you like it to say? Can we
have a second judge, yes, your honor? Yeah, what we would
like them a security of that specifically tells the jury what they are supposed to
be focusing on. It would be a statement reflecting his last sentence. And
the only thing an issue here is plintiff's request for his regarding his own distress
relating to the publication. Okay, we're fine with that. Okay. A
recess was taken at three twenty pm. Court call to order three thirty six
pm. Thank you, y'all can be seated a few things before we bring
our jury if we can. We also need to figure out the numbers of
the plaintiffs exhibits. We chatted and this is what we agreed on. If
it's okay with you, sure, judge, Remember we talked about at the
luncheon break they were. They told us they would go through the morning tomorrow.
So we have some issues about exhibits, but Ken said he doesn't.
I'll go as far as I can go, so we can make some headway,
and then we may break a little early today today. Yeah, that's
fine. I will just give you. Yeah, that's fine. And then
we're talking about scheduling. Oh, that's fine. I mean if this got
done earlier than they thought, then they won't be ready and want to conclude
early. As long as the court is fine with that, I don't have
any objection. That's fine. But you think you will conclude with them today?
No, no, So you will continue to the cross examination tomorrow tomorrow,
that's fine. Yeah, So we probably won't start up though, until
like nine to fifteen. I have a I have a wrist appointment at eight,
so we've already had We've already had two witnesses on judge. Yeah.
Yeah, I have no complaints, but I'm fine with that as long as
court is okay with it. Have you figured out your numbering yet? Those
are the defense numbers, I know, but you don't see the plaintiffs move
in the defendants exhibits if you want to reserve and have them move it in
because they don't want us to move it in. I don't know that they're
going to move it in. I have no objections to it. We're going
to use parts of the same, okay. I mean the point is you
don't care if it moves under your numbers. No, there is different iterations,
and what we probably did is they have that clip, so we don't
need to make a duplicate of it. So we'll just use theirs. Right,
that's fine, Like what you said the first one something A we have
an A. Right, we'll sort it out tonight. Yeah, yeah,
well do you or I could just move it under the defense numbers if there
is no objection to that, and it's just for the clerk's purposes. I've
already talked to Randy about it. Oh you're dead. We'll just going to
replace the originals in their files, and then if they want to use another
portion of three O two just added in as a that's segment three O two
A three or three. Brother. See, we may we have already got
like a three O two A. So we'll work this out, well,
working out, we're working out the problem is that you mentioned it in your
case. I mean, normally you're not supposed to do with these videos discussion
off the record. We're talking about your exhibit numbers. So he's um.
He suggested what I felt was a good idea, which is that they have
the I presently have the truncated versions of all these things, if you just
don't want to substitute the one that actually needs to be used in court for
that one and return your arriving to you when I would add that in well,
markets plaintiffs, whatever your last numbers are, I sort of. I
think that's a clear idea of plaintiff moving in their own exhibits, Okay,
otherwise the numbering system is going to be literally screwed up. I've been working
for the last two hours, can you. I don't know, okay,
So they will figure it out over the night and tell you tomorrow morning.
Is that okay, Randy? Yes? Well, I think the problem is
the defendants also have some a's and the bees and those separately. So we
want to make sure that the plaintiff is not moving in the defendant's as maybe
they already had their own A. We'll sort it out. Then we'll sort
it out tonight and then we'll figure it out. We'll announce it tomorrow.
It's in the record. This is just like we'll get it to them,
I promise you, yes. But it ends up being an additional issue because
the media are wanting the exhibits, and I have told them that they're not
going to get the exhibits from prior to because they're coming to the clerk wanting
all the exhibits. I said, no, they're not moved into evidence.
So no, the media is not getting all the exhibits before they have been
moved it. So just from there was a whole other party here. Okay,
we'll figure it out in open court. Okay, thank you. And
who is doing the cross I am. Okay, let's go ahead and bring
out jury, please, yes, Judge. The jury returned to the courtroom
at three forty two pm. All right, thank you very much. Everybody
can be seated, so, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Two.
I also want to instruct you that you're only to consider evidence of the plaintiff's
own distress relating to the publication of the sex videotape. All right, go
ahead, mister Sullivan. Thank you, Uranana good afternoon, mister Blaya,
brother, good afternoon. What I would like to do is talk with you
about a little more about your relationship with Bubba the Love Sponge. All right,
yes, sir, all right. Now, you've known Bubba over ten
years correct, Yes, sir, and you were best friends until October of
twenty twelve, right around that time, yes, sir, okay. And
when you were best friends, Bubba the Love Sponge was as closer closer than
a family member, correct over time, yes, sir, all right.
And when you were best friends, you would have done anything for him?
Correct? No, I would have done almost anything. Yes, all right.
You did pretty much everything he asked, didn't you. Well, I
don't recall if I did everything he asked. Okay, you love Bubba unconditionally,
correct, Yes, sir, okay. And you considered him like a
younger brother, didn't you. Well? Oh you know, I tried not
to think him as a younger brother. I consider him a friend. Okay,
all right, Brother, you felt you knew Bubba? Well? Is
that fair to say? Yeah? It was very fair. Okay. You're
the best man at his wedding, right, yes, sir, godfather to
was a son. Yes, all right, let's shift a focus now slightly.
