 Hulk Hogan talks with his attorneys before the start of his trial Thursday, March 17, 2016, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Hogan, whose given name is Terry Bollea, and his attorneys are suing Gawker Media for... (Associated Press) 
 
 ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the trial of wrestler Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against the New York-based website Gawker (all times local): 
 
 7 p.m.: 
 
 A jury has sided with ex-pro wrestler Hulk Hogan and awarded him $115 million in his sex tape lawsuit against Gawker Media. Hogan, whose given name is Terry Bollea, sued Gawker for $100 million for posting a video in 2012 of him having sex with his former best friend's wife. Gawker's editors contended the video and an accompanying post was a newsworthy commentary on the ordinariness of celebrity sex videos. A Florida jury today ordered Gawker Media to pay $115 million for publishing a sex tape showing Terry Bollea, also known as Hulk Hogan, having sex with his friend's wife. Denton was "playing God over Bollea’s right to privacy," he added. Gawker's attorneys told the jury that the video is "not like a real celebrity sex tape" and urged them to watch the video, which contains nine seconds of sexual content. Hogan's attorneys told jurors that the core of the case is that "Gawker took a secretly recorded sex tape . Turkel also scoffed that Daulerio wrote in his 2012 commentary that "the Internet has made it easier for all of us to be shameless voyeurs and deviants." "What's disturbing about Gawker isn't what they do in a vacuum," Bollea lawyer Kenneth Turkel said during closing arguments. Hogan, whose given name is Terry Bollea, is suing Gawker for $100 million. Hogan's attorneys presented their arguments first, saying that Hogan didn't consent to the video. On Thursday, the Second District Court of Appeals in Lakeland, Florida, ruled that sealed documents in the case are public records and should be available to the public and the media.
– Former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan was awarded $115 million by a jury Friday in his lawsuit against Gawker, which published a sex tape featuring the Hulkster in 2012, the AP reports. It's $15 million more than he was asking. According to Ars Technica, which points out punitive damages could still be added to the total, the loss in court could be a "life-threatening event" for Gawker, which has around 250 employees. Gawker published a video of Hogan having sex with the wife of his friend Todd Clem—aka Bubba the Love Sponge—made at Clem's insistence. Clem had recorded the encounter, possibly without Hogan's knowledge. Hogan cried when the jury revealed its findings after nearly six hours of deliberations, CNN reports. In their closing arguments Friday, Hogan's lawyers argued the video was a violation of his privacy. "Gawker took a secretly recorded sex tape and put it on the Internet," the AP quotes Hogan's attorneys. Gawker's attorneys argued the site had a "legitimate news reason" for publishing the video as a "commentary on the ordinariness of celebrity sex videos." One of the website's lawyers went on to warn that if Hogan's suit was successful, "the Internet as we know it will cease to exist." In addition to Gawker, the jury found founder Nick Denton and former editor Albert Daulerio (who made headlines for saying he'd consider publishing the sex tape of anyone over the age of 5) personally liable. Gawker says it only made about $11,000 from publishing the sex tape and took outside investment for the first time to cover potential costs from the trial.