Charlotte Hornets want out of lawsuit alleging star LaMelo Ball drove over child’s foot
The Charlotte Hornets want out of the civil lawsuit alleging star player LaMelo Ball ran over and broke a boy’s foot after a game at the Spectrum Center in October 2023.
The team, which is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said it “has no control over” Ball or “the public streets of Mecklenburg County” in court documents filed Friday. The NBA team is asking a judge to dismiss it from the lawsuit.
Ball, the team’s point guard and highest paid player, allegedly ran over Angell Joseph’s foot with his car outside the stadium after the Hornets’ annual Purple and Teal Day scrimmage on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the lawsuit filed in May by Angell’s mother, Tamaria McRae.
Joseph, who was 12 years old at the time, approached Ball for an autograph, McRae alleged in the May lawsuit. Then Ball sped off, she said, and left Joseph on the ground with a broken foot. The family is asking for more than $25,000 in compensatory damages, plus any additional attorney’s fees and court costs.
The Hornets filed the motion to be removed from the case four days after McRae’s lawyer filed a notice announcing the team’s senior director of security, Anthony Datcher, would be interviewed in a videotaped deposition.
Hornets’ security, the Observer previously reported, typically places barricades outside the stadium’s loading dock area to keep pedestrians and fans at bay — particularly when a car is leaving. It was unclear if the area was barricaded when the boy allegedly approached Ball.
The family’s lawyer, Cameron DeBrun, previously told Observer news partner WSOC that McRae decided to sue Ball and the team because she couldn’t file a claim with Ball’s insurance company to pay her son’s medical bills. The police report made following the incident didn’t have Ball’s name or his insurance provider, she said.
Without that information, the family had to sue Ball and the team to seek compensation.
This story was originally published January 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
