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The former New England Patriots player's body was found on
Wednesday hanging in a cell where he was serving a life prison
sentence. Law enforcement officials last week confirmed that
Hernandez left behind three handwritten letters.
Local media, citing law enforcement sources, said that one of
the letters was addressed to a lover Hernandez had taken while
in prison. He had been in state custody since June 2013 when he
was arrested and charged with murdering an acquaintance. He was
convicted of that killing in 2015 and sentenced to life in
prison without possibility of parole.
"Rumors of letters to a gay lover, in or out of prison, are
false," said lawyer Jose Baez, who this year successfully
defended Hernandez in a trial where he was accused of murdering
two men in Boston in 2012.
"These are malicious leaks used to tarnish someone who is dead,"
Baez added. "I urge anyone continuing to spread these malicious
untruths to cease immediately."
Hernandez, who had been a rising star in the NFL with a $41
million contract before his arrest, hung himself just days after
being cleared of the double-murder charges.
Prosecutors in Worcester Country, the site of the prison where
Hernandez died, on Monday released copies of the letters to
Hernandez's family after being ordered to do so by a judge.
Officials did not release details on the letters' contents.
A spokesman for Baez declined to provide further details on the
letters' contents.
Also on Tuesday, lawyers asked a Massachusetts judge to vacate
Hernandez's 2015 conviction for murdering an acquaintance.
In addition to clearing Hernandez's name, the legal move, at the
behest of his family including his girlfriend, Shayanna Jenkins
Hernandez, could help protect his estate from liability in civil
lawsuits filed by the survivors of his alleged victims.
The filing, made on Tuesday at Massachusetts Superior Court in
Fall River, is based on a quirk of Massachusetts law that allows
a court to reverse a verdict if the person convicted dies before
he has exhausted his appeals process.
The Bristol County district attorney, who handled the Lloyd
murder trial, plans to contest the request to vacate the
verdict, a spokesman said.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Andrew
Hay)
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