Now, Bubba, as we all know from the past few days,
is a radio personality in this community, isn't he Bubba loves Bun, Yes,
sir, he is now. Before October twenty and twelve, if you
used to appear on Bubba's radio show, didn't you, Yes, sir,
all right? And you frequently were a guest on the show. Sometimes you
would appear in person, right, yes, sir, But in fannas the
personal appearance as well, it was about five I think you said between five
and ten times in person. Oh yes, in person maybe five, you
know, not more than ten, I wouldn't think so, okay. You
also would appear in his show by calling in, right, yes, sir,
And in those instances I think you told us before that there were between
fifty and a hundred times that you called in on the radio. Right You're
more or less yes, sir. Now, having you appear on Bubba's show
helped Bubba broaden his audience, didn't it well? In my opinion? Having
Hulk Hogan on the show, I think brought more of an awareness to his
show, especially when he changed from local radio to series which is nationwide.
Okay, and at the same time, in fanness, it was for your
career to be on Bubba's show. It is good for your career at that
time. It was not a negative. Okay, well, let's put it
this way. Once Bubba was on serious radio, hearing you on the radio
helped create awareness of Hulk Hogan beyond just the wrestling world. Is that fair
to say? Well, you know my opinion, I'm sure his serious radio
show reached some people that may not have watched wrestling. Okay, I'm pretty
sure most of the people that have hurt serious new hul Hogan, but it
may not have drawn a different demo demograph again, all right. And by
appearing on Bubba's radio show, that also gave you a platform when you wanted
to speak out on some issue, correct, all right, could be you
know, could be a platform, yes, sir. Okay. So for
example, when you were going through kind of tough times with various issues like
with the ex wife, there was that episode where there were too many animals,
that thing in bell Air. He allowed you to speak out on that,
right, Oh, yes, they're always an as whole hog okay,
a character, right, and he would allow you to use his show to
voice your side of this story, wouldn't he? Yes, sir okay.
Now, when you and Bubba were friends, he supported you, didn't he.
Now? What were you talking about? Well, when you were going
through the tough times with your wife Linda, he supported you there, didn't
he? Oh? Yes, sir, he was a good support. You
know, he was on my side, yes, sir? All right,
when you were going through the divorce with Linda, he was a supporter for
you there as well, right, yes, sir, okay. He also
beyond that, he supported you by helping your daughter Brook's career. Didn't he
know? He was the one that actually took her to a studio the first
time to record her voice okay. And he also used his program to promote
her album, didn't he? Yes? You know he would let me call
in and talk about her album on her or her video. Okay. During
that period when you and Bubba the Love Sponge were close friends, would you
talk frequently? Right? During that time, we would talk frequently, yes,
sir okay. And when you were in town, you typically would see
each other pretty much every day, right, Well, it was not consistent,
you know. There may be a week where I would see him three
or four times. A week, and then there were you know, maybe
a week where you know, a change depending on a schedule. Okay,
The Serious Show put extra stress on him because he had to do a radio
show or two shows a day, so it changed things. Instead of working
four hours a day, he was pretty much on the radio eight hours a
day. So it'll changed a lot of stuff. Okay, all right,
let's shift a focus slightly again. At this point, you're no longer best
friends with Bubba Love Sponge, correct. Okay? Is that correct right now?
Yes, sir? No, No, he's not my friend, no,
sir, okay, and you no longer speak right, No, sir,
I do not. Okay, but you miss him, don't you.
Well, I missed the guy I thought he was. I missed the guy
I thought loved me and I thought he was my friend. I missed that
guy. I don't miss him the guy I know who he is. Now.
Okay, you missed talking to him, don't you not anymore? No,
sir, no, no, you know I miss hanging out with him.
Your things has changed a lot in my life, so you know I
have our new relationship or I spend most of my time with that person.
All right, Now, after the still photographs. We're going to talk about
one of the things he discussed with mister Turkle. After the still photographs from
the tape were published in April of two thousand and twelve, you stayed friends
with Bubba the Love Sponge, right, yes, sir? Okay, You
still contrasidered him at that point in time, April of two thousand and twelve,
to be a best friend, right, Oh, yes, sir,
because he said that he had nothing to do with the still photographs, right.
Exactly after you saw one of those grainy photographs, you had a face
to face conversation with the Bubba at the studio, didn't you, Yes,
sir, all right, and you asked him if he had anything to do
with this, right, yes, sir, all right? And he swore,
he swore to you that he had nothing to do with this, right,
yes, sir. And he cussed you like a dog, didn't he.
Oh? Maybe not the first time, but I know the second or
third time I asked him, you get very nasty about it. Well,
he cussed you for a doubt in him, didn't he, Yes, sir,
he didn't, okay, And he told you, he said, well,
I'm your best friend, right, yes, sir, he did,
and he told you he said I'd never do that to you, didn't he?
Yes? Or he didn't say that? All right? And you believed
him, didn't you? Yes, you're add Okay. Now let's move forward
in time yet again. Let's focus on October two thousand twelve, to be
precise, October fourth to twenty twelve, which is when Gauka posted the video
right that video excerpt in the commentary that we saw this morning during the opening,
Okay, focus on that after Gauka posted that you confronted Bubba again,
didn't you? Yes? I did, and you asked him face to face
whether he filmed you, and he lied, didn't He? He lied more
aggressively, more adamantly, because when the video was released, my whole world
changed. He would flip my world upside down. And I was desperate to
know if he did this because my whole life had changed. Okay. My
question was he lied to you, right yes, sir? Okay? And
you asked him man to man whether he filmed you, and he lied to
you, right yes, sir? He did all right? And you looked
him right me aye, and he lied to you right yes, sir?
Okay? So you said to him, is my best friend. I need
you to tell me the truth. And despite that, he lied right to
your face, didn't he? Yes, sir, he did, okay?
