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Graziano Family Releases Rehabilitation Video

Image from the Graziano family

John Graziano undergoes rehabilitation at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa.

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 18, 2008

CLEARWATER - The family of John Graziano has released a video of Graziano undergoing rehabilitation at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa.

It is the same video that was shown to Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Philip Federico, out of the view of spectators, on May 9, before Federico sentenced Nick Bollea in the Aug. 26 wreck that left Graziano with severe brain damage.

George Tragos, one of the attorneys for Graziano's guardian, declined comment.

The video first appeared on the CNN Nancy Grace show, prompting news organizations to contact Tragos to get their own copies. On the video on the Nancy Grace show, an open gap in Graziano's head is pixilated on screen because of the wound's severity, Grace tells viewers.

It shows nurses lifting his head, before he is moved in a giant sling to a mechanical board, apparently designed to make him slightly bend his legs in a rehabilitative exercise. In another part of the video, his mother Debbie wipes his eyes. John Graziano is expressionless throughout the home video.

The release of the video is just the latest move in what increasingly seems like a public relations war between the Graziano and Bollea families.

After Nick Bollea was sentenced to eight months in jail, the Pinellas Sheriff's Office released audio tapes of Bollea talking with his father, Terry Bollea, who is also known as the famed former wrestler Hulk Hogan. There were also tapes released of Bollea talking with his mother, Linda, who is divorcing Hogan, and with his sister, Brooke.

Segments of the audiotapes — particularly a segment where Hogan insinuates Graziano must have brought his fate down on himself by his own actions — are generally believed to have put the entire celebrity family in a poor light.

Then, earlier this week, Shock Jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, who is a good friend of Hogan's, aired on his show messages Graziano's older half-brother, Frank Caruso, had left on Hogan's cell phone. The profanity-laced messages, some of which depict violent fates for the Bollea family, are generally believed to have put the Graziano family in a bad light.

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

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