High School Football Star Brutally Beaten By Classmates; Family Sues Them For $50 Million

The family of a Texas high school football player who was critically injured in an ambush attack last month has filed a lawsuit against several of the victim's fellow students and their parents.

Cole Hagan's family is seeking an excess of $50 million in damages in the lawsuit against 16 individuals whom they claimed knew or should have known about the attack, a report by Insider said.

The 16-year-old was at a pool party in Lake Jackson, Texas, on Dec. 3, 2021, when several of his peers from Brazoswood High School lured him outside, according to the outlet.

The group claimed someone had damaged Hagan's vehicle, Law & Crime reported, citing the Dec. 23 civil complaint.

However, Hagan was instead ambushed by another student, 17-year-old Reid Mitchell, who punched the former in the face, slammed him to the concrete ground and elbowed him three or four times, authorities alleged.

Hagan sustained serious bodily wounds from the encounter, including traumatic head injuries, and had to be taken to the ICU. He was able to return home in time for Christmas with his family and is now in outpatient rehab at TIRR Memorial Hermann, undergoing speech, physical and occupational therapy, his family said.

"Cole Hagan has missed and continues to miss his junior year in high school and as a high school athlete, has also missed games and will likely not be able to play sports in either high school or college in the future. Football has been Cole Hagan's passion for many years," the victim's family wrote.

Mitchell was charged with aggravated assault following the incident. Two more teens, Logan Huber and Ayden Holland, aged 18 and 17, respectively, also received the same charge.

The three gave their initial statements to police following the attack, but Huber and Holland later changed their stories and blamed the assault on Hagan on "the victim's perceived behavior to some of their female acquaintances," authorities said.

However, the claims were not corroborated by police, and no evidence to support them was included in police affidavits. Hagan's parents argued that the claims were false and defamatory.

Now, the Hagan family's lawsuit is claiming that several of the teen's peers and their respective parents did not do anything even though they "knew or should have known of the plan to attack" Hagan.

One of the accused, a student, allegedly sent photos of Hagan to Mitchell "to commence the plan to brutally assault" the teen.

"It is shocking because this is a small town, and these kids all know each other. They all hang out together, and that's why it's such a head-scratcher that such a violent act could be done by this mob against a really nice kid," Loren Klitsas, the family's attorney, was quoted as saying.

The lawyer explained that the Hagan family "has no choice but to pursue" the parties who are responsible for the attack against Hagan, a "star football player," and that they plan to "pursue justice in this case."

Scott Brown, Huber's attorney, said he was confident his client would be proven innocent of the claim in the lawsuit.

"We believe that, unfortunately, he was just an innocent pawn in all of this with no knowledge of exactly what was going to happen, the way that it happened," Brown said.

The parents named in the Hagan family's lawsuit were Robert Brandon Mitchell, Trista Wylde Huber, Thomas Holland, Wendi Holland, Hailey Vitek Rodd, Steven Rodd, Paul Cagle, Shelley Stroud and Rodney Stroud.

They could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment.