Pinellas Jail Makes Special Arrangments For Bolleas' Visits
CLEARWATER - Hulk Hogan and his estranged wife get to visit their son via video camera without anyone else in the video visitation center, an unusual circumstance arranged by authorities.
On Sunday, the former professional wrestler, whose real name is Terry Bollea, and Linda Bollea showed up at the Pinellas County Jail on 49th Street to visit Nick Bollea, 17, who was sentenced to eight months in jail Friday on a charge of reckless driving involving serious bodily injury.
People visiting their own loved ones approached Hogan, and some wanted to take his picture, said Cecilia Barreda, a Pinellas County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.
"It was disruptive and disorderly in the video visitation room," Barreda said.
The couple were allowed to return Monday when no one else was at the center. Monday normally is not a visiting day for an inmate whose last name begins with the letter B.
The couple will be able to have the center to themselves from 3 to 4 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays, Barreda said. That time usually is reserved for maintenance workers to clean the center.
On a typical visiting day, more than a dozen people huddle at various stations, looking at their loved ones on two-way monitors and talking with them by telephone.
Barreda said the arrangement for the Bolleas also benefits other visitors and the deputies who run the visitation center.
Bollea pleaded no contest Friday to a crash Aug. 26 that left his passenger, Iraq war veteran John Graziano, 23, with severe brain damage.
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