Former NFL Star Charged With Manslaughter After Alleged DUI

The Ventura County Star updated readers last Wednesday on a news story about a former football star that had been involved in an injury wreck last week that alcohol was allegedly involved in. While the former NFL and UCLA star had been facing charges of felony driving under the influence causing injury, he now faces charges of felony gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated after the victim in that crash passed away in the hospital. 

The victim, an 88-year-old Westlake Village man and instructor at California Lutheran University, passed away at a local hospital a day after the wreck, and it also came to light that the suspect was still fighting a previous charge of DUI from 2019, both of which played a part in the upgrade of the charges he faces. 

Around 9:30 p.m. last Friday, the suspect was northbound at the intersection of Erbes Road and Houser Circle when he swerved the vehicle into the southbound lanes and collided head-on with a vehicle driven by the victim. He was arrested around 1 a.m. on Saturday and booked into the Ventura County Jail.

The suspect was a USA Today All-American and Ventura County Football Coaches Association Offensive Lineman Of The Year as a high school senior at Westlake in 1998. After scoring seven touchdowns and catching 59 passes as a tight end at the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA), where he made first team on the All-Pac 10 squad, he was taken with a third-round draft pick in the NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers, although his career was cut short by two knee surgeries due to ACL damage.

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