And at that time you believed Bubba completely didn't Yet at the time I believed
him completely? Okay, there was no reason not to. All right.
You couldn't tell he was lying, yet I could not. He was convincing,
wasn't he. Well, he made me believe that he's my best friend
and he would never lie to me? All right? And he seems sincere
didn't he? Yes? You did? Okay, he seemed completely honest at
that time, right, yes, sir, he did? Brother? All
right? Now, as well as you knew Bubba best friend ten years,
you couldn't tell he was lie until you could yet I could not. Okay,
as close as you were, you couldn't tell, right, No,
sir, would you agree that Bubba love Sponge is a pretty good liar?
All right? Now, let's shift that focus yet again. Now you have
testified that you had no knowledge that you would be in when you were having
those sexual encounters with Heather. You testified that you had no knowledge you were
being recorded, right, Yes, sir, okay, did Buba any time
tell you anything like, look, you could only have sex with Heather if
you let us record this. Did he ever say anything like that, No,
sir, he did not. Okay for her pot. Did Heather ever
say to you anything like, listen, we can only have sex if Bubbas
is able to record this anything like that. No, sir, I never
had that conversation with Heather. Okay, as I understand it. Yet,
you have said you never noticed security cameras in Bubba's house. Right, No,
I never noticed security cameras in Bubba's house. Okay, that is your
testimony you would call giving a deposition in the case a couple of years ago.
To the best of my recollection, I remember saying Bubba had security cameras.
No, no, sir, you told us you never noticed the security
cameras. That's what you told us in the deposition. Right. Well,
the deposition I recall was a deposition that related to the bedroom where I said
I've never noticed security cameras. Yeah, okay, I may have confused you
well a little bit, yes, sir, okay, all right now,
and I take it, and I take it you said that Bubba never pointed
out a security cameras to you. Right when I said that I was talking
about pointing at you know, I think it was in reference to the bedroom.
You know, you're confusing me again. And I'm pretty sure the deposition
you're talking about if you read the paragraph before, I'm pretty sure. And
I had to do the bedroom dude. Yeah, let me do this.
Let's just to clear this up in fantas to you. Do you have a
bind or have deaf positions up there? If you want to read along?
Man, Okay, I can. I'll give you that. I can give
you that if that is helpful. I can also read it whatever you but
prefer I'm happy to do any of that. I would love to have both,
brother, if possible. Okay, may I approach your honor? Yeah,
thank you your worm I reading, dude. I will show you.
These are tabbed because there are multiple days. So I'll give you the volume,
okay, and then a page number. Okay, all right, thank
you? Sure? Okay, sir, if you can leave a volume two,
page two fifty eight, lines five through seven and see if this refreshes
your recollection five through seven, Yes, sir, two fifty eight, five
through seven, Okay, Part me in fantas. Let's go two through seven.
All right, The question was asked, and how many times would you
say that you have been in Bubba's bedroom? Answer no more than three.
Question did you ever notice security cameras in Bubba's house? Answer no? Question
Did Bubba ever point his cameras out to you? Answer never? Do you
see that? Yes? I do? Okay, And then you say,
let's continue one just for complete this question at line ten. Did Bubba,
I assume, therefore, the Bubba never explained to you how the security cameras
worked. Answer? I never knew he had cameras. Do you see that?
Yes, sir, But you know that was in reference to line two.
You know, there was a whole you know, he was a whole
train of thought I was on. I thought you were talking about Bubba's bedroom.
Right. The line two says how many times have you been in Bubba's
bedroom? I said, no more than three? And then you talked about
the house, okay, in Bubba's house, right, you know, I
thought we were talking about the bedroom in the house. That's my train of
thought, you know. And then I said, you know, I never
knew you had cameras, and my whole train of thought was about the bedroom.
You know, we talked about the bedroom Bubba's house at that point right
now, in my opinion of what I'm reading here now, did Bubba tell
you that it is that following his child custody dispute, his agent, mister
Bean brother you're familiar with, mister Bean told him that he should put security
cameras about dude. What never? Okay, didn't tell you that? All
right? You know I was his best friend. He would have told me
something like that, okay, and you would remember that if he told me,
I would have remembered that. All right. Now, let's look at
Defendants Exhibit three oh six. And this is a clip I'm ext I'm sorry.
What am I looking for now? I'm going to show you a clip
on one of those programs. Oh, I'm sorry, I apologize and you're
on I Just so the record is clear for the court and the jury.
This is Defendants Exhibit three oh six. It's a clip of an appearance,
mister Balaia, that you made in October tenth, twenty twelve, on the
Serious x SIM wrestling show Busted Open. Okay, all right, you're familiar
with that wrestling show, Busted Open. No, not really. I mean,
there's so many of them, there's hundreds of them. Can't remember.
All right, let's see, maybe, let's see if this is a refresh
your recollection. Do you recall appearing as part of your media tour in October
of twenty and twelve? Do you recall appearing on that program, that serious
radio program? No, sir, you know when when you go into the
Serious Building in New York, you can be in the serious building for two
or three hours, which I usually would do, and I would do thirty
or forty radio shows. Will you go into the Serious Building in New York?
You can be the serious building for two or three hours, which I
usually would do, And how would you like thirty or forty radio shows?
So I don't know which radio show was busted open in the Serious Building?
