New lawyer hired by teen sues Ja Morant for punching during basketball game

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 3 minutes read

A year-long civil case against Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant will continue at least until the fall of this year, as new lawyers for the teen Morant punched during a basketball game -ball will be aware of the matter.

Monday was the first appearance for Stephen Leffler, the lawyer just retained by teenager Joshua Holloway, and he said it will take him a few months to read up on what happened in the case before 'be held back. He also announced that he would retain additional counsel.

Leffler, who is also one of the attorneys currently representing former Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley in Tire Nichols' federal criminal case, officially signed off on the civil lawsuit against Morant on Friday. He replaced Rebecca Adelman and Leslie Ballin. Adelman and Ballin asked to be removed from the case on April 19, citing an “irreconcilable” conflict.

Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Carol Chumney, who presided over the case, set two court dates for Monday afternoon. The first of those dates was a status conference, where attorneys will brief him on the latest update in the case. This date was set for August this year.

Chumney also scheduled a pretrial hearing, which will take place before the second half of the immunity proceedings. Although he wanted to hold that pretrial hearing — during which attorneys would discuss last-minute motions — in September, it was ultimately set for October after Leffler said he would be unable to attend due to of the trial in the Tire Nichols case.

After a hearing in which Adelman and Ballin were allowed to withdraw from the case by Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Carol Chumney, Joshua Holloway's mother said the case would not be resolved and that the family planned to take her to court.

The lawsuit was filed in September 2022 and has been slowed by a series of motions. The trial was originally scheduled to begin in late April of this year, but that date looked increasingly unlikely as expected after Chumney ruled that Morant would be allowed to claim self-defense.

That decision shifted the onus to Holloway and his legal team to prove that Morant did not act in self-defense when he struck Holloway.

When she was filed, Holloway was a minor and still in high school and the case was sealed. Since then, he has played college basketball at Samford University in Alabama and the lawsuit was unsealed after his 18th birthday.

What led to the lawsuit against Ja Morant?

The incident that sparked the lawsuit occurred at Morant's home in Eads in July 2022. Morant had a group of young basketball players from the Memphis area at his home to play pick-up games, an event he said , happened quite frequently before the altercation with Holloway. .

After many games, witnesses said Holloway became frustrated while defending Morant and would not properly check the ball with a chest pass and would roll the ball across the floor. After some back and forth, Morant and witnesses said Holloway threw the ball at Morant forcefully, hitting the NBA starter in the face.

It remains unclear how the ball was thrown, with some witnesses saying it was thrown like a baseball, in a way that would intentionally hit Morant in the face, and others calling it a pass powerful chest which was not framed.

The two men approached each other on the basketball court and witnesses said Holloway had his fists clenched and was in a fighting stance. When they came face to face, witnesses said Morant punched Holloway, although a consensus on the force used was never reached.

After Morant hit Holloway, Morant's longtime friend Davonte Pack hit Holloway from behind and knocked him to the ground, witnesses said.

Pack is a co-defendant in the civil case and was later criminally charged with simple misdemeanor assault. These accusations were later dismissed. Morant was never criminally charged.

Lina Portman

Related Articles

8-year-old calls Cape Coral police on dad for allegedly driving drunk

Justin Timberlake arrested for DWI in the Hamptons

Man firing gun in 'ninja-style costume' causes polling station to be locked down

Bridgeport man sentenced for possession of child pornography