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Nick Bollea filming movie, won't attend Pinellas deposition

Associated Press file photo (2008)

Nick Bollea, shown at his May 2008 sentencing hearing, served jail time for a wreck that grievously injured passenger John Graziano.

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 21, 2009

Updated: 10/21/2009 02:47 pm

CLEARWATER - A Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge said today that Nick Bollea does not have to travel from California, where he now lives, to Florida in order to be deposed in a lawsuit filed against him after a wreck that left a friend with permanent brain damage.

The guardian for the friend, John Graziano, is suing Bollea, along with Bollea's parents – famed former wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, and Linda Bollea.

On Aug. 26, 2007, Graziano was the sole passenger in Nick Bollea's car when it crashed in Clearwater. In addition to the Bolleas, his guardian is suing the motorist said to be racing Bollea at the time of the wreck.

Graziano's guardian and family say they need millions of dollars for Graziano's ongoing care. The Iraq war veteran is in a semi-conscious state and is living with his mother.

Nick Bollea's attorney, Stuart Freeman, argued before Judge W. Douglas Baird today that Bollea could not give a deposition next week in Florida, as previously scheduled, because he was in the middle of filming a movie called "Kill Katie Malone."

Freeman argued that, by law, Bollea is not required to travel out of the state in which he currently lives to give a deposition, and Judge Baird agreed. Freeman offered to provide Nick Bollea for a deposition at a St. Petersburg law firm on the condition the deposition is taken Dec. 11.

Kimberly Kohn, one of the attorneys representing Graziano's guardian, said after today's hearing she and her colleagues have to decide now whether to take Freeman up on his Dec. 11 offer.

She had argued before Baird that Bollea's past and present attorneys had previously long agreed to a deposition date next week, but neither she nor her colleagues were told of a change in plans until Oct. 12.

Outside court, Kohn said she and her colleagues are trying to get prepared before the case goes to trial in March.

Nick Bollea served an eight-month jail sentence after pleading no contest to a charge of reckless driving with serious bodily injury.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

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