Judge says two Hernandez lawsuits to be tried in Boston

Two wrongful-death lawsuits pending against the estate of the late Aaron Hernandez will be tried in Boston, a judge ruled yesterday.

The Herald reported last week that George Leontire, an attorney for Hernandez’s estate, wanted the cases brought by the families of murder victims Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado tried in Bristol County.

Leontire is based in Bristol County, where the estate of the former New England Patriot tight end and North Attleboro resident was also probated. A third wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the mother of murder victim Odin L. Lloyd is pending against Hernandez’s estate in Fall River.

But Suffolk Superior Court Judge Douglas H. Wilkins, in denying the motion argued before him last week, said de Abreu, 29, Furtado, 28, and their families “are Suffolk County residents, making venue proper here.”

“An impartial trial in this County can occur,” Wilkins found.

The widow of de Abreu and the father of Furtado sued Hernandez in 2014, three years before he was acquitted of the Dorchester men’s 2012 murders in the South End and then committed suicide in prison.

The trial for the families’ consolidated suits will not take place before 2019, Wilkins said last week.

No trial date has been set in the Lloyd case.

Hernandez, 27, was convicted in 2015 of Lloyd’s murder two years earlier and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole; however, that conviction was wiped clean following his death.

Bristol District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn’s office is appealing to the state Supreme Judicial Court.