I'm sorry? All right, fair enough, let's see if this were a
fresher recollection, Tim, if you could play the clip? Whereupon an audio
clip was played in open court as follows as promised, A great hull co
get in the studio. First off, I want to say, how thank
you for agreeing to come and sit down with us after all these things that
are swirling around in the media right now, and I just want to say
thank you, and it's got to be a tough time right now for you
and your family. Well, it's kind of like I walked into another safe
zone right here. Audio clip included. Now concluded, Now, mister Belaya,
do you recognize your voice in that program? What I mean definitely sounds
like me. Okay, that's whole Hogan. Okay, fair enough. Do
you have any reason to believe that that's not you on that program in October
tenth? Well, if you're telling me that's a radio show, a wrestling
radio show and as serious, and you're telling me that that's me and it
sounds like my voice, I have no reason to believe you at this point.
All right, okay, Tim, if you could play the second clip,
whereupon an audio clip was played in open court as follows. I even
ask you, because I know you have security cameras in your house, you're
not filming this, are you? Audio clip concluded. Okay, could you
hear that? Yes, sir? Okay, so you asked, Bubba,
I know you have security cameras in your house. You're not filming this,
right, yes, sir? Okay, Let's look briefly at defendency tip at
three oh nine, which, for the record, is another clip of an
appearance you made on the same day, October tenth, two thou and twelve
on the Serious XM. Covino and Rich radio program. Are you familiar with
that program? They're all the same to you, Okay. Like I said
before, Once you get in that serious building, the thirty or forty Like
I said before, once you get in that serious building, there's probably forty
or fifty studios with radio shows in each room. So they take you around
all these radio shows and you talk to everybody in a two through two or
three hour period. So I'm not sure if Caveno or busted open. You
know, I'd have to see the guy to actually remember who I was talking
to you. I can't tell from the voice. Okay. So what you're
telling us is they get you in that serious building and then basically they try
to maximize the value of your appearance and show you to one program, take
you to another program, maybe do another interview. That's just how it works,
right yes, sir, okay, fair enough, And I take it
as you sit here right now, you don't have that the particular interview doesn't
stand out in your mind. No, sir, it doesn't. That's fair.
Nods affirmatively. Okay, Tim, if you could please play a clip
from Defendants three oh nine, whereupon adio clip was played in open chord as
follows speaker inaudible, my mom says I'm a catch and the infamous Rich Davis
inaudible The Covino and Rich show. Audio clip concluded, Now, does that
refresh your recollection at all? No, I'm sorry it doesn't. Okay,
all right, Tim, do you have a second If you could play the
second clip we're upon. An audio clip is played, an open chort as
follows, Yeah, at the end of the day, As I'm standing there,
I know it's wrong, and I said, Bubba, there's no cameras
in here. I know you have video cameras. Audio clip concluded, Okay,
do you did? Did you recognize your voice? Well, it's definitely
sounds like me. Okay, does that in any way refresh your recollection on
that particular interview that day? No, it doesn't, but it sounds like
I'm asking him, you know you don't have any cameras in here? Because
if that's what it sounds like what I asked him, you know it really
went fast. Okay, brother, you know if you play for me again,
I'll not be able to hear it better. All right, thank you,
Tim, if you could play it again for mister Balaya, whereupon an
audio clip was played in open court as follows. At the end of the
day. You know, as I'm standing there, I know it's wrong,
and I said, Bubba, there's no cameras in here. I know you
have video cameras. Audio clip concluded. Okay, well, I'm I'm making
a question. There is no cameras in here. I mean, why would
I ask the question if I knew there were cameras in there? It doesn't
make sense, right, You've a concern that there may be cameras in there?
Right, Well, it's like I said before that it was so surreal
that I was there and he was handing me a condom. You know,
my gut just didn't feel right. It just came out. You know,
you're filming. This is what I actually said, if I can remember correctly.
And that's why I was asking him, because I was concerned that this
thing felt so weird that my gut was telling me just didn't feel right,
and you know you're not filming this are you? And that's what I asked
him, and that's what it sounds like to me. But it was very
fast and sounded like okay, still having a little hard time following it.
Well, I can hear it, dude, but it sounds a little you
know, the verbi sounds a little different. We'll see if we can do
a little better for you. But let me ask you this, why would
you why did your mind immediately go to the question? Well, just being
there knowing that I wouldn't I shouldn't be there. You don't know what everything
felt weird. It's just my gut feeling and I was just following my gut.
It just came out right. I just asked it because that was my
gut feeling at the time. And he, you know, he reassured me
that there was I see. So that's what. So I just don't understand
if I said, if I asked him that question, and if I didn't
know, why would I ask him that question? Brother? Right, I
don't understand. Okay, Now, let's look briefly a defendants Exhibit two twenty
nine, and this is a clip of that television appearance you made in October
tenth, twenty and twelve on Showbiz tonight, we saw a little bit of
that earlier. Tim If you could please play the first clip, whereupon a
video clip has played at open chort as follows, you know, all of
a sudden, I remember saying, you're not filming this, are you?
I've got you know, I know you've got security cameras at all? I'm
your best friend. I never the video clip concluded. All right, So
you did know there were security cameras in Bubba's house, right? Well?
Yeah, I know Bubba had cameras, but I was never told, or
never was pointed out that there was a security camera pointing at the bed,
or if there was a camera in the bedroom. I never heard of that,
right, But you knew he had cameras, security cameras in his home,
correct, yes, sir okay? All right, now, if we
could shift our focus yet again. When Gauca came out with the atobid fourth
twenty twelve post, right when they put that piece up there on their website,
did you did not read the commentary on the sex tape that mister de
Lerio wrote, did you know, sir, okay, never read it?
