ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The ex-Gawker editor who posted an online sex tape of Hulk Hogan was body-slammed in court Monday, with the pro wrestler’s lawyer using his own words against him to show that he didn’t take the $100 million lawsuit against his former employer seriously and repeatedly joked about child pornography.
Hogan’s lawyer, Shane Vogt, got ex-editor A.J. Daulerio to admit that he didn’t care whether he was protected by the First Amendment when he posted the footage.
“It didn’t really matter if it was a morbid and sensational prying into someone’s life, that didn’t matter, did it?’’ Vogt asked.
“No,’’ Daulerio replied.
The ex-editor also was hammered as he tried to claim that he was just kidding when he said in a 2013 deposition that a celebrity sex tape involving even a child over age 4 would be newsworthy enough to post.
Vogt noted that Daulerio never said he was making a tasteless joke or tried to retract or explain anything at the time.
“You read your deposition carefully, didn’t you? … That’s your signature, isn’t it?” Vogt asked Daulerio at the start of the second week of Hogan’s invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against the website and its former editor in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Daulerio replied yes to both questions.
The former editor got himself in trouble again by repeatedly contradicting himself over why he showed Hogan’s erect penis in the footage.
He had claimed in his deposition that it was to add “color” to his online commentary on the tape, then said under direct examination it was because he considered the footage newsworthy.
But under cross-exam, he changed his tune again, reverting to his original claim that it was “to add some color to my commentary.”
“Mr. Bollea’s penis had no news value, did it?” Vogt asked Daulerio, referring to Hogan by his real name, Terry Bollea.
“Uh, no,’’ Daulerio admitted.
He then added snarkily, “I included images of his penis because that is sometimes what happens when two people have sex. There are nude body parts involved.’’
At one point, Daulerio was asked to read for jurors what he wrote about Hogan’s penis at the time: that it “appears to be the size of a thermos you’d find in a child’s lunchbox.’’
Vogt noted that Daulerio didn’t care whether the tape “would have emotionally distressed” Hogan, with the former editor replying, “That’s not my job.”
The laywer said, “You put that out in the public because you believed it was true and interesting, right?”
Daulerio replied, “Yes.”
Daulerio told Gawker’s lawyer that he could have published a much racier version of the video.
He said he received the full 30 minutes of footage showing Hogan romping in a canopy bed with Heather Clem, the wife of his best friend, radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge, from an anonymous source.
But Daulerio said he posted “well under 10 seconds” of sexual activity — and the rest was “banal conversation” between the two.
“I take it this was not a highlight reel of the most graphic sexual material,” Gawker lawyer Michael Sullivan asked.
“No, not at all,” Daulerio answered.
“I wanted the more innocuous and banal conversations between Mr. Hogan and Ms. Clem. I wanted to focus on the things being said.”
But he did give the jury a sneak peak at the awkward timeline of the tryst.
Daulerio described how Bubba told his wife and best friend, “You guys go ahead and have fun now,” after the WWE champ “was performing oral sex on Heather Clem.”
As Daulerio described the bawdy scene, Hogan buried his head in his hands, which he had in a praying position.
Daulerio said he got a $2,000 bonus the month the footage was posted.
He added that he grew up rooting against Hogan in the ring and was instead a fan of Rowdy Roddy Piper and Mr. Wonderful.
Gawker publisher Nick Denton is expected to take the stand Monday afternoon.