Prosecutors have declined to charge Tampa Bay radio host Mike Calta for taking a woman’s phone away as she captured video of him at a station event.
A video of the incident was posted to social media last week in which Erica Hernandez confronts Calta during a live WHPT 102.5-FM The Bone broadcast from a gun shop in Sarasota on June 17. Hernandez accuses Calta of leaking the Hulk Hogan sex tape to the now-defunct website Gawker in 2012.
The Tampa Times reports Calta initially allowed Hernandez to question him as she recorded video. After denying that he’d leaked the Hogan video, and asking, “How pathetic is your life that you’re here fighting this fight,” Calta grabbed Hernandez’s iPhone and turned the camera on her. Hernandez touched Calta while reaching to get her phone back. Calta shoved her off.
Deputies investigated and made no arrests but forwarded the case to the state attorney’s office for potential theft or battery charges.
Prosecutors would have to prove that Calta intended to commit a theft, they wrote in a memo. Instead, they said, “Hernandez and Calta were engaged in banter each trying to make their point ... There is insufficient evidence that Calta intended to deprive Hernandez of her phone as opposed to an intention to continue the interview by documenting his point for the video recording.”
As for any battery charges, prosecutors wrote, “Calta had turned his back on Hernandez after telling her to back away from him. When Hernandez instead grabbed his shoulder and reached over him, he moved her away.”
They said there was insufficient evidence to prove Calta’s push was more than what he could claim as “lawful self-defense.”
Calta was absent from his top-rated morning show after the video appeared online and did not return to the air on Monday. The reason for his absence was not clear. Managers at Cox Media Group and 102.5-FM The Bone did not respond to calls or emails from the Tampa Bay Times.
Hernandez has a relationship with Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, the radio host whose firing from 102.5-FM led to Calta taking over the morning time slot. A witness told deputies that Calta should not have allowed Hernandez to interact with him, as there have been past incidents at events involving people engaging with Calta on behalf of a rival radio host.
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