All right? And you never read the commentary until your deposition in this case
in March of twenty fourteen. Correct, I don't call it recall if I
read it at the depot. All right, it doesn't. You don't remember
that at all? No, I don't, okay, all right, So
you you can see if you look at Volume three, page four sixteen,
twenty one through four twenty. Take a look at that page four sixteen,
Yes, sir, four sixteen, starting a line twenty one fewenty one,
Just line twenty one. Yes, did you know Gawker came out with the
post? Yes, four sixteen twenty one. You see it says, did
you know that when Gawka came out with the post? Did you read the
text of the article that posted? Answer? No? Question? Okay,
have you ever read it? Answer? Never read it? Question At the
time that Gawka posted the video excerpts, did you watch the video excerpts?
I have never watched the video excerpts, never watched all right. Now,
you will see down there, if you go down to page four seventeen,
at line fourteen, you will see there there as an exhibit ninety two at
your deposition, and it's the Gawka post, and you were asked to read
it. There do you see that. I'm going to ask you to read
it, so that are you all right? I'm fine. Yeah, I'm
going to ask you to read it and let me know when you've had a
chance to do so. Do you see that, yes? I do?
Okay, So that refreshes your recollection that Indeed, at your deposition in Watch
of twenty fourteen, you read the commentary, correct, yes, sir?
All right. Now you've told us you've never watched the complete sex tape that
Gawka received, the one that was sent to them anonymously in the mail.
You've never watched that, right, No, sir, okay. Now,
when Gawka posted the commentary, they posted the video excer that we talked about
this morning in the open. Judge, if I may, under the rule
of completeness, I don't know, can we approach on that last excerpt he
just read at the bench, Go ahead, Judge. In this depot,
what they do is they show him the excerpt, they have him read at
the article, and they ask a bunch of questions. I don't know if
he's saying to create the idea because nothing he was like refreshing his memory,
nothing was inconsistent with what he said, but I don't know if they were
trying to create the impression he didn't actually read it there. If they are,
I want him to read all his questioning that came up because they questioned
him about it extensively. Have you moved off of that? Yeah, I
think he's done with that part. Okay, I don't know, but if
they're going to sort of try to create the implication you know that he didn't
actually read it that day, that I'm going to ask him to read all
that stuff. So I hope that's not where they're going. It's not,
well, where are you going at this point? We are moving to the
next part of watching the video. Yes, ma'am, the thirty minute video.
Here is the point Ken I took his deposition and he kind of you
gotta keep him focused, if you know what I mean. He's not the
strongest guy on chronology, so I'm trying to get that. I get.
What I would ask is this, if he makes a statement in court and
that statement is inconsistent with his deposition, then lay the predicate. So I
know, if you're just going to refresh it, let me know. That
way I can sift through this better. Yeah, yeah, it was unclear
to me, I guess, thank you an open court. Go ahead,
missus Sullivan. Now, when Gawka posted the commentary and the video excerpts on
October fourth, twenty twelve, you testified you told us you didn't view those
video excerpts at that time. Correct sir, okay. As of much of
twenty fourteen, the deposition we just looked at, you testified that you never
watched the Gawker video excerpts. Correct correct, okay. And then moving forward
in time, there was another deposition about a year little over a year later,
April of twenty fifteen, you and I met for the first time,
and you test a fight to me that you never watched the Gaca video excerpts.
Right, correct. Okay. Now, let's look at briefly at defendants
Exhibit two thirty one, and what we're going to see us a clip of
the television appearance of the that you made the same day Octoba twelve, twenty
twelve, on a show called Sway in the Morning. Are you familiar with
Sway in the Morning. No, I'm not. Okay, all right?
Is that another serious? Now it's not. This is a television program,
okay, brother, Okay? Whereupon a video clip is played in open court
as follows, Sway in the Morning, it's a forty five. He is
here, twelve time world champion up Buddy Citizen to Sway in the Morning,
Hule Cogan is here, Sway Mania in the house, my brother. The
video clip is concluded he wrestling podcast with Jack Incarnacio JP Sorrow. It's the
lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast. Okay, do you recognize self there in that clip?
Yeah? It looks like the same day one on Howard's Turn, the
same day they told me about Bubba Bah the same close on. It looks
like the same day, right. Yeah. Do you know the fellow that
was sitting next to you, the host of the programs, Sway. Yeah,
I've seen him on TV before. I don't recall meeting him. That
might have been the first time we actually met and talked, but I have
seen him before. Okay, fair enough. Now I'll have another clip for
you, Tim, if you could play the second clip from Defendant's two thirty
one, whereupon a video clip was played in open court as follows, Now,
you've seen the tape, right, have you seen the tape? I
saw the front of it. Yeah, the front that made me so sick.
You know, it's like I think it's like a minute forty and I
probably watched a minute of it. The video clip concluded. Now you see
yourself there, tell him the host Sway, huh indicates affirmatively that you actually
watched a minute of the GAUCA tape, right, yes, sir? Okay,
Now, when you said that to Sway and his listeners out there that
are watching that view in that programming, were you being honest there? Did
you view a minute of the program? No? I did not, Okay,
So you just told folks that, right pretty much. I was on
an autopie, you know, I had information from my attorney, and that
was just said. I mean, I haven't seen the tape, all right,
So did you think that that would be a good thing to say you
had seen some of the program when you hadn't. I just don't follow.
Well, I don't understand why I said that, because I haven't seen a
minute of the tape. Okay, fair enough, let us look at the
definance Exhibit two thirty. Take a look at that, and you'll see that
this is a clip from another television appearance you made on October tenth, twenty
twelve. But this program is called VH one Big Morning Buzz, all right,
where upon a video clip is played in open court as follow us.
