By Antonio Gonzalez
Associated Press
The family of former California football player Ted Agu filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Regents of the University of California on Tuesday, alleging "reckless and negligent behavior" by the staff toward an athlete known to have sickle cell trait.
The lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in Oakland says the university was negligent for hiring trainer Robert Jackson, who previously worked at Central Florida, where he was the sole certified athletic trainer present when football player Ereck Plancher died following conditioning drills in March 2008.
Agu died after an offseason training run Feb. 7 in Berkeley. The lawsuit says that, like Plancher, Agu had sickle cell trait and should not have been put through a "lethal conditioning drill."
"The same thing happened here," said Agu family attorney Steve Yerrid, who also represented Plancher's family. "What you see here is a bona fide tragedy."