IRVINE, Calif. (KNX) — Two Mater Dei High School football players are accused of breaking a fellow student athlete’s jaw in an attack that was allegedly orchestrated by another student, according to a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court.
The 2019 attack was planned by a student who “erroneously” believed that a basketball player shared an embarrassing video of him online, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in May and first reported this week by the Orange County Register.
The student accused of orchestrating the attack tracked down the basketball player through mutual friends while they were hanging out in Irvine, the suit says. That student then directed his two football player friends to the basketball player’s location and instructed them to attack him, according to the docs.
The football players confronted the basketball player as he tried to make his way to his Uber, according to the lawsuit. The football players are then accused of repeatedly striking the teen in the face and head, knocking him to the ground and leaving him disoriented.
As a result of the attack, the basketball player suffered a broken jaw, according to the suit.
David Nisson, the attorney representing the football players, wrote in a September court filing that his clients were acting in self-defense after the basketball player allegedly directed a crowd to attack them and that the basketball player had “consumed an excessive amount of alcohol which made him unable to care for the safety of himself,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Although Mater Dei is not listed as a party in the lawsuit, attorney Mike Reck—who is representing another Mater Dei student athlete who is suing the school after a locker room altercation allegedly left him with a traumatic brain injury—says the attack in the basketball player’s suit speaks to the violence and culture of hazing promoted by the school’s football program.
In regard to Reck’s client, Mater Dei pledged it would launch an independent investigation into the incident but Reck is doubtful the probe will net any results that will create effective change.
“They haven’t said who’s doing it,” Reck said. “...I have zero expectation that this will be a transparent investigation.”
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