This week, the Mississippi Department of Human Services changed its demands against Brett Favre in a lawsuit that seeks repayment of misspent welfare money that was intended to help some of the poorest people in the U.S.
They dropped their demand of $1.1 million against Favre and now the new demand is up to $5 million against Favre and a university sports foundation. The new allegation comes just one week after Favre filed a punchy motion to dismiss the welfare department’s civil charges against him.
“[MDHS]’s lawsuit is nothing more than a baseless attempt to blame Brett Favre for its own failure to oversee the welfare funds placed in its trust,” Favre’s attorney, Erich Herschmann told ESPN in a statement. “Mr. Favre never had any control over how Mississippi spent its welfare funds. He never made any misrepresentations to anyone.”
The new demand is because money from an anti-poverty program was improperly used to pay for a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Earlier this year, text messages that Favre sent were unveiled to former Mississippi governor Phil Bryant to secure millions in funding for a volleyball arena.
The new filing also adds a lobbyist, two former MDHS attorneys and a virtual reality company as defendants in the lawsuit, according to Mississippi Today.
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“Despite the Foundation’s expressing worries about ‘rais[ing] negative concerns’ and being ‘scared to death,’ Brett Favre urged Nancy New that it was necessary for the Foundation to ‘utilize you guys [John Davis and Nancy New] in every way,’” the filing reads.
Favre’s daughter started playing volleyball at the Hattiesburg school in 2017. The volleyball facility was completed in late 2019.
Favre grew up in Mississippi and played football at the University of Southern Mississippi before a long career with the Green Bay Packers that included a win in Super Bowl XXXI. He was traded to the New York Jets in 2008 and played there one year before playing his final two seasons for the Minnesota Vikings.
