Attorney: Settlement in Hogan accident case apparently "appallingly low"

By Rita Farlow, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Oct 14, 2011 03:10 PM

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CLEARWATER â€" Details about the financial settlement reached between Hulk Hogan and John Graziano, who was critically injured in a 2007 street racing accident while riding with Hogan's son, Nick, were revealed Friday in a newly filed court document.

In a deposition for her pending divorce, John's mother, Debra Graziano, said she believes about $1.5 million of her son's trust remains after attorneys and the veteran's hospital that cared for John after the accident were paid.

Edward Graziano's attorney, John Trevena, who interviewed Debra in September, said that means the settlement could not have topped $5 million.

"It's appallingly low. I was stunned," he said. "It's a tenth of the value I had anticipated."

Trevena said experts he talked to had placed a value on a possible settlement of somewhere between $25 million and $50 million.

John Graziano suffered a broken skull and devastating brain damage when he was injured in 2007. The driver of the car, Nick Bollea, is the youngest child of Terry Bollea, a professional wrestler and entertainer who goes by the name Hulk Hogan.

In a 2008 financial affidavit, Terry Bollea said his net worth was $32.4 million. That same year, Terry and Linda Bollea, who are now divorced, sold a Miami Beach house for $17 million, property records show. Trevena estimated Friday that Terry Bollea had at least $20 million in assets that could have been liquidated for the settlement.

"One would've expected there would've been sufficient funds to provide a caregiver or caregivers for John Graziano," Trevena said. "Now, Mrs. Graziano is going to be devoting the remainder of her life to the care of her son, without any outside help. It's extremely sad. It's tragic."

The terms of the settlement, which was reached in February 2010, are confidential to all but a handful of people: the Bolleas, John's court-appointed financial guardian, and their attorneys, Trevena said.

Debra Graziano has been caring for her son since he was released from the hospital in September 2009. In the deposition, Debra Graziano said she's left with about $35 a week for herself after paying for health and car insurance, her cell phone, groceries, living essentials and her monthly tithe at her church.

Ed and Debra Graziano, who were married in Virginia in 1993, have two sons and a daughter who are all in their 20s. Evidence of marital discord began appearing in court records in 2004, when Debra Graziano filed for the first of several restraining orders against her husband. She alleged he hit her, stalked her, tried to sic the family dog on her and threatened to kill her multiple times.

Debra Graziano previously filed for divorce in 2004, but the case was later dismissed after she and her husband both failed to show up for a hearing.

She moved out of the family home in early 2005, she said, a few months before John, who joined the Marines, left for boot camp. She let her husband stay with the family during Christmas 2006, but afterward, he refused to leave. Several months later he was arrested, accused of punching her in the face.

In February 2009, authorities arrested Edward Graziano after they said he offered $2,100 and a pizza shop gift card to an undercover deputy if he would kill his estranged wife.

In May, Ed Graziano was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded no contest to a charge of solicitation to commit murder. The judgment and sentence are being appealed, said Trevena.

Debra said she and John, who is now 26, and her other son, Michael, now live in a Dunedin house purchased for about $345,000 from settlement funds.

She has no other income besides the money she is paid to care for her son. She limits herself to the $1,750 a month the settlement account earns in interest so she will not have to touch the principal, she said.

In the deposition, Debra Graziano said she pays for John's clothes and haircuts without reimbursement from the fund. She has no retirement fund or other savings, she said. Her car, a 2000 Oldsmobile John bought for her from his Iraq combat pay, is probably worth a couple thousand dollars, she said.

"To me it's worth more than any Ferrari on the street," she said.

Though he still cannot speak, John is now able to sit up by himself, help get himself dressed, and is beginning to take his first steps.

"He's a miracle," she said.

[Last modified: Oct 14, 2011 03:10 PM]

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