Attorney calls on Pats to pay victims’ families
The New England Patriots should voluntarily hand over a multimillion-dollar payment to the grieving families of the men Aaron Hernandez was charged with killing, according to an attorney representing the mother of the only victim for which the former Pats tight end was convicted.
“We want to provide the Patriots the opportunity to become something more, not just champions of football, but to become champs of justice,” attorney Douglas Sheff said yesterday. “We urge the New England Patriots to work with the players’ association to voluntarily make these payments, of little consequence to the team, of tremendous assistance to the struggling, deserving families who are hurting like Ursula’s.”
Sheff filed a wrongful death suit versus Hernandez on behalf of Ursula Ward, the mother of Odin L. Lloyd, who a jury in 2015 convicted the ex-Patriot of killing. Hernandez’s conviction may be vacated under a common-law doctrine that allows convictions to disappear if the Supreme Judicial Court has not heard the appeal before the convict dies.
Citing media reports, Sheff said if the conviction is vacated, the Patriots could have to pay the Hernandez estate up to $6 million, and he is asking the team to hand that money directly over to Lloyd’s family and the families of Safiro Furtado and Daniel de Abreu.
“It’s time to do something perhaps a bit unusual, but in our estimation, appropriate,” he said. “We want to issue a very friendly challenge to the New England Patriots.”
The $6 million represents a $3.25 million bonus from the Pats that was stopped hours after Hernandez’s arrest for Lloyd’s murder in 2013, and an additional $2.5 million in base salary also halted after the arrest.
The Patriots declined to comment. The players’ association did not respond to requests for comment.
Hernandez, found dead in his cell early Wednesday morning, was acquitted one week ago in the slayings of Furtado and de Abreu.
Speaking through tears, Ward said she believes justice was done in her son’s murder, even if Hernandez’s sentence is vacated.
“No matter what, the jurors found him guilty, so in my book, he is still guilty,” she said. ”I pray to God that his soul is at peace, I pray to God that he finds comfort, and God will forgive him for whatever happened.”