TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hogan Defends His Son's Driving

ADVERTISEMENT

By STEPHEN THOMPSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 8, 2007

Updated: 12/07/2007 11:55 pm

CLEARWATER - Famed wrestler Hulk Hogan had a talk or two with his teenage son after the boy racked up a number of speeding tickets, some for driving faster than 100 mph.

If Nick Bollea lost his driving privileges, though, it wasn't for very long, Hogan told a prosecutor during an Oct. 16 interview.

Hogan also told Assistant State Attorney Scott Rosenwasser that he was with his son when Bollea was stopped twice for speeding along Alligator Alley in a black Mercedes-Benz. The Florida Highway Patrol said nothing about Hogan being a passenger when it confirmed the stops to The Tampa Tribune in September.

In the deposition, Hogan is nonchalant about the back-to-back stops on Sept. 17, 2006 - one putting the car at a speed of 100 mph and the second at 107 mph. A trooper let Bollea go after the first stop, but another trooper, in communication with the first, gave him a ticket during the second stop.

"We were pretty much going with the flow of traffic," Hogan said, describing the drive on Interstate 75 east of Naples. "You know, getting passed occasionally by a truck going 90 or 100, or a car.

"It didn't feel like we were speeding," Hogan said.

Hogan's 110-page deposition was among hundreds of pages of documents released Friday afternoon by the state attorney's office, which is prosecuting Bollea, 17, after an Aug. 26 wreck in Clearwater that left Bollea's passenger, John Graziano, with severe brain damage.

Prosecutors say Bollea, who was at the wheel of a yellow Toyota Supra, was racing against a silver Dodge Viper driven by his friend Danny Jacobs and owned by Hulk Hogan.

Bollea is charged with reckless driving with serious bodily injury.

In the deposition, Hogan provides a glimpse into his family's highly visible, high-flying life, and describes his son's passion for driving. Bollea is an accomplished "drift" driver, certified to give demonstrations at weekend events in which amateur drift drivers compete on tight tracks by swerving sideways around corners.

Hogan said his son exhibited an interest in cars at 12 or 13, and talked his father into taking him to Supra meets. Nick's mother, Linda Bollea, bought the boy a green Supra before he could even drive, so the boy would work on the motor, Hogan said.

Hogan also divulged that, in addition to the green and yellow Supras, the silver Dodge Viper driven by Jacobs, and the Mercedes, he owns a yellow Viper, a 1968 Dodge Charger, a white Mercedes-Benz, a white Cadillac Escalade, a white Ford Expedition, a yellow Dodge truck, and a black Rolls-Royce.

Hogan is asked about the hours leading up to the wreck, how he met his son and his son's friends at an Albertson's liquor store and bought five cases of beer, then went on a boat ride.

Onboard were Bollea, Graziano, Jacobs, and Barrett Lawrance, who would later ride as a passenger in the Viper. Also onboard were a couple of people interested in doing a television piece on Nick Bollea's racing, Hogan said.

When asked by the prosecutor about the volume of beer purchased, Hogan said it wasn't all for the boat excursion. Some was for his house and the refrigerators "in my gym and the one in my bathroom, the one in my office, the one in my mud room, the one in my kitchen, the one in the boathouse, the one in the guest house."

Hogan denied his son had any alcoholic beverages during the boat ride.

Court records say that two hours after the wreck, Bollea's ethanol serum level was 0.055, and he was cited for driving as a minor with a breath-alcohol level of 0.02 or higher.

Hogan defended his son's driving.

"With all these speeding tickets that he was getting, were you still comfortable with him getting behind the wheel of these high-performance cars?" Rosenwasser asked.

"Yes."

"Why is that?"

"Because he is a very good driver," Hogan said.

The wrestler said he understood the circumstances of each speeding ticket and asked his son to watch his speed and to slow down.

"The keys have been taken away on a couple different occasions, but then either I or his mother have given the keys back," Hogan said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT