Despite his criminal proceedings wrapping up in a plea agreement back in March, Eagles rookie defensive tackle Jalen Carter still faced a civil lawsuit stemming from a car crash that resulted in the death of teammate Devin Willock and a Georgia recruiting analyst, Chandler LeCroy. That original lawsuit was filed by Devin Willock Sr., the father of one of the deceased, but he now faces further civil charges being filed by another former recruiting analyst, Victoria S. Bowles, who was injured in the accident. 
Willock’s original lawsuit for $40MM, targeted Carter specifically for $10MM. The suit noted two other occasions during which Carter received citations or tickets. It had also been reported that Carter’s driver license was suspended at the time of the accident. Carter had received misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing, paid a $1,013 fine, and is currently serving 12 months of probation, a fairly light sentence that seemed to indicate a lack of responsibility.
Bowles’s lawsuit levies a more severe allegation. According to Alan Judd of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bowles alleges that “Carter illegally left the scene without rendering aid to those injured in the crash.” The lawsuit says that Carter “was jointly responsible for the crash and had a legal duty to remain on the scene.” It details that, “instead, in part obviously fearful of bad publicity and the effect on his NFL draft status, he hoped not to be questioned or take any responsibility for his actions.”
It’s unclear what specifically is being sought from Carter in this suit, but Bowles is reportedly seeking reimbursement for over $170K-worth of medical bills as well as unreported amounts for future expenses, wage loss, mental and physical pain and suffering, and punitive damages. The lawsuit detailed the injuries sustained by Bowles in the crash as “broken vertebrae and ribs, a fractured clavicle, and broken and cracked teeth; lacerations to her kidney and liver; a punctured and collapsed lung; abdominal bleeding; neurological damage from a head injury that causes severe eye pain; and a spinal-cord injury that could progress to permanent paralysis.”
Whatever isn’t being sought from Carter, Bowles is suing the university’s athletic association for. Bowles’s complaint includes screenshots of texts from program officials permitting Bowles and LeCroy to take the recruiting SUVs used in the accident to their personal residences overnight. She asserts that the athletic association overlooked LeCroy’s “deplorable driving history and habitual operation of motor vehicles at high and unsafe speeds.”
Specifically, the lawsuits points to an incident in which the staffer who granted the two permission to take the vehicles home was a passenger as LeCroy received a ticket for driving 77 mph in a 55-mph zone, her fourth such violation in six years and the second that qualified for enhanced penalties due to Georgia’s “super speeder” law. For the same incident, a separate Georgia staffer “asked a court clerk to reduce the speed on the ticket” to avoid those enhanced penalties, a precedent that Bowles claims “gave LeCroy an understanding that the association would continue to intervene on her behalf in relation to future speeding violations, thus encouraging and facilitating her high-speed driving and reckless conduct.”
Carter’s initial reported involvement in the incident, combined with a poor showing at the school’s pro day, led to a number of teams taking Carter off their draft boards entirely. Eventually, the Eagles decided to trade up for him after an evaluation process which did not include extensive vetting of the crash. He has since signed his four-year rookie contract with the Eagles, which has a total value of $21.81MM.
Unlike the Willock-suit, the athletic association isn’t calling the claims “baseless,” but they are choosing to “strongly defend (their) position” by claiming that neither LeCroy nor Bowles “were on duty or acting within the scope of their employment in the hours leading up to the accident.” The initial response does not address the overlooking of LeCroy’s driving history.
Similar to the Willock-suit, Carter’s representation “did not immediately respond” to the lawsuit. It’s unclear whether Carter and his team will deploy the defensive tactics that the university has chosen to adopt or if he will be more cooperative. Regardless, the resolution of both lawsuits is something to keep an eye on as Carter begins his professional career.
I don’t know him but sounds like a great guy.
I hope he is very successful in the NFL and has to pay these people every dime!
He’ll fit right in at Philly.
Oh wow what an original and clever comment from this loser
A talented young man but it is hard to cheer for him.
I suppose a civil lawsuit would motivate a player to seek a contract extension sooner rather than later. Unfortunately Carter is stuck with a rookie deal for now.
Jalen and his lawyer should just give the victims go-away money and move on
yes because moneys solves everything and will bring back Devin Willock back to life!
The athletic association are the only people that should be getting sued. Carter didn’t force them to drive at high speeds. It’s time to start holding the right people accountable. The association decided to ignore the red flags and let the other people drive.
The school has completely escaped much scrutiny for having someone who had several excessive speeding tickets on their record and who was drunk driving when she killed her and the player who died in that position to begin with. It’s kind of mind blowing how this story has been covered. You’d think Carter was the one driving the car and just ended up surviving wile those two died.
I still don’t get it the other guy decided to get behind the wheel of the car or in the passenger seat of that car Jalen Carter never made him do it. this is the type of stuff that I hate families want to sue other families because of bad decisions made by their deceased family members and it’s not right
The article goes over reasons why.
Yep. I’m still trying to understand how he’s responsible because they were drunk driving in the other car. Seems like everyone involved decided he’d be the fall guy when the school is the one at fault, but no one wants to burn those bridges or go against their lawyers.
The biggest issue was he fled the scene. He didn’t stay to fender help with victims or wirh police investigation. He was legally esposible to stay at scene. He made several bad desicions.
It’s going to get interesting to see how things go.
Said who? He didn’t crash that car, nor was he in an accident with them. So what law said he was obligated to stay at the scene? It showed poor character, but trying to pin everything on him is a bit much when the two idiots who were drinking and driving and got themselves killed were solely to blame. Next on the list is UGA for having such an irresponsible person with quite a few red flags on her driving record while in that job transporting their student athletes. Most stupid story I’ve seen in the media in a while and that’s saying something in this country.
Like I said read the article. It’s all there…that’s who says. And yes most all states have laws if you are involved in a accident..etc. you need to stay at scene and answer questions. This isn’t new information. It’s why he dropped on draft boards.