Former Football player at Vanderbilt University Cory Batey Found Guilty of Rape (VIDEO)

GUILTY!!! ONE DOWN, THREE TO GO …

It took the jury less than 3 hours to find 22 year old Cory Batey, a former Vanderbilt University football player guilty of rape. Batey was convicted of seven crimes in all, one count aggravated rape, two counts of attempted aggravated rape, facilitation of aggravated rape and three counts of aggravated sexual battery.  Prosecutors told jurors that the woman was raped in the dorm room in a 32 minute attack that ended with Batey urinating on her and that she was then taken out into a hallway and left there like trash.

The first part of the justice has been done. Now there are three more dirt bags to convict.

A former football player at Vanderbilt University was found guilty Friday night of raping an unconscious student in a dorm room, an attack that was photographed and videotaped by teammates, according to testimony. One of the players sent video of the assault to friends as it was happening.

At a time of intense scrutiny of the issue of campus sexual assault nationally, with federal civil rights investigations related to sexual violence underway at more than 160 colleges across the country, along with countless prevention and awareness efforts, the Vanderbilt case came to symbolize some of the worst horrors of hard-partying campus culture, the dangers of excessive drinking and the importance of bystander intervention.

Four former football players were charged with rape and violations of the student, but only one was on trial this week. After a week of testimony, the jury took less than three hours to find Cory Batey, 22, of Nashville, guilty of aggravated rape, two counts of attempted aggravated rape, facilitation of aggravated rape and three counts of aggravated sexual battery, the Associated Press reported.

Daily Commentary – Thursday, March 24, 2016 – Hulk Hogan Awarded $115 million plus another $25 million in Punitive Damages

• Gawker will have to pay Hulk Hogan BIG for leaking the Hulk Hogan sex tape. The jury award is crazy! Also, I wonder if this was all a publicity stunt?

Sixth Circuit Loses Patience with the IRS … IRS Still Stonewalling, Ordered to Comply

It is hard to believe that the IRS is still stonewalling previous court orders, but they are. As the Vodka Conspiracy opines, the Sixth Circuit court is losing its patience with the IRS. Where is the liberal MSM discussing this scandal that intimately was responsible in one of the greatest voter frauds that has ever been perpetrated in the United States?

Today, nearly 1,050 days since the start of the IRS scandal triggered by allegations that the IRS unlawfully and unethically targeted tea party and other conservative organizations for special scrutiny, the litigation continues. One allegedly targeted group brought suit against the IRS for its conduct, and the IRS has resisted the litigation with the same dilatory tactics that infuriated members of Congress.

In the latest development, a federal district court ordered the IRS to turn over information concerning groups that were subject to the mistreatment identified by the agency’s inspector general. The IRS didn’t like this and is now seeking a writ of mandamus in order to avoid having to disclose more information. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit is not amused.

United States v. NorCal Tea Party Patriots denying the IRS petition … The 6th Circuit opinion concludes:

In closing, we echo the district court’s observations about this case. The lawyers in the Department of Justice have a long and storied tradition of defending the nation’s interests and enforcing its laws—all of them, not just selective ones—in a manner worthy of the Department’s name. The conduct of the IRS’s attorneys in the district court falls outside that tradition. We expect that the IRS will do better going forward. And we order that the IRS comply with the district court’s discovery orders of April 1 and June 16, 2015—without redactions, and without further delay.

The Hulk Hogan – Gawker Sex Tape Case Goes to the Jury … We Await the Verdict (VIDEO) (Update: Hogan Wins, Awarded $115 Million in Damages)

We await the verdict as the Hulk Hogan – Gawker Sex Tape case has been presented to the six member jury. The jurors are weighing a celebrity’s right to privacy in the Internet age against freedom of the press as protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The edited 1 minute and 41 second video showed Hogan, a longtime star of the WWE, having sex with the wife of his then-best friend, radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. The 62 year old Hulk Hogan is asking for $100 million in damages.

Just bizarre.