You know, I got a phone call from TMZ and a couple of the
guys were on the phone that run the show. You know, they read
a transcrip of the tape and I said, have you seen it? And
one of the guys said no, and I said, I don't believe it.
I have to see this tape, so I haven't seen it. At
the end of the tape, I haven't seen. I've seen like the minute
forty version that they put out. The video clip concluded. Now there you
tell the view is a VH one Big Morning Buzz, not that you saw
a minute, but that you saw the whole minute in forty seconds of the
tape, right, yes, sir, okay, will you be in truthful
with the viewers of the program on that day? Well, you know that
statement is not truthful. That's the same day as the media tour. That's
the same day that the news was broken to me on the phone from TMZ
and as Hulk Hogan to the best of you know, I can look at
this and I say I was probably in the Hulk Hogan mode, trying to
get through the day, trying to figure out what's going on. You know,
I'm trying to say cover my ass mode because there was nothing to cover,
you know, But I just I was just I just was in the
Hulk Hogan mode trying to get through the day and trying to get through the
interview, you know, And that was not a truthful statement, Okay,
as Hulk Hogan on camera. I see. So when you are in Hulk
Hogan mode, rules things like telling the truth do not apply. Is that
how it works? Well, you know, as Hulk Hogan, you know
I have said I slam an elephant and surf on a tiger shark, and
you know body slam Moby day so and I also said I pulled the bumper
off a cattle at Jack you know. So it gives you artistic liberty when
you're Hulk Hogan to be a character, and it's entertaining. So when you
were going on these programs Sway, the VH one program and telling folks about
what you had been through, that was Hulk Hogan telling these people about the
experience. That wasn't Terry Bolia telling folks about the experience. Right, Well,
like I said before. You know, whenever I leave my house,
I'm not Terry Balaya. I'm Hulk Hogan. You know, I'm the character,
and that's Hulk Hogan. I didn't go on the Sway Show as Terry
Balaya, okay, or apologie whatever, whatever the show was. Okay,
Now let's shift. Let's shift gives again, and we're going to move forward
in time a little further. We're going to move to October sixteenth to twenty
twelve. That is twelve days. All right. We have established that the
Gauca post came out October fourth of two twelve. Move forward, please,
twelve days to October sixteenth. Now, on that day, your friend or
infantas former friend perhaps would be more accurate. Bubba the Love Sponge went on
his radio program and he spoke publicly about this whole sex tape story. Right,
yes, sir, you remember that. I remember those two days where
he was rude, obnoxious. I did not hear the show, but I
had a friend that told me about the show. All right, let's take
a look at defendants Exhibit two seventy eight. Judge objection hearsay, can we
approach at the bench. I don't know what two seventy eight. Is it's
an audio clip, it's the Bubba clip, right, yeah, yeah,
Judge, they're gonna put Bubba's statement in right on, right now, on
the show, the radio show, and offer it for the truth of the
matter, asserted, we are not offering it for the truth. Well,
I think you can only offer it for the truth, because that's because what
he's going to say, if it's the clip I think it is, is
that mister Balaia was in on it and he knew it's directly contradicted by his
deposition testimony under oath. His retraction is the attraction. The problem is because
he said he is going to invoke the fifth right now. We have no
idea what if any of this is actually admissible, but this is pure hearsay
if they're offering it for that reason. Ever, this was his best friend.
He goes on and he makes these statements. I'm going to play the
statements. Your best friend said this, your bosom buddy. Is it true?
Is what he said true? He can say no, it's not true
at all. Yanna. This whole shenanigans with Bubba not showing up and invoking
the fifth I mean it's already I think we're entitled to some leeway here.
Judge, I don't know the word shenanigans. There's no best friend exception to
the hearsay rule, okay. I mean the truth of the matter is if
they're going to put this out there and offer it to prove that Bubba said
that Terry Bola knew about this tape, all right, and that's the purpose
it's being offered for, and then to ask him whether it's true, which
means clearly they're offering it for the truth of the matter asserted. Then it's
hearsay. If he denies it, that doesn't matter. That's not what they're
that's not why they're offering it. Just because a witness denies a hearsay statement
doesn't make it on hearsay. So it's a public statement on the radio.
Well, well a lot of public things that don't come in. It's not
a public record. There is no exception for it. So I'm going to
sustain the planets objection. Thank you, all right, thank you, an
open chord. Let's do this. Let's shift a focus and talk a little
more about how this encounter with Heather Klem came to take place. Now,
according to prior testimony. The idea of you having sex with Heather first came
up in a phone call with Bubba, right to the best of my election,
Yes, okay. And I think you told us earlier that Bubba put
Heather on the phone and she started asking you'd have sex with a correct,
to the best of my recollection, it was something along those lines where they
could have been on the speaker phone together. But you know, okay,
all right, And you told us before when you testified in your deposition that
before you actually had sex with Heather. They brought this up between somewhere between
twenty and forty times, right, No, that was a guestament, all
right. It was over a period of a year and a half two years.
It was several times. It could have been less than twenty, could
have been more than forty. But it was constant badgering. It was a
lot, right, Yeah, I was a regular gag with them, okay.
And Bubba would tell you that Heather really wanted to have sex with you,
right in so many words, yes, sir, okay. And he
would say things like you wanted to see it naked, right, yes,
sir, okay. And he also told you that in person didn't he excuse
me? What he being? Bubba also told you that in person, didn't
he? Yeah, during the workouts, you know, he would just joke
around, like at the end of the workout, Hey, well you you
know what, are you going to have sex with Heather? Here? Just
throw away like a little like another poke, you know. Okay, Now
I think you based you touched on this and you direct testimony. But Bubba
had bragged about his so called swinging lifestyle, had he not, Yes,
sir, he made no secret of that, right, I know, sir.
