The New England Patriots will forever be linked to the tragic story of Aaron Hernandez, and the attorney representing the family of Hernandez’s victim wants the team to write a check because of it.
Douglas Sheff, a lawyer for the family of Odin Lloyd, revealed this week that the victim’s family has won a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Hernandez.
“All that remains in our case is a determination of damages, of how much,” Sheff said, according to the Boston Globe.
With Hernandez having committed suicide in prison, there are a lot of questions to be answered about who owes what to whom. Sheff believes the Patriots should step forward and offer to pay some of the damages — a move that Sheff says would make them “champions of justice” in addition to being NFL champions.
“I can’t speak to what the Patriots will do,” he said. “We issued them a friendly challenge. It sure would be nice if they took us up on our invitation.”
Hernandez was serving a life sentence for being convicted of killing Lloyd in 2012. Now that the former NFL star has died before exhausting all of his appeals in the case, the conviction may actually be overturned. You can read more about that here.
Ben Volin of the Boston Globe noted on Friday that the Patriots settled a grievance Hernandez filed in 2014. Attorney and former NFL agent Joel Corry explained to Volin that the settlement likely included “catch-all language” to prevent the Patriots from being involved with any other financial matters relating to Hernandez going forward. Hernandez’s contract, which was obtained by the Globe, also contains language indicating the team is within its rights to not pay Hernandez or his beneficiaries even if the conviction is overturned.
Bottom line? If Sheff has legal precedent to challenge the Patriots to pay up, the team will have no choice but to address the situation. If he’s hoping they’ll pay damages to Lloyd’s family as a gesture of good faith, he is likely going to be disappointed.
