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BREAKDOWN OF SERIES OF EVENTS THAT LED TO THE HULK HOGAN SEX TAPE LEAK

By Mike Johnson on 2015-11-20 14:42:40
A police report from May 2014 posted on radio DJ Todd "Bubba the Love Sponge" Clem's website provides clarity into the series of events that led to the sex tape featuring Clem's ex-wife Heather and WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan featuring material that, when leaked, led to his WWE dismissal this past summer as well as sparking Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker.com for posting a one minute snippet from one of the three DVDs that were filmed in Clem's home.

One of the questions that has been asked in recent days is why Clem would remove the material from his home and have the DVDs in his office, where according to authorities, they were stolen by his former employee Matt "Spice" Loyd.  The answer to that is revealed in the Tampa, FL police report, which was filed on 5/23/14.

In 2011, The Clems were going through a contentious divorce.  Knowing what material was on the DVDs, Todd Clem opted to remove six DVDs from his home to prevent his wife from taking the tapes, presumably because she could use them against him as their pre-nuptial agreement did "not leave her with much."  Clem told authorities that they were moved to an office in his radio studio and in December 2011, they were moved to a new studio Clem was moving into and placed in an office storage area that was earmarked for his personal use.

Clem, upon learning that the Hogan material had leaked, went to look for the tapes and learned they were missing in 2012.  He filed the 2014 police report after receiving a photos via a Tweet showing the case of one of the other DVDs, believing that Loyd, who had been pushing for (and later got) his own radio show and had been at odds with him, had stolen them with the idea of leaking the material as a way to embarrass Clem and possibly get him fired from his role as a pretty publicly known DJ as part of the scandal that would ensue when the material was leaked.

Tampa police, via forensic investigation, were able to track the email and the computer used to create the Twitter account and it led them to Loyd, who admitted he created it but claimed he had forged Clem's handwriting as a way to mess with Clem as everyone knew about the leak of the Hogan tapes because Clem "was not a nice guy" and had connections everywhere.  He wanted Clem to "squirm."  Investigators had handwriting experts who believed the photo did feature Clem's handwriting.

The investigators later learned that the FBI, through an operation, obtained three DVDs involving Hogan that were in the possession of Loyd, who used intermediaries to leak the material to TMZ (getting paid $8,500 for the material, which TMZ never used) and Gawker in an attempt to drum up interest to sell the material to an adult film distributor.  The police report lists two of the three tapes and notes that on them, nothing is said about Hogan being filmed, that he does not turn to the camera, and that he did not appear to know he was on camera.

The report also notes that Loyd, via an attorney in California who contacted Hulk Hogan's attorney David Houston, attempted to get a $1 million payment from Hogan in order to prevent the sale of the DVDs.    Loyd was informed by his California attorney, Keith Davidson that he may have to admit leaking the material to Gawker.com in order to get the same.  The report noted there was a $150,000 payment from Hogan's attorney Houston to Davidson, who has since been barred from practicing law in California.

During an interview, Loyd's wife claims that the DVDs were found inside a Rocky DVD set that was purchased at a charity flea market event Clem produces several times a year.  Clem denied to investigators that the DVDs would have gotten into Loyd's hands in that manner.

While the three DVDs involving Hogan have been recovered and are in the FBI's hands, there is a mention of there being five DVDs total and whoever else is featured on those tapes have been redacted on the version of the report posted by Clem's site.

The report notes that the Prosecutor has declined to pursue theft and extortion charges against Loyd and others involved, which is pretty amazing.  Reading through the report, it appears to be a pretty open and shut case.

You can read the entire report, which pretty much tells the tale of how Hogan's embarrassment and WWE exile was actually collateral damage in the feud between Clem and Loyd and Loyd's attempts to make money from the DVDs at http://admin.btls.com/wp-content/uploads/BubbaDocs.pdf

Thanks to John Smith.

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