He even talked about on the radio. I and Heather had an open
marriage, and Bubba seemed proud of it, didn't he. He did not
seem embarrassed about it. I don't know if if proud was a word,
but he was definitely not embarrassed about it. Okay. And you had heard
on the radio about him having these parties and a jacuzzi, and friends and
folks, buddies of his doctors, lawyers in town would come over to these
parties in the jacuzzi. You had heard that on the radio, were correct?
Yes, okay, Now you're testified. We asked you in your deposition
to tell us when did this go from talking about all this stuff right to
actually having sex with her. And you said you couldn't really remember. Do
you remember that? No, I don't remember the date. No, sir,
okay, let me ask you this. You indicated earlier. You told
us that there were like three, maybe four of these occasions where you had
a sexual encounter with Heather, Yes, sir, right, No, it's
affirmatively okay. Now, each time you had Bubba's each time you had sex
with Bubba's wife, it was with his blessing, wasn't it. Yes,
sir. Now let's focus in on your relationship, not with Bubba but with
Heather Clem before you had these sexual encounters, are you with me? Yes,
sir? All right, you saw her I think you told us probably
four or five times, right, yes, sir, Okay, had dinner
with Bubba and Heather once, Yes, sir, one time you saw her
twice at the racetrack right to the best of my recollection, Yes, sir,
it was okay, they're two different racetracks. Yeah, you went and
you went to Bubba's house for Thanksgiving one time, right, yes, sir.
Now, you you never called Heather on the phone, did you,
to the best of my recollection. I don't remember calling her, and if
I did, it was looking for him. So I don't remember calling her
at all. Right now, there was no reason to call her, right
But you never called you, did she? No, sir, you didn't
have that kind of relationship. No, sir, okay. By that,
let's be fair. When I say calling her, I meant calling her directly,
by calling her cell phone or calling the home for Heather. I believe
you told me at one point that, well, there were times I called
for Bubba and Heather would pick up the phone. Right. Well, that
would be at home, yes, sir, okay, But you didn't have
a personal relationship where you would be calling her, right, No, sir,
okay. You didn't exchange texts with it, did you? No,
sir, didn't exchange emails with it, did you? At the time,
I didn't know how to email, okay, so you wouldn't, so you
wouldn't have an emailing he No, No, sir, okay. Now,
you also didn't really socialize with Heather. No, I did not. Okay.
Now we're going to shift our focus again and look at the first time
that you wouldn't Heather had sex After that, you continued to socialize with Bubba,
right, yes, sir, okay, And things continued just as they
had always done right with Bubba, Yes, sir okay. And your relationship
with Bubba did not change in any way, did it. I know we
are still friends all right now. At some point you had these sexuals encounters
with Heather, and then at some point you and Heather stopped having sex,
right, yes, sir okay. And Bubba never asked, Ay, now
that you have done this three or four times, how come you're not doing
it anymore? He never asked you that, did it. No. The
only thing you ever asked me is if I would have sex with Heather?
And then he never asked again. It just stopped, okay, after you
had done it a few times, and it just got just stopped. The
conversation stopped. He never he never brought it up again, okay. And
after the last time you had sex with Heather, you never discussed it with
her again, did you, no, sir okay? And after with respect
to Heather, after you stopped having sex with it, you didn't see her
anymore, right well, in fantas, you didn't see her anymore until you
moved into their house. Right, yes, okay, exactly, all right.
Now, let's talk about that for a minute. You lived with Bubba
and Heather in their home at one point, yes, sir, correct,
defirmatively, all right. And this was somewhere up between about what a month
and two months, right, I'm about four or five to six weeks until
I could find a place to live, okay. And this was shortly after
your wife filed for divorce. Right. It was a time frame where the
judge said I wasn't allowed to live in my house, and then the judge
was going to let me stay at a small beach house, and my attorney
told me I couldn't live there because it was my ex wife's it was in
my ex wife's name, and she was calling the cops, know anytime,
like if the sprinkler system didn't work, she'd call the cops. So my
attorney said, you cannot live there, you can't stay there. So I
grabbed a bunch of garbage bags and hit into a hotel for a day or
two until Bubba found out, and then he invited me to come stay with
him. Okay now, and that was around the time your wife filed for
divorce, right, Yes, sir, okay, which was in November of
two thousand and seven, correct, Yes, sir, okay. Now,
when you lived with Bubba, when you moved into the home, now that
was after the point in time when you had the sexual relationship with Heather,
wasn't it, Yes, sir, it was, okay. And when you
lived with them, and this would have been around of two thousand and seven,
I think you told us that before that it was uncomfortable, right,
very uncomfortable, okay. And you had a fear that Heather was going to
come on to you while you were living in their house, right, Well,
I have that fear. And I was also afraid that Bubba would kind
of like, you know, bully me or poop me or trying to egg
it on. You know. I was afraid both of them, you know,
coming at me at the same time, and by herself. It's very
uncomfortable being there, dude. Okay, you were fearful that Bubba and Heather
would bully you into resuming sexual relations with Heather. That's a fair statement,
okay. Now that never happened, did it, No, sir, did
not, okay, And Heather never came on to you while you were living
under her roof right, Oh, I know, sir okay. And she
never did try to seduce you while you're staying under her roof, right,
No, sir okay. And when you stayed there with Heather, you would
rarely make eye contact. You wouldn't make eye contact with you, Whichie.
