Linda Bollea Talks to Nick on Jailhouse Audiotape: Trashes Victim’s Mom!

By Art Harris, (c) www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

With Hulk Hogan scheduled to talk to Larry King tonight at 9 p.m. on CNN, we expect to hear more shocking jailhouse rants from Nick Bollea, 17, and evidence that parents Hulk Hogan and Mom, Linda Bollea, raised a problem child some might call a convicted celebrity whiner doing eight months behind bars in Pinellas County Florida after pleading no contest to reckless driving that caused seriously bodily.

The sheriff recorded 26 hours of family visits and released them to the media —- audio tapes that remain nothing short of shocking, and expose Hogan Knows Best reality parenting as insensitive and self-absorbed at best, say critics, allegedly spawning a teenager who did the crime, but doesn’t like doing the time one bit.

On the jail tapes, Nick certainly appears more concerned about launching a new reality show about himself than the plight of his victim.

Convicted of reckless driving after crashing his souped up Toyota Supra into a 25 foot palm tree August 26, 2007, Nick calls the friend he critically injured in the crash “a negative person,” and Hulk can be heard piling on, blaming bad karma for the fate of John Graziano, 23 – an ex-Marine who survived Iraq, but not Nick’s hot-dogging, and now lays brain-damaged and semi-conscious in a VA hospital from what one prosecutor tells me was a drag race gone wrong.

On May 9, when Nick plead no contest, he threw himself on the mercy of the court.

Smart move.

Assistant State Attorney Scott Rosenwasser told The Bald Truth Tuesday in an exclusive interview that had the case gone to trial, Nick’s fast-driving on rain-slicked roads after drinking earlier that day could have sent him to jail longer than eight months in jail the judge imposed.

But the victim’s parents said they felt six to 12 months would be fair, so Rosenwasser agreed to their request for a one year “cap,” meaning the judge could sentence Nick up to 1 year in the county jail. It would be up to the judge, who split the baby.

After all, the young men had been friends, and as Hulk Hogan, explained on Larry King Live Tuesday night, John had been virtually living with the Bolleas, become part of the family, appeared in their reality show.

Without the Graziano’s guidelines, the veteran prosecutor wonders whether a judge might have viewed the evidence more harshly. Police reports obtained by The Bald Truth show Bollea’s blood alcohol level at .05, just under the .08 legal limit, but still enough to “impair a driver, according to our toxicologist,” the prosecutor told me. And certainly evidence a minor was had been drinking illegally.

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Nick was driving a yellow Toyota Supra his parents bought him, and paid to be modified and turbo-charged to crank 544 horsepower. One lane over, Daniel Jacobs revved a silver Dodge Viper, owned by Nick’s Mom, Linda. It was a humid 82 degrees; streets were damp after a light summer rain.

At 17, the Baby Hulkster was the youngest driver on the “drift” race car circuit, as his Dad, Terry Bollea, liked to brag; he specialized in “drifting” sideways down the track, controlled spins, and drove fast enough to collect a few sponsors. That night, one of his pit crew pals was riding shotgun, John Graziano, 23.

His fellow driver, in the bad ass Viper, Daniel Jacobs, later told police he and Nick liked to “get on it” between lights.

It’s all in the Clearwater local police report we obtained.

“It’s how they always drive,” said his passenger, Barrett Lawrence.

When the light turned green, Nick took off, but the Viper pulled ahead. Jacobs didn’t see Nick, then glanced in the rear view mirror and spied smoke.

“Omigod,” he said whipping around and discovering the crumpled Supra with Nick and John unconscious.

Unable to contact Nick’s father by phone, Lawrence said they drove back to the house to alert Hulk his son had been in a crash, then all drove back together.

It was a far different story than Hogan spun the media with a few days after the crash, when he described on one entertainment show we reviewed he was driving to meet Nick at a steakhouse and randomly happened on the crash enroute.

He never mentioned his wife’s Viper being involved, and also denied there was any drinking, or drag racing.

Rosenwasser, 38, a prosecutor who specializes in investigating and trying deadly DUIs, told me he’d interviewed a dozen credible eye witnesses to the reckless driving, drag racing and tragic crash, all willing to testify, making it a slam dunk case, had it gone to trial. But the evidence isn’t widely known because Nick plead out, nolo contendere, in effect, a guilty plea that concedes the facts, without admitting guilt.

“We had 12 independent witnesses who saw both Nick Bollea and the other driver, Daniel Jacob, (behind the wheel of Linda Bollea’s silver Dodge Viper) driving well over the (40 mph) speed limit,” the prosecutor told me. Several times that night, witnesses said, they pulled up, side by side, and “accelerated from the traffic light.”

