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Hulk Hogan sex tape lawsuit vs. Cox and Mike Calta reaches confidential settlement

Last time, Hogan was awarded $140 million in damages from Gawker.
 
Hulk Hogan takes the stage during the announcement that WrestleMania 36 would be held in Tampa in 2020, on March 7, 2019 at Raymond James Stadium. The event has since been moved to a private WWE facility in Orlando.
Hulk Hogan takes the stage during the announcement that WrestleMania 36 would be held in Tampa in 2020, on March 7, 2019 at Raymond James Stadium. The event has since been moved to a private WWE facility in Orlando. [ Times (2019) ]
Published March 20, 2020|Updated March 20, 2020

If Hulk Hogan really does return for action at Wrestlemania 36 in two weeks, it may be with a little more pep in his step depending on the details of a confidential settlement in his sex tape lawsuit.

The pro wrestler whose real name is Terry Bollea has settled a lawsuit against Cox Radio Inc., talk host Mike Calta and others he’d accused of taking part in leaking video of him having sex and using racist language.

The full details of the settlement are not known. The lawsuit filed in Pinellas County demanded damages in excess of $15,000, but did not specify an amount. The lawsuit did note that Bollea was awarded $140 million in a previous lawsuit against Gawker over the tape, but settled for $31 million when that company went bankrupt.

“Bollea filed this lawsuit to hold the remaining offenders liable ... and to recover the balance of the damages ...,” the lawsuit said.

Calta, who hosts a morning drive talk show heard across Tampa Bay on Cox’s 102.5-FM The Bone, could only be reached via his verified Twitter account.

“My understanding is the lawsuit was amicably resolved by Cox and Hogan on terms that are confidential,” he wrote in a direct message. “I’ll address the rest Monday on my show.”

Court documents show the judge has closed the case, but not the exact disposition.

Court orders signed by defendants Matt Loyd, a former radio personality known as “Spice Boy,” his ex wife Tasha Nicole Carrega and Los Angeles lawyer Keith Davidson were filed on Thursday.

All three were accused in the suit of conspiring to leak and sell the footage to TMZ and thedirty.com. Davidson was the man who met Bollea at the Sand Pearl in Clearwater to receive a check for $300,000 to stop the leak of the tape while FBI agents secretly watched. Federal prosecutors declined to file criminal charges in that case.

The permanent injunctions state that all three are banned from possessing or sharing any recordings of Bollea “naked, having sex, and/or having private conversations in a private bedroom," or could be held in contempt.

A letter sent to judge Linda R. Allan by Bollea’s attorney referenced a “confidential settlement reached between the parties.”

The lawsuit said that Bollea was recorded illegally in 2007, and used the n-word “during a momentary lapse in judgment at a very difficult time in his life, while he was having a private conversation in his then-best friend’s bedroom.”

The best friend was another radio host, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, and the woman Bollea was filmed in bed with was Clem’s then wife.