Aaron Hernandez's Fiancée Announces $20 Million Lawsuit Against The Patriots And NFL
Yesterday's revelation that Aaron Hernandez had stage 3 CTE at the time he committed suicide by hanging himself in his prison cell this past April came equipped with another announcement as well.
In conjunction with revealing the late New England Patriots' star tight end's condition, Hernandez's fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, announced a $20 million lawsuit against the team and the NFL, alleging that both failed to protect him and in doing so, denied his toddler daughter, Avielle, of “the love, affection, society, and companionship of her father while he was alive,” as reported by the Boston Globe.
“Everyone, including and especially his family, is deeply troubled by this whole thing,” Hernandez's family attorney, Jose Baez, said with Jenkins-Hernandez beside him yesterday, as reported by the Boston Globe.
According to the newspaper, the lawsuit alleges that the Patriots and NFL knowingly “concealed and misrepresented the risks of repeated traumatic head impacts to NFL players,” and “needlessly delayed adoption of rules and league policies related to player health and safety with regard to concussions and subconcussive head trauma.”
Below you'll find two pages of the lawsuit, as tweeted by the Boston Herald's Bob McGovern.
Baez also announced yesterday that Boston University's renowned CTE Center revealed the former tight end to have the "most severe case (of CTE) they had ever seen for someone Aaron's age (27)," as reported by ABC News.
Two years ago, Hernandez was found guilty of the June 2013 first-degree murder of Odin Lloyd and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, Hernandez was found not guilty in a separate double-murder case only five days before his suicide. That being said, plenty of people will question if Hernandez's CTE diagnosis helps explain that murder of Lloyd and his own suicide.
Baez led Hernandez's defense, which led to his acquittal in that double-murder case, and seems confident about this lawsuit against the Patriots and NFL, too.
“I wouldn’t get involved in a lawsuit," Baez said, as reported by the Boston Globe, "if I didn’t think it was something I could win."
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