As attorney David Jaroslawicz, whose most recent foray into NFL litigation involved a well-known quarterback and his better-known cell phone, told PFT on Wednesday, the lawsuit alleging that Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez shot a man in the face has been re-filed in Florida.
The suit that was filed on June 13 and dismissed four days later is officially back on.
And while the reason for the decision to spend the money necessary to start the case from scratch still isn’t clear, especially since any errors in the complaint could have been fixed with a revised document, all that really matters is that the case is back on. (Some lawyers will use filing and re-filing as a tool to get a case before a judge who is deemed to be more favorable to the case. We don’t know whether that was a factor here.)
We’ve studied both complaints, which are a mere four pages each. And, as Jaroslawicz told PFT on Wednesday, the only change between old and new is that the new complaint drops the allegation that the plaintiff, Alexander S. Bradley, had plates and screws inserted in his arm.
Meanwhile, USA Today and others have obtained a copy of the police report from the incident involving Bradley. According to the report, Bradley initially said he didn’t know who shot him. Bradley later said he no longer wanted to talk about the situation because of the pain.
While some (e.g., Hernandez’s lawyer) would argue that this means Hernandez didn’t shoot Bradley, someone apparently shot the guy. It’s possible that he opted to keep his mouth shut for fear that whoever shot him would be tempted to finish the job.
Regardless, none of this will slam the door on the lawsuit against Hernandez. Bradley will be permitted to attempt to prove his case, and Bradley will win if he can demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence (i.e., 51-49) that Hernandez shot Bradley.
The separate problem for Hernandez is that this becomes a second incident, making the NFL far more likely to take action under the personal-conduct policy than if there were only one.