{"id":388,"date":"2012-03-26T16:17:55","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T21:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/?p=388"},"modified":"2012-04-05T15:56:52","modified_gmt":"2012-04-05T20:56:52","slug":"curtis-whitley-latest-wrongful-death-suit-filed-against-the-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/?p=388","title":{"rendered":"Curtis Whitley, Latest Wrongful Death Suit Filed Against the NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a late Sunday night in 2008 when friends found Curtis Whitley lying face down in a trailer, dead at the age of 39. Whitley lived a well-depicted life of a bad boy: snorting crystal meth, driving erratically high on drugs and alcohol, and breaking NFL\u2019s policies like a bat out of hell.<\/p>\n<p>He played six years in the NFL and was suspended <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.espn.go.com\/nfl\/news\/story?id=3395632\">twice<\/a> due to violations of the NFL\u2019s drug and alcohol policies.<\/p>\n<p>Was it the drugs and alcohol or something else that led to Whitley\u2019s premature death?<\/p>\n<p>According to the most recent wrongful death lawsuit filed by Whitley\u2019s family, the NFL was responsible for Whitley\u2019s demise by \u201cconceal[ing] important medical information\u2026.\u201d According to the lawsuit, Whitley suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).<\/p>\n<p>Whitley\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/10\/22\/sports\/ncaafootball\/22concussions.html\">brain<\/a> was one of the several brains of former NFL players examined by Drs. Bennett Omalu and Julian Bailes that was found to show signs of CTE.<\/p>\n<p>Although an autopsy report determined that Whitley\u2019s cause of death was due to a drug <a href=\"http:\/\/www.govolsxtra.com\/news\/2008\/dec\/27\/1995-chargers-mims-death-was-fifth\/\">overdose<\/a>, during the latter part of his life he did suffer from symptoms directly related to severe cognitive decline, including paranoia, suicidal thoughts and extreme depression, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>Whitley left behind two minor children: Hanna Whitley and Curtis Whitley, Jr. Their legal guardian is Alfred R. Camarena, the party whose name the case is captioned in.<\/p>\n<p>This is the sixth wrongful death lawsuit filed against the NFL and the 51<sup>st<\/sup> concussion-related lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint alleges similar facts as the other lawsuits, and asserts six counts: negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraud, actual fraud, wrongful death, and survival and pain and suffering.<\/p>\n<p>The family is represented by Stuart Fraenkel and Nicole Andersen of Kreindler &amp; Kriendler LLP. Andersen stated that the law firm plans on filing additional lawsuits in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p><em>Case Caption:\u00a0Alfred Camarena on behalf of the Estate of Curtis Whitley v. NFL &#8212;\u00a0filed in California Superior Court, Alameda County on March 21, 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a late Sunday night in 2008 when friends found Curtis Whitley lying face down in a trailer, dead at the age of 39. Whitley lived a well-depicted life of a bad boy: snorting crystal meth, driving erratically high on drugs and alcohol, and breaking NFL\u2019s policies like a bat out of hell. He [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions\/439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}