NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens sued for defamation by three teens who were with Nolan Wells

The lawsuit says the former NFL star defamed the three teens after a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict them in Wells’ death.

Three of the teens who were with Nolan Wells the day he disappeared during a Fourth of July boating trip have gone forth with defamation lawsuits against entities and individuals who they felt wrongly put harmful attention on them.

The group’s fathers filed a lawsuit on their behalf on Monday in the Southern District of Mississippi against NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens, citing a September 26 tweet in which he called for the three teens to be arrested. Owens also shared a link to an Instagram video that theorized that the teens tampered with Wells’ phone and killed him, according to the lawsuit.

Previously, the group stated they would sue “The View” host Sunny Hostin, Reverend Al Sharpton and Attorney Ben Crump over comments they made while discussing Wells’ death. Owens has previously pledged a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Wells’ death.

“Not only is he defaming them, he’s basically saying to the mob, get your pitchforks, get your torches,” Edward Paltzik, a defamation and media attorney representing the three friends, told the Associated Press regarding Owens.

A Mississippi grand jury declined to indict the teens in relation to Wells’ death, though another grand jury could be established should new evidence be found. A cause of death for the 18-year-old was undetermined through two autopsies and the autopsy conducted by the Jackson County Medical Examiner revealed that no water was found in Wells’ stomach nor his airways, despite a grand jury suggesting the possibility that he could have drowned.

“Paradoxically, you won’t find water in the airways for some of these drownings for someone who’s been dead for a while necessarily,” Dr. Christopher Tape, the coroner for St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana, told WDSU last month. “After a few days, the water is going to distribute everywhere, so it becomes difficult to conclude.”

Sharpton rebuffed a pre-suit demand from the teens’ lawyers, with his team telling TMZ the suit would be “meritless” and that he would not retract statements he never made.

“This is not going to distract us from the question that brought us here: ‘What happened to Nolan Wells?'” Sharpton said.