Judge’s Final Order on Prevailing Party in ‘Muchnick v. UC Board of Regents’ Sets Up Conclusion of California Public Records Act Case in 2014 Ted Agu Football Conditioning Death Cover-Up

PREVIOUSLY:

“Here’s What We Learned Additionally About UC Berkeley’s Ted Agu Football Death Cover-Up As a Consequence of Our Successful Public Records Act Case,” September 11, https://concussioninc.net/?p=14581

“Muchnick on Daniel Libit’s ‘The Intercollegiate’ Podcast, Discussing Public Records Act Case For Documents in University of California’s 2014 Ted Agu Football Conditioning Death Cover-Up,” September 14, https://concussioninc.net/?p=14592

“In Email to Vice Chancellor During Ted Agu Football Conditioning Death From Sickle Cell Trait Collapse, Berkeley Campus Police Chief Said the Quiet Part Out Loud,” September 18, https://concussioninc.net/?p=14604

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by Irvin Muchnick

In final orders dated October 16, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey S. Brand has affirmed his tentative ruling last month that we are the prevailing party for purposes of being awarded attorney fees, and are entitled to reimbursement of costs and attorney fees for the three and a half years of litigating a California Public Records Act case that caused the release of hundreds of pages of new internal University of California-Berkeley emails and other documents relating to the handling of the 2014 death of football player Ted Agu.

Agu died, during an offseason conditioning drill, from an exertional collapse associated with sickle cell trait. The university’s withholding from the coroner the known information that Agu carried the sickle cell trait led to an original autopsy finding, later revised, that the cause of death was common heart failure. In 2016 the UC Regents paid out $4.75 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit by the Agu family survivors.

Concussion Inc. alone has acquired and published the documents from athletic department officials involving, among others, former football team physician Dr. Casey Batten, which outlined a cover-up.

Brand ordered the parties to spend the next three weeks negotiating how much in attorney fees the Regents should pay in our case. If the parties cannot agree on an amount, the court will entertain our motion to resolve the amount.