Terry Gene Bollea, better known by the American professional wrestler's ring name Hulk Hogan, has filed another lawsuit against Gawker in Florida on Monday. The lawsuit accuses the defendant for leaking plaintiff's racist remarks which have been secretly recorded. The wrestling celebrity has recently won $140 million in damages from the media website through another related lawsuit.
The New York-based website is accused of making a conversation public allegedly recorded without his knowledge a decade ago. Hogan has been fired by the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and has lost endorsements for financing, ruining his reputation as consequences of this leaking. The wrestling celebrity's previous lawsuit has drawn wide attention as a test of his privacy right and press freedoms in the digital age, reports Reuters.
Gawker has been accused of leaking sealed court documents to the National Enquirer that quote him making racist remarks, suggest the new suit documents. Hogan has allegedly unleashed an ugly tirade about his daughter Brooke's black boyfriend while a sexual encounter with his best friend's wife in 2007, according to a report published in Huffington Post.
Gawker Media has been threatening to leak the documents for months and finally the story has been published in the National Enquirer in July. Nick Denton, the Gawker CEO has predicted in his blog post revealing soon Hogan's real secret. However, the prediction has been made just at the same time of publishing the damaging transcript over Enquirer, reports New York Post citing the suit documents as the source. A few minutes after the publishing, A J Daulerio, a Gawker editor has tweeted Hogan a link of the Enquirer posting containing the confidential transcript. Hogan has immediately responded to the tweet and apologized while admitting making the offensive remarks. The new lawsuit also accuses a group of Florida residents for providing at least one of his secretly recorded sex tapes to Gawker. A six member jury board in March has hold Gawker guilty of crossing the line through posting Hogan's sex video. However, the edited video tape enduring 1.41 minutes hasn't contained the racially inflammatory remarks. The jurors have awarded Hogan $60 million for emotional distress and $55 million for economic damage centering the sex tape release. The March's verdict has also slapped $25 million in punitive damages on Gawker and its CEO. Gawker has reportedly going to challenge the court verdict. The media house has also denied involvement in the release of the racial comments contained in sealed court documents. Gawker has been ordered to pay Hogan a compensation of $140 million through a suit verdict pronounced in March. A similar suit has again been filed with a Florida court on Monday against the media house. However, Gawker has denied all the allegations and vows to challenge the previous verdict.
