Former Ohio State star and Pittsburgh Steelers QB Dwayne Haskins was drugged on the night he was fatally struck by a dump truck last year, according to a lawsuit filed by his family.
The lawsuit claims that 24-year-old Haskins, who died after being hit on a Florida highway in the early morning hours of April 9, 2022, was “targeted and drugged as part of a blackmail and robbery conspiracy,” the family’s lawyer Rick Ellsley said in a statement released Monday, according to ESPN.
“In fact, his highly-expensive watch was stolen from him shortly before his death,” the statement added.
The lawsuit lists four people, two restaurants, a driving range, and a hotel as defendants connected to the alleged conspiracy, ESPN reported. The dump truck driver was also listed as a defendant, but he was accused of “negligent acts” that led to Haskins’ death and was not connected to the alleged blackmail conspiracy.
A toxicology report on Haskins following his death revealed that the former Heisman Trophy finalist had a 0.20 blood alcohol content, along with ketamine and norketamine in his system. The drugs are commonly used as painkillers and by medical professionals for anesthesia but are also used recreationally. A medical examiner found that Haskins died of blunt force injuries and ruled his death an accident.
Haskins reportedly called his wife, Kalabrya Haskins, after running out of gas on Interstate 595 in South Florida, telling her that he was going to walk to a gas station. She then called 911 after she didn’t hear back from him.
“He said he was going to call me back after he finished putting the gas in,” she told the dispatcher. “I kept calling and kept calling. He wasn’t answering. Eventually, after 10 minutes of calling the phone, eventually it cut off. It’s not working now. I had his location. I just want somebody to go in the area and see if his car is there and if he’s OK and if anything happened to him.”
The Haskins family’s lawsuit alleges that the dump truck driver was speeding and driving carelessly and that the driver hit Haskins when he “was only feet away from making it safely across the roadway.”
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The Florida Department of Transportation, the truck driver’s company, and the contractor that provides signage for I-595 were also accused of negligence in the lawsuit. Kalabrya Haskins is listed as the plaintiff in the case where she seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages related to her husband’s death.