The time has nearly come for a verdict in the first-ever trial pitting a celebrity against a media organization for the posting of a sex tape. The proceedings represent a probing of newsworthiness and whether a media can be held to maintain decency. More than three-and-a-half years since Gawker published a post titled, “Even for a Minute, Watching Hulk Hogan Have Sex in a Canaopy Bed is Not Safe for Work but Watch it Anyway,” jury deliberations began after Hogan and Gawker gave a six-member jury in a Florida courtroom their closing arguments. These jurors began deliberations without having yet seen the sex tape in question.

Hogan (real name: Terry Bollea) contends that a less-than-two-minute excerpt of a 30-minute video, showing the famous wrestler sleeping with Heather Cole, then the wife of his best friend Bubba the Love Sponge (a radio host born Todd Clem), was an invasion of privacy, illegal wiretapping, a violation of the right of publicity and inflicted emotional distress. In weighing Hogan’s claims, the jury has been instructed to consider whether the video was highly offensive and was outside the bounds of human decency, causing (purposely or by reckless disregard) Hogan to experience shame and embarrassment. The jury will also consider whether Hogan had a reasonable expectation of privacy and whether Hogan’s name and likeness was used in a commercial purposes. If Hogan has proven the elements of his claims, the jury will also take up Gawker’s defense — that the publishing of the video is protected by the First Amendment because it related to a public concern, meaning it was “newsworthy.”

Before closing arguments began, Pinellas County Judge Pamela Campbell noted the line between free speech and unfair intrusion, telling the jury they’d have to consider what “ceases to be the giving of legitimate information to which the public is entitled and becomes a morbid and sensational prying into private lives for its own sake.”

UPDATE I: Hulk Hogan Awarded $115 Million in Privacy Suit Against Gawker.

WOW, must have been some Hulkamaniacs on the jury.

The retired wrestler Hulk Hogan was awarded $115 million in damages on Friday by a Florida jury in an invasion of privacy case against Gawker.com over its publication of a sex tape — an astounding figure that tops the $100 million he had asked for, that will probably grow before the trial concludes, and that could send a cautionary signal to online publishers despite the likelihood of an appeal by Gawker.

The wrestler, known in court by his legal name, Terry G. Bollea, sobbed as the verdict was announced in late afternoon, according to people in the courtroom. The jury had considered the case for about six hours.

Mr. Bollea’s team said the verdict represented “a statement as to the public’s disgust with the invasion of privacy disguised as journalism,” adding: “The verdict says, ‘No more.’ ”

UPDATE II: Jury Tacks On $25 Million to Gawker’s Bill in Hulk Hogan Case.

A Florida jury assessed Gawker Media millions more in punitive damages on Monday for having invaded the privacy of the retired wrestler Hulk Hogan, adding to the $115 million it awarded in compensatory damages last week.

After a two-week trial in a St. Petersburg, Fla., courtroom, jurors ordered Gawker, an online news organization, and its two co-defendants to pay the 62-year-old former wrestler — addressed in court as Terry G. Bollea, his given name — more than $25 million in punitive damages.

Erin Andrews Awarded $55M Judgement Over Nude Video Against Stalker and Nashville, TN, Marriott Hotel (VIDEO)

The jury only took 7 hours to deliberate and award the verdict in favor of Erin Andrews …

Fox Sportscaster and Dancing with the Stars participant Erin Andrews has been awarded a $55 million judgement in the nude video lawsuit. The jury came back with unanimous decisions awarding the judgement to be split between her stalker, Michael David Barrett, and the owner and operator of the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University. Barrett will have to pay about $28 million, and the two companies that own the Marriott will have to pay about $26 million. Barrett previously pleaded guilty to stalking Andrews, altering hotel room peepholes and taking nude videos of her. He was sentenced to 2½ years in prison and he did not appear at this trial.

VIDEO – ABC News

Sportscaster Erin Andrews won a $55 million judgment Monday against a stalker and the owner of a Nashville, Tennessee, hotel where he recorded secret nude videos of her.

The judgment, announced by a state circuit court jury in the late afternoon, is less than the $75 million Andrews had sought from the owner and operator of the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University and the stalker, Michael David Barrett, who has already served a prison sentence.

The jury deliberated for less than eight hours, splitting the blame — and the damages — roughly equally between Barrett, who will have to pay about $28 million, and the two companies, which are on the hook for about $26 million.