Earlier, we told you about how a Florida judge ruled that Hulk Hogan pay for a court appointed forensic examiner to search Gawker’s computers to see if they ;leaked his racist comments. In the earlier article, we mentioned a few of the search terms that the judge ruled that the investigator can look for. Now, having procured the entire nine page judge’s order, we hav the full list. Here they are, with an explanation of the significance of each:
“Hulk Hogan,” “Bollea,” “racist”
These are completely self-explanatory.
“DVD details,” “Hulk Hogan/Heather Clem Sex Tape from July 2007,” “Hulk_Hogan_Sex_Tapes.doc”
Also self-explanatory, but the specificity is interesting. Presumably, that wording is what’s on the FBI records that Gawker’s lawyers were sent and ordered not to share with anyone, includign Gawker founder Nick Denton.
“Keith Davidson,” “Davidson”
When Hogan went to the FBI about an extortion attempt involving the videos of him and Heather Cole having sex shot without his permission, the investigation took them to Keith Davidson, a lawyer based out Los Angeles. The FBI set up a sting operation where Hogan and his lawyer watched the videos and gave Davidson a $150,000 check. Davidson was never charged, and he claims that he was just representing whoever had the videos. Gawker’s attempts to subpoena Davidson have not gone well.
“Calta,” Cowhead,” “MRCOWHEAD” “Tony Burton,” “Burton”
Gawker was sent the video that led to the lawsuit after receiving an odd phone call from Tony Burton, an agent at Don Buchwald and Associates, Inc. That firm primarily represents radio personalities. Burton said that he had a client who wanted t send Gawker a certain DVD anonymously and wanted to know how to do that. Gawker got the DVD of Hogan and Heather Cole days later. While it came out later that the client was Mike “Cowhoad” Calta, a rival radio personality of Bubba the Love Sponge (Cole’s then-husband and Hogan’s then-best friend), he was purportedly getting the information for an anonymous caller.
“Richard Peirce,” “richpeirce, ” “Matt Loyd,” “SpiceBoy”
Former Bubba the Love Spunge employees. Peirce was deposed in the lawsuit and talked about the rumors about the tapes in radio circles. Matt “SpiceBoy” Loyd came up in the FBI investigation in some form. The belief has always been that a disgruntled employee of the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show stole the DVDs when Bubba left Sirius Satellite Radio for a Florida radio station, costing the employee his job.
“Bostick”
It’s not clear exacrly who this is. The docket in the lawsuit includes a copy of a settlement agreement between “Taryn Bostick” and “J.D. Walsh,” but it’s sealed. Searching for “Taryn Bostick” on Google provides no other substantive results. This is odd. J.D.Walsh could be the actor, the basketball coach, or a third person, but who knows what exactly that has to do with anything?