It was about 7:30 p.m. when Nick stomped it, and his Supra “started fishtailing,” said Rosenwasser, whose accident reconstruction expert put Nick’s speed at about 60 mph when he lost control and crashed. Barrett said he thought Nick was doing over 100 mph.

“All the witnesses said they were drag racing down major thoroughfares in high performance cars, traveling almost twice the speed limit on roads that were wet with a recent rain, and alcohol in Nick’s system,” said the prosecutor. “The facts speak for themselves.”

Investigators never could prove who gave Nick booze that day. But they did learn, that on the day of the crash, Hulk Hogan stopped by Albertson’s liquor store and purchased alcohol to take on his boat for an outing with Nick and his friends.

Under oath, Terry Bollea told the prosecutor he didn’t see Nick drinking while he was on the boat; friends told investigators when they hopped out to get into a bar on the beach, they got turned away because Nick had no identification to prove he was 21.

One friend said Nick was carrying a cup with about three inches of liquid in it, but he didn’t smell alcohol.

As for the Viper driver, Daniel Jacobs refused a blood alcohol test because he said he was concerned marijuana might turn up, but he did admit to drinking earlier that day—a mere four bottles of beer and a “Rum Runner,” whatever that is. Also convicted of reckless driving, he received probation because he didn’t contribute to the wreck, said the prosecutor.

“I know they were on Nick’s father’s boat and there was alcohol aboard (Hulk Hogan) had bought earlier, but as to who gave him the alcohol, we couldn’t establish that, just that he had it in his system when he crashed,” said Rosenwasser. “As a minor, he’s not supposed to be drinking.”

George Tragos, a former federal prosecutor turned veteran personal injury lawyer, represents Graziano in a civil suit for damages against Nick’s parents, and tells me he aims to put Hulk Hogan and his estranged wife on civil trial as celebrity parents who “enabled” a teenager to drive fast and dangerous cars – and were negligent and responsible for the Iraq veteran’s critical injuries.

Beyond buying Nick the Toyota, and letting a friend drive Linda’s Viper, Graziano’s lawsuit cites Nick’s shocking driving record. In Sept. 2006, a Florida state trooper pulled him over doing 107 mph on a stretch of highway called “Alligator Alley.” The speed limit was 70. It’s unclear whether celebrity justice factored in, but Nick got off with no ticket.

Undeterred, moments later, and 19 miles away, Nick saw blue lights flashing again. This time he was doing 115 mph when a different trooper pulled him over. This time, he DID get a speeding ticket.

Perhaps more shocking, both times, “when Nicholas Bollea was driving at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour…his father, Terry Bollea,” was riding shotgun, according to police records cited in the civil suit filed in Pinellas County Circuit Court.

It’s unclear if Nick was ever disciplined, but he apparently kept right on driving.

Four months later, on Feb. 8, 2007, he got a speeding ticket in Dade County: 57 mph in a 30 mile zone. Then,: April 25, 2007, another speeding ticket, in Oceola County: 106 mph in a 70 mile zone. Just two weeks before the tragic accident, Nick got another speeding ticket for driving 82 mph in a 45 mph construction zone.

Whether he was illegally street racing, Nick’s mother confessed her love for the dangerous sport on television, according to the civil suit. “Oh, I love it, I love it,” she once declared. “The rush, the speed on the road, stereo blasting, heart pounding, racing in between all the cards, dodging the cops. It’s awesome.”

If it ever gets to court, the case promises to be a tabloid dream expected to put Hollywood Parenting on trial. Tragos calls it a serious case of “celebrity enabling. They enabled, they created this young man to act and be just as irresponsible as he is.”

Ironically, the accident and the jail tapes certainly contradict the image Hogan has cultivated to market himself as the ideal Dad on a reality TV show and charity fundraisers, and both he and Nick’s mother dispute the charges. She adored the victim, she says on jailhouse audiotapes, where she can be heard sahing she cared more for John Graziano than his own parents, and that his mother doesn’t “give a shit,” that she’s only after “the money.”

Beyond trashing the victim and his parents, Rosenwasser cites Nick’s driving record—and his parenting—as “appalling. To be given a warning going over 100 mph, then to thumb your nose at the law and get pulled over 20 miles away, all the time having the blessing of your father, it’s a textbook for what not to do as a parent….

“They had knowledge of his driving pattern, and gave him an instrument to wreak havoc, a ridiculously powerful car, knowing he didn’t’ have the maturity to drive responsibly.

“When I interviewed his father, he told me, ‘Nick’s a drifter, a professional driver. Ironically, you’d think if he was a professional driver, he’d know that type of activity belonged on a track.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 7:51 pm and is filed under ART HARRIS REPORTS, ARTHARRIS.COM EXCLUSIVE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.