Plaintiff's Motion For OSC Re. Contempt - Signed (00011437)

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SIXTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR PINELLAS COUNTY, FLORIDA
TERRY GENE BOLLEA professionally known as HULK HOGAN, Plaintiff, vs. HEATHER CLEM; GAWKER MEDIA, LLC aka GAWKER MEDIA; GAWKER MEDIA GROUP, INC. aka GAWKER MEDIA; GAWKER ENTERTAINMENT, LLC; GAWKER TECHNOLOGY, LLC; GAWKER SALES, LLC; NICK DENTON; A.J. DAULERIO; KATE BENNERT, and BLOGWIRE HUNGARY SZELLEMI ALKOTAST HASZNOSITO KFT aka GAWKER MEDIA, Defendants. ______________________________________/ PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR AN ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY GAWKER MEDIA, LLC SHOULD NOT BE HELD IN CIVIL CONTEMPT Plaintiff, Terry Bollea, by counsel, moves this Court for an Order to Show Cause why Defendant Gawker Media, LLC aka Gawker Media should not be held in civil contempt for violating the Courts Order issued orally from the bench on April 24, 2013, and in a written order dated April 25, 2013, to remove the audio and video recording of Plaintiff Terry Gene Bollea in a private bedroom with Heather Clem, which recording includes depictions of Mr. Bollea naked and engaged in sexual activity, from www.gawker.com and to remove from their websites, including Gawker.com, the written narrative describing activities occurring during the private sexual encounter. The grounds upon which this motion is based and the reasons why it should be granted are as follows: Case No. 12012447 CI-011
1.
In this action, Plaintiff Terry Gene Bollea (professionally known as Hulk Hogan)
has pleaded various privacy and related causes of action, arising out of Gawker Media, LLCs and the other Gawker Defendants, publication on their website Gawker.com of a clandestine recording of Plaintiff naked and engaged in sexual activities. 2. Plaintiff moved for a temporary injunction, and the Court ordered Gawker Media,
LLC and the other Gawker Defendants to remove the audio and video recording of Plaintiff Terry Gene Bollea in a private bedroom with Heather Clem, which recording includes depictions of Mr. Bollea naked and engaged in sexual activity (the Sex Tape), which is currently posted at www.gawker.com and to remove from their websites, including Gawker.com, the written narrative describing activities occurring during the private sexual encounter. This Courts April 25, 2013 written order granting Plaintiffs motion for temporary injunction is attached as Exhibit F to the Affidavit of Charles J. Harder (hereinafter Harder Aff. or Harder Affidavit).1 3. The Court denied Gawker Medias request to stay the order, which remains in full
force and effect. This Courts Order denying Gawker Medias Motion for a Stay Pending Appeal is attached as Exhibit G to the Harder Affidavit. 4. Gawker Medias response to the Courts order was to flagrantly violate it.
Gawker Media has flatly refused to remove the written narrative describing the activities occurring during the private sexual encounter, stating that the portion of the order compelling us to remove the entirety of Daulerios posthis words, his speechis grossly unconstitutional. We wont take it down. Gawker Medias April 25, 2013 post, wherein Gawker Media says that
The order was initially made orally at approximately 5:00 p.m. EST on April 24, 2013. A written order was sent electronically at 3:34 p.m. EST on April 25, 2013. Counsel for Gawker Media acknowledged receipt at 3:42 p.m. that same day. 2
it will not comply with this Courts Order, is attached as Exhibit A to the Harder Affidavit. 5. Additionally, Gawker Media simultaneously removed the video footage of
Plaintiff from its website and added a link at that same website to the video footage hosted at another website, stating And if youd really like to watch the tape for some reason, its online here. A copy of the webpage is attached as Exhibit B to the Harder Affidavit. 6. Plaintiff has repeatedly demanded that the narrative, the video footage, and the
link to the video footage be removed from Gawker Medias site . However, Gawker Media continues to ignore the demand and refuses to comply with this Courts Order. A copy of Plaintiffs counsels April 25, 2013 emails demanding that Gawker Media comply with this Courts order are attached as Exhibits C & E to the Harder Affidavit. 7. The violation of a portion of a courts order necessary to secure a litigants right
constitutes civil contempt. Seaboard Air Line Railway Co. v. Tampa Southern Railroad Co., 134 So. 529, 532 (Fla. 1931). The civil contempt power is a necessary and integral part of the judicial power and is absolutely essential to the performance of the duties imposed by law upon courts of equity. Without it, such courts are mere boards of arbitration, whose judgments and decrees are only advisory. Id. at 533. A party proceeded against for disobedience of an injunction is never allowed to allege as a defense for his misconduct that the court erred in its judgment in granting the injunction. . . . Id. 8. Gawker Media argues in Exhibit A that it has the right to continue to publish the
narrative description of Plaintiffs private sexual activities because such discourse is protected by the First Amendment. Not only is this contention incorrect on the merits (Plaintiff established in his Motion for Temporary Injunction that Gawker Medias post was unprotected expression), but it is well-established that even if the terms of an injunction are inconsistent with the First
Amendment, a party has no right to disobey it but must challenge the injunction through legal channels. Walker v. City of Birmingham, 388 U.S. 307, 320 (1967) (parties had no right to raise First Amendment arguments against temporary injunction prohibiting protests in contempt proceedings after the injunction was violated: These precedents clearly put the petitioners on notice that they could not by-pass orderly judicial review of the injunction before disobeying it.). Normally, when injunctions are enforced through contempt proceedings, only the defense of factual innocence is available. The collateral bar rule of Walker v. [City of] Birmingham, 388 U.S. 307 (1967), eliminates the defense that the injunction itself was unconstitutional. Madsen v. Womens Health Center, Inc., 512 U.S. 753, 793 (1994). 9. Linking to another website that broadcasts the video footage of Plaintiff engaging
in sexual activity is a violation of the Courts Order as well. The Order prohibits posting, publishing, exhibiting, or broadcasting the footage. Harder Aff., Exhibit F. Linking to the footage falls within this definition. See, e.g., Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429, 45657 (2d Cir. 2001) (rejecting argument that a link is not a publication of material: [Appellants] confidently asserted that publication of bookstore locations carrying obscene material cannot be enjoined consistent with the First Amendment, and that a prohibition against linking to web sites containing DeCSS is similarly invalid. [I]f others publish the location of the bookstore, preventive relief against a distributor can be effective before any significant distribution of the prohibited materials has occurred. The digital world, however, creates a very different problem. If obscene materials are posted on one web site and other sites post hyperlinks to the first site, the materials are available for instantaneous worldwide distribution before any preventive measures can be effectively taken.). WHEREFORE, Plaintiff respectfully requests that the Court issue an Order to Show

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IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SIXTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR PINELLAS COUNTY, FLORIDA

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