Famous former wrestler Hulk Hogan’s son, Nick Bollea, has been arrested once again for driving drunk and causing an incident.
The latest misdemeanor charge out of Clearwater, Florida, claims that Bollea was driving under the influence and refused to take a breathalyzer test.
The arrest affidavit stated, in the early morning hours, Bollea barreled toward three Clearwater Police Department vehicles in his black 2021 Dodge Ram. When officers, who were conducting another investigation near the median, signaled for him to move away from them. However, he continued forward, clocking 51 mph in a 40 mph zone.
Despite authorities claiming that Bollea refused a BrAC test, which measures the alcohol level in the body’s system, officers noted they could smell a strong odor of alcohol emanating from him. He also was swaying and had an unsteady balance.
Officers also reported that Bollea had red bloodshot eyes, that appeared glassy and that he did show signs of impairment when performing the field sobriety test poorly.
Bollea, 33, who was a formerly sponsored car racer and competed in amateur and professional track races as a teen, was arrested at 1:42 a.m. on Saturday.
He was subsequently booked into the local jail by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. In a video of his booking, Bollea walks handcuffed into the sheriff’s office. He was held on a $500 bond.
Although Bollea did not have an adult record in Clearwater, per the affidavit, he has a checkered driving history in the area as a teeanger.
At the age of 17, Bollea was sentenced to eight months in county jail and five years probation in May 2008, after pleading no contest in a reckless driving incident causing serious bodily injury to his friend.
According to Sam & Ash Injury Law, who represented that friend in a civil suit stemming from that Clearwater crash, said it also involved alcohol.
In the underlying incident, which took place in August 2007, as described by the injury lawyers, the 17-year-old Bollea took one of his dad’s cars, a Supra, and drove his friend, John Graziano, a former U.S. Marine and veteran of the Iraq War, to a steakhouse in downtown Clearwater.
On the way to the restaurant, Bollea raced a Dodge Viper in a 40mph zone, lost control of his car and fishtailed along the road. Then he proceeded to crash into a median strip and finally came to a complete stop after hitting a palm tree.
The teenage Bollea’s blood alcohol level registered at 0.055 percent, a level known to impair judgment and decrease alertness, according to the Graziano’s family lawyers.
Graziano, who was not wearing a seatbelt, sustained a severe brain injury caused by a broken skull and swollen brain.
Bollea, who was wearing a seatbelt and was soon after discharged unharmed from the hospital, had his license suspended for three years.
The teenager, who had racked up a handful of speeding citations including one just weeks before the crash, including multiple incidents in which he clocked in at over 100 miles an hour, got out of jail early on good behavior.