Well, you know, I felt different because I would see her at night
when Bubba would come home. I would come home late in the day after
Bubba was home, and in the morning, Bubba would leave way before I
woke up because he had to be on the airage six am, so he
would get up around about like five or four thirty and head out, And
when I would wake up and leave, Heather would be getting the children ready.
So when I came, you know, I would come from the other
side of the house that Bubba let me use. I would see her to
get a cup of coffee or while she's getting her the kids ready, and
there was no eye contact. It was just it was just plain. There
was no aggressiveness. She didn't approach me. She said hello, goodbye,
and that was it. And I would leave immediately and not come home until,
you know, all day until Bubba came home. Right. So when
you in fact in the morning, you would say good morning to her,
and she would avoid your daze and just look down. No, wouldn't she
No, well, exactly, there was something different that she seemed more friendlier
before, but now it was kind of like, you know, she didn't
know, she didn't even know me. Okay, let me ask you this
kind of circling back to this business about a swing of lifestyle and an open
marriage and all this kind of business. At the time you were having sex
with Heather, you didn't think you were the only person that Bubba was permitting
to have sex with his wife, right, Well, I knew she'd had
sex with other people. I didn't know at the time. You know,
the thought never entered my mind at the time of whether she was having sex
with someone else. Okay, did Bubba ever tell you, well, because
of this hearing about this open marriage and what have you, I take it
you thought that these kinds of things had happened in the past. Is that
fair to say that state? Okay, and your discussions with Bubba, did
he ever tell you he had videos of how they're having sex with other partners?
Never objection? Never can we approach Yeah, at the bench, I'm
fairly certain this was already ruled on and as irrelevant, and that it wasn't
going to be a topic of discussion for this trial. I had about three
people over there tell me there was an order on it already, and I
think they're probably going trying to grab it, but I will object to it
as irrelevant. Whether he knows of the open marriage. He knows it was
a swing of lifestyle. He says, it's on do they want to break
They have a couple of wile to ask questions, Oh, that will instruct
him. They don't ask questions till the end of it all. I had
told them, oh, okay, but she kept trying to hand it to
me. So I'll let the judge know. Okay, good, thank you.
Videos about whether sexual encounters I think were specifically kept out of this trial
judge, So we didn't end up doing discovery on whether any of I think
gather the auder came. I think the order came about though in the depositions
previously about other people, the other sex lives of other people. I think
all of that was kept out at that point in time for the discovery purposes.
I'm just asking if they discussed it, discussed this with his bosom buddy,
if they discussed a topic which was ruled irrelevant in this trial of videos
of other people, I think that was the genesis. Well, he's already
answered the question. I mean I would move to strike it. I didn't
think he was going there. And then the last question went there. What
did he say? And he answered the question? Never was his answer.
Let me talk over there to see if are we about to take a break
or not, because if we're not, I think we're about to be done
for the day here shortly, it's about four thirtieth somewhere. If we're if
we've got a juror wanting to ask good question and you're going to have to
deal with that anyway. No, we don't ask questions until the end.
Until the end, I know I figured that. But maybe you want to
tell them. He Deputy Hanandez already did tell them. This would be a
good time because then we can look into this. He was moving on anyway.
Yeah, okay, thank you in open court, mister Sullivan, Yes,
ma'am. Following up on our discussion. Well that's the end of section
there. Okay, So you're saying now is a good time to stop,
Well, that's what I thought we were just discussing, but yes, it
would be okay. So ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we're going to
have to go ahead and stop for the day. Tomorrow morning, when you
come back, we will pick up again and mister Sullivan's cross examination to mister
Balaia. So remember the instructions. Don't talk to anybody about the cases over
the evening, don't do any of your own research about people of parties involved
in this particular case. And tomorrow I will ask you to come get here
about nine fifteen and then we'll go from there. Thank you all very much.
Put your notes back in the envelopes. Thank you all. The jury
retired from the courtroom at four thirty four pm. Thank you. You all
can be seated. Is there anything else on the topic that you want to
consider? I don't think so, Judge. If something comes up that I
think we will look at it tonight, but if it's appropriate, I don't
think so. Okay, and then anything else before we break, no,
ma'am judge, we want to talk about scheduling later in the week. Everybody
can be seated if you want, Yeah, we can. If you need
to talk. I would rather we can go. We can talk about scheduling
Judge tomorrow morning or whatever. That's fine, Thank you, all right,
thank you, so Judge. They may not have somebody ready to go Friday
if we finished before Friday. I think we scheduled this with the idea,
frankly, that we would get our case done this week and they were to
do theirs next week. I don't know if you want to talk about that.
Here is the thing, Arana. We had a bunch of people schedule
they travel to come in this weekend in be ready to go on Monday,
and then we heard about this morning about well they may even be able to
wrap up on Thursday, which kind of throws a little bit of a monkey
wrench in the works. So do you want to see if you can get
somebody, anybody else coming in earlier. I don't know. We will,
We'll explore it and then we'll report to you. Okay, thank you.
Anything else, No, no, your honor. I mean, if all
possible, I would like to just continue to go right through rather than having
breaks along the way. The jury would probably want to break sooner rather than
have days off here and there. That would be our preference. When we
originally slotted it out if the pre trial conference and stuff even up until the
last week. We both said five full days. All of our folks were
I understand, Do you have any depthouse? Do we have depositions? We
do, It's not as lengthy as I think what's going to come in their
case. We'll take a look at it. Okay, thank you, thank
you, thanks, that's it all right, So you can break for the
day. The court is in missess until tomorrow at nine fifteen, while proceedings
adjourned at four thirty seven pm.