The Odin Lloyd Case
On June 17, 2013, Odin Lloyd met one of his heroes, New England Patriot tight end Aaron Hernandez, in a Boston club. He left the club with Hernandez and some of Hernandez’s friends. Later that day, the body of the semi-pro football player was found in an industrial park a mile from Hernandez’s home. Two years later, Hernandez was convicted of Lloyd’s murder.
What should have been an open and shut wrongful death case for Lloyd’s mother, Ursula Ward, with a murder conviction in a Massachusetts court. That changed in 2017, when Hernandez committed suicide in his jail cell. Under a principal in Massachusetts law known as abatement ab initio, the conviction was overturned on the grounds that Hernandez could no longer defend himself. Undaunted, Sheff Law pushed forward with the case seeking compensation for Ward even as Hernandez’s lawyers tried legal maneuvering to avoid paying a civil judgement.
The case was resolved with an undisclosed settlement in 2019. Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly cited Doug Sheff’s work on behalf of Odin Lloyd’s family when they named him as a Lawyer of the Year in 2020.
NBC News: Odin Lloyd Mother Announces Wrongful Death Suit
Mother of Odin Lloyd, Attorney Seek Pay Out from Patriots
WCVB: Bill Prompted by Hernandez Verdict Dismissal After Suicide
All-American Murder
…Hernandez stood, stoically, throughout his sentencing. he knew the word on Judge Garsh: Remarkably, no case that had come before her had ever been overturned on appeal. He knew that his finances were dwindling: His salary was gone; his lawyers had been expensive; Ursula Ward and her lawyer, Doug Sheff, were still pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against him.
Author James Patterson and Doug Sheff.
