Favre remains in Mississippi welfare lawsuit, judge rules

Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre will stay as a defendant in a civil lawsuit that seeks to get better hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of misspent welfare cash that was supposed to assist a number of the neediest individuals in the USA, a Mississippi choose dominated Monday.

Circuit Choose Faye Peterson wrote that Favre’s attorneys made “unpersuasive and inapplicable” arguments in looking for to have him eliminated as certainly one of greater than three dozen individuals or companies being sued by the Mississippi Division of Human Companies.

“Clearly, Brett Favre is disillusioned within the court docket’s ruling,” his spokesman, Alex Pfeiffer, stated in an announcement Monday. “His authorized group is exploring their choices.”

Thousands and thousands of federal welfare {dollars} for low-income Mississippi residents had been squandered on tasks supported by rich or well-connected individuals, together with tasks reminiscent of a university volleyball facility backed by Favre, prosecutors say.

No felony prices have been introduced towards the NFL Corridor of Famer, though different individuals have pleaded responsible to their half within the misspending.

The Division of Human Companies lawsuit says cash from the Momentary Help to Needy Households program was improperly spent, together with on tasks Favre supported: $5 million for a volleyball area on the college the place Favre’s daughter performed the game and $1.7 million towards growth of a concussion therapy drug.

Favre’s attorneys had argued the Division of Human Companies is suing Favre, “a Mississippi and nationwide celeb,” to deflect from the division’s personal function in permitting fraud, and so they filed a number of units of papers looking for to have him dismissed from the swimsuit.

State attorneys wrote in March that Favre’s attorneys had given the court docket “an extended press launch” quite than authorized arguments in making an attempt to get him out of the lawsuit.