REPORT: Brett Favre Files Motion To Dismiss Mississippi Welfare Lawsuit
Brett Favre is going to court to try to get the stench of alleged welfare fraud off his name.
Favre's lawyers filed a motion on his behalf in Mississippi judicial court Monday to dismiss the complaint against himself and Favre Enterprises.
"It is apparent that MDHS has sued Favre, a Mississippi and national celebrity, in an effort to deflect responsibility for its own egregious wrongdoing," his lawyers wrote.
MDHS filed the lawsuit in May, alleging the defendants «squandered» more than $20 million from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families anti-poverty program.
An attorney for Favre filed papers on Monday saying the Mississippi Department of Human Services «groundlessly and irresponsibly seeks to blame Favre for its own grossly improper and unlawful handling of welfare funds and its own failure to properly monitor and audit» how organizations used the money.
«Including Favre in this lawsuit has had the intended effect � it has attracted national media attention to this case,» Favre's attorney, Eric D. Herschmann, wrote in the filing in Hinds County Circuit Court.
Herschmann wrote that the lawsuit focuses on the welfare agency's «false insinuations concerning Favre's supposed involvement» rather than on the agency, «which in fact is responsible for allowing this scandal to occur.»
It was not immediately clear how soon Hinds County Circuit Judge Faye Peterson might consider the request.
Favre is not facing criminal charges. He is among more than three dozen people or companies being sued by the Mississippi Department of Human Services as it seeks to recover a portion of the money misspent in the state's largest-ever public corruption case. The department filed the lawsuit in May, saying the defendants «squandered» more than $20 million from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families anti-poverty program.
