COVER STORY
Legal Déjà Vu Trial lawyer Steve Yerrid, a National Trial Lawyers Association Hall-of-Famer, again achieves institutional change in a case reminiscent of an earlier tragedy.
PHOTO BY PETER ACKER
By Sean Stonefield
O
n February 7, 2014, the University of California football team was finishing up a strenuous early morning workout when Ted Agu, a walk-on defensive lineman, repeatedly collapsed. After his final collapse, Agu was transferred to a nearby hospital, where, at just 21 years old, he was pronounced dead. Initially, the Alameda County coroner’s office attributed Agu’s death to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition that impedes the heart from pumping blood. University officials meanwhile reported that the workout had been routine and that Agu had been helped as soon as he started struggling. But Agu’s teammates who had witnessed the tragic event came forward and told a different story. “Depositions proved that the workout was new, designed to push players to their edge and way beyond it,” says attorney Steve Yerrid, the lead lawyer representing Agu’s parents in their wrongful death lawsuit against the university. “Numerous players also testified that Ted had been visibly struggling for an extended period of time, and that team trainers and coaches failed to intervene or provide assistance until after his final, fatal collapse.” Indeed, the sworn testimony elicited in the case raised questions as to whether campus officials had provided the
coroner’s office with the complete police report, complete witness statements, accurate factual information, and medical records indicating Agu carried sickle cell trait—a blood disorder that can activate and cause death under prolonged and extreme exertion. “Cal doctors and coaches knew of Ted’s condition since his freshman year in 2010, and once the coroner’s office was informed of the real facts concerning the severity and length of Ted’s sickling symptoms, the County’s chief medical examiner changed the official cause of death from cardiac death to exercise collapse associated with sickle cell trait,” explains Yerrid, who relied on Tampa lawyer Jeff Murphy and well-known California attorney Brian Panish to meticulously prepare the case for trial. In early 2016, after numerous depositions, the university finally admitted liability in Agu’s death and exonerated him from any wrongdoing. While this resolution of fault did not establish the amount of damages, the University of California ultimately settled the litigation shortly before trial by agreeing to pay Agu’s parents $4.75 million. UC also guaranteed a number of health and safety reforms across all 11 of its campuses, and agreed to provide coaches, team doctors, and players with further education on sickle cell trait, its associated complications, and methods of prevention. “Monitoring players with sickle cell trait is a basic and essential safety requirement. We were astonished to learn that Cal’s head football trainer, Robbie Jackson, who ironically attended to Agu as he was dying, had a unique history that should have made him acutely aware of its dangers,” says Yerrid. Amazingly, six years before Agu’s death, Jackson, who was then a trainer at the University of Central Florida, had personally assisted Ereck Plancher, a 19-year-old UCF football player with sickle cell trait, when he collapsed during a workout. As in the Agu tragedy, the coaches and training staff failed
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“Team trainers and coaches failed to intervene or provide assistance until after his final, fatal collapse.”
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