When Hawks wing Thabo Sefolosha was officially acquitted of any wrongdoing in his confrontation with the NYPD, it was only a matter of time before he turned the tables on those who broke his leg without him doing anything wrong and filed suit in civil court. Now, according to the New York Post, that’s exactly what Sefolosha has done — and he reportedly wants $50 million from the city and eight cops who were at the scene.
In a legal notice that Sefolosha filed over the summer and was subsequently obtained by the Post, the Hawks wing claims that his broken leg at the hands of police caused him to become “substantially disabled” and that “damages are permanent in nature and continuing into the future.” Every player and injury is different, but it is possible to recover fully from many leg breaks, and Thabo can still dunk:
The caption on that video from the Hawks’ account may not help Thabo’s case very much. Of course, civil litigation is, like every part of the legal system, too complicated for the layperson to really understand, so it would be wildly inappropriate to dismiss Sefolosha’s claims of disability because of what he can do on a basketball court. A man’s life is not his job, and there are surely parts of this story that haven’t been and will not be made public.
If we’re speculating, however, that $50 million figure and the claims of permanent disability may simply be the opening salvo in a negotiation that finishes up south of that number. Most civil suits that aren’t dismissed are settled out of court, but Sefolosha has shown that he’s not afraid to have his day in court (and he’ll have NBPA head Michele Roberts in his corner).
We’ll see how the NYPD responds to this most recent development.
(Via New York Post)
