Woman seeks $11.5M from Blue Jay over STD allegations,
Woman claims Blue Jays star passed diseases, seeks $11.5M for care, anguish, suffering
Blue Jays first baseman Edwin Encarnacion plans to fight a lawsuit filed by a 24-year-old New York woman, who claims he knowingly infected her with two sexually transmitted diseases earlier this year in the Dominican Republic.
Ashley Lebron, who claims she is a family friend of Encarnacion, filed the lawsuit Monday in New York. She accuses Encarnacion of knowingly infecting her with genital herpes and chlamydia when they had unprotected sex in February at Encarnacion’s home in the Dominican.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
She is seeking $11.5 million in dam- ages for past and future medical care, as well as mental anguish and emotional and physical suffering.
A written statement provided by Paul Kinzer, Encarnacion’s agent, on behalf of the player’s legal counsel calls the claim “completely inappropriate and meritless,” adding that Encarnacion “will take every legal measure to defend himself against this frivolous claim and will bring appropriate claims in the appropriate forums against all of the individuals seeking to exploit his financial position.”
A 33-year-old pending free agent, Encarnacion currently ranks second in the majors in home runs and RBIs.
He is earning $10 million this season in the final year of a four-year, $39-million deal, but is due to receive a hefty raise in free agency after this season.
Lebron’s lawyer, Robert Hiltzik, said he would “never” file a frivolous claim. “The information and evidence that we have shows that it’s not frivolous.” Hiltzik said his client is a “wreck.” “Her life is in tatters. She’s got decades and decades of this to live with.”
Hiltzik said Lebron “did all she could” to avoid a lawsuit. “We had discussions and they were not fruitful,” he said. “Effectively she feels that she was being strung along. She really had little choice but to do this.”
Encarnacion declined to comment Tuesday, saying he wanted to focus on baseball. His lawyer, Robert Lanza, also declined comment.
In the lawsuit, Lebron claims that her aunt lived across the street from Encarnacion in the Dominican Republic and their families have been long acquainted. But she didn’t meet Encarnacion until 2013, when he provided her and her family with tickets to a game during a series in New York. They met briefly then, but did not spend much time together.
They stayed in touch on social media and met again in September 2015 in Baltimore, when Lebron alleges she hung out in Encarnacion’s hotel room and had protected sex with an unnamed teammate.
In February of this year, Encarnacion invited Lebron to spend time with him in the Dominican Republic and paid for her round-trip flight. After a night of drinking and smoking marijuana, she alleges they had unprotected sex on Feb. 13 at Encarnacion’s house. In the claim Lebron alleges that, on the night in question, Encarnacion was “aware” that she “had too much to drink and that her judgment (was) impaired.”
Two days later, on Feb. 15, Lebron claims they once again had unprotected sex at Encarnacion’s house.
The next day, Lebron claims she flew home to New York and began to feel body aches, “severe” headaches, a fever and chills. She also felt a stinging sensation when she urinated. She went to a hospital where she was told she may have a urinary tract infection. A few days later she went to another hospital where she was diagnosed with genital herpes and chlamydia.
When she confronted Encarnacion about her infections, she claims that he told her he is “clean” and that she shouldn’t “blame him.” She also alleges that he said he had “papers” proving that he was “clean,” but that he evaded her questions about whether he had been recently tested.