JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A judge should ignore a request from retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre to be removed from a civil lawsuit that seeks to recover misspent welfare money in Mississippi’s largest-ever public corruption case, the state Department of Human Services said this week.
Millions of federal welfare dollars were intended to help low-income Mississippi residents — some of the poorest people in the country — but were instead squandered on projects supported by wealthy or well-connected people, including projects backed by Favre, prosecutors say.
No criminal charges have been brought against the NFL Hall of Famer, although other people have pleaded guilty to their part in the misspending.
Favre’s attorneys argue the Department of Human Services is suing Favre, “a Mississippi and national celebrity,” to deflect from the department’s own role in allowing fraud, and have have filed two sets of papers urging a Mississippi judge to dismiss Favre from the suit.
Kaytie Pickett, an attorney for the department, responded that Favre’s attorneys failed to provide solid legal arguments to get their client out of the lawsuit.
“Favre’s submission is not a motion to dismiss; it is a long press release,” Pickett wrote in court papers filed Monday. “The court should disregard Favre’s diatribe.”
The Department of Human Services last year sued Favre and more than three dozen other people or businesses.
The suit says money was misspent on things like $5 million to help build a volleyball arena that Favre supported at his alma mater the University of Southern Mississippi, where his daughter played the sport, and $1.7 million toward development of a concussion treatment drug by a company in which Favre was an investor.
Those who have pleaded guilty to criminal charges include John Davis, a former director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services; and…
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