A Texas high school athlete was brutally beaten at a party with friends. Now his family is suing over a dozen of his classmates and their parents for $50 million in damages.
Cole Hagan, 16, survived a brutal attack by his classmates that sent him to the ICU.
Hagan, who hoped to play college football, is now undergoing intensive speech and physical therapy.
His family filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against several classmates and their parents.
The family of a Texas teen who suffered a brutal attack at the hands of his teammates has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against several of his "friends" and their parents.
Cole Hagan, 16, was at a pool party in Lake Jackson, Texas on December 3 when a few of his peers from Brazoswood High School lured him outside where he was ambushed by another student, 17-year-old Reid Mitchell.
Mitchell was charged with aggravated assault, along with Logan Huber, 18, and Ayden Holland, 17, who are accused of luring Hagan outside to be assaulted.
Hagan, who returned home from the hospital just in time for Christmas with his family, is now in outpatient rehab at TIRR Memorial Hermann undergoing speech, physical, and occupational therapy, his family told Insider.
The Hagan family has filed a lawsuit against 16 individuals seeking an excess of $50 million in damages and naming several of Hagan's peers and their parents, who the lawsuit claims "knew or should have known of the plan to attack Cole Hagan."
"The Hagan family is going to pursue justice in this case," attorney Loren Klitsas told Insider. "Their son Cole, a star football player, is permanently damaged, and they have no choice but to pursue the parties that are responsible for it. It's horrible."
Video: Facebook whistleblower says he was assaulted after exposing company
The suit accuses Mitchell of assault and Huber and Holland of the threat of bodily injury. The three have also been accused of making "false and defamatory statements...injuring Plaintiff, Cole Hagan's reputation."
After giving their initial statements to police following the attack, Huber and Holland returned to the police station to change their stories, claiming the assault on Hagan was sparked by Hagan's behavior toward their female friends. Those claims have not been corroborated by police, nor was any evidence of them included in police affidavits, as Insider previously reported.
Huber's lawyer, Scott Brown, said he is confident his client will be proven innocent of claims in the Hagan family's lawsuit.
"We believe that, unfortunately, he was just an innocent pawn in all of this with no knowledge of exactly what was going to happen, the way that it happened," Brown told Insider.
Several students are also accused of the threat of bodily injury as the lawsuit claims they knew of the attack before it happened and did not stop it. One student is accused of sending photos of Hagan to Mitchell "to commence the plan to brutally assault" the unwitting teen. Others are accused of being aware of the attack before it occurred. The students and their families could not be reached for comment.
"It is shocking because this is a small town and these kids all know each other," the Hagan family's attorney Klitsas told Insider. "They all hang out together, and that's why it's such a head-scratcher, that such a violent act could be done by this mob against a really nice kid."
The parents involved who have been accused of negligence are Robert Brandon Mitchell, Trista Wylde Huber, Thomas Holland, Wendi Holland, Hailey Vitek Rodd, Steven Rodd, Paul Cagle, Shelley Stroud, and Rodney Stroud. They could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment.
Read the original article on Insider
