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Florida - A group of media outlets is asking a Florida judge to make records in the Hulk Hogan sex video case public.
Hogan, a former WWE wrestler whose real name is Terry Bollea, is suing the news website Gawker for posting a video of him having sex with Heather Clem, the then-wife of radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem.
The trial is scheduled for March 2016 in Pinellas County Court in St. Petersburg.
The video was delivered to Gawker anonymously in 2012, and the FBI investigated the leak. Gawker filed a public records request in federal court for more information about the investigation, and the judge ordered it released. But when it was put into public record in the civil suit, the judge sealed the records.
Media companies, including the Associated Press, asked on Thursday to open those records.
"It's highly unusual for this much secrecy to surround a civil proceeding," said Charles Tobin, a lawyer for Holland and Knight who is representing the media companies.
"Ordinarily, whether it's a celebrity or an average citizen, once you ask the court to help solve a dispute you open the proceedings up to public review. What's going on in Hulk Hogan's case certainly is not the norm when it comes to public transparency of the courts."
