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Teen suing Ja Morant over pickup basketball punch retains attorney from Tyre Nichols case

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Teen suing Ja Morant over pickup basketball punch retains attorney from Tyre Nichols case

A yearslong civil case against Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant will continue at least into fall this year as new attorneys for the teen punched by Morant during a pickup basketball game get up-to-speed on the case.

Monday was the first appearance for Stephen Leffler, the attorney that was just retained by the teen, Joshua Holloway, and he said he would need a few months to read up what had happened in the case up to being retained. He also said he was bringing on an additional attorney.

Leffler, who is also one of the attorneys currently representing former Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley in the Tyre Nichols’ federal criminal case, officially signed on to the civil suit against Morant Friday. He replaced Rebecca Adelman and Leslie Ballin. Adelman and Ballin asked to be removed from the case April 19, citing an “irreconcilable” conflict.

Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Carol Chumney, who has presided over the case, set two dates in court Monday afternoon. The first of those dates was a status conference, where attorneys will brief her about the case’s latest update. That date was set for August this year.

Chumney also set a pretrial hearing, which will come before the second half of the immunity proceedings. Although wanting to have that pretrial hearing — where attorneys would argue any last-minute motions — in September, it was finally set for October after Leffler said he could not make it due to trial for the Tyre Nichols case.

After a hearing where Adelman and Ballin were allowed to withdraw from the case by Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Carol Chumney, Joshua Holloway’s mother said the case would not be settled and the family planned to bring it to trial.

The lawsuit was filed in September 2022 and has been slowed down by a series of motions. Trial was initially scheduled to start at the end of April this year, but that trial date seemed more and more unlikely to happen as scheduled after Chumney ruled that Morant would be allowed to claim self-defense.

That ruling shifted the onus on Holloway and his legal team to prove that Morant did not act in self-defense when he punched Holloway.

When it was filed, Holloway was a minor and still in high school and the lawsuit was sealed. Since then, he has gone on to play college basketball at Samford University in Alabama and the lawsuit was unsealed after his 18th birthday.

What led to the lawsuit against Ja Morant?

The incident that spurred the lawsuit happened at Morant’s home in Eads in July 2022. Morant had a group of younger Memphis-area basketball players at his house to play pick-up games, an event he said happened somewhat frequently prior to the altercation with Holloway.

After many games, witnesses said Holloway had grown frustrated defending Morant and would not properly check the ball with a chest pass, and was rolling the ball on the ground. After some back and forth, Morant and witnesses said Holloway threw the ball at Morant forcefully, hitting the NBA start in the face.

How the ball was thrown is still unclear, with some witnesses saying it was thrown like a baseball, in a way that would intentionally hit Morant in the face, and others calling it a forceful chest pass that was off target.

The two approached one another on the basketball court, and witnesses said Holloway had his fists balled and was in a fighting stance. When they were face to face, witnesses said Morant hit Holloway, though a consensus on the force used was never reached.

After Morant hit Holloway, Morant’s long-time friend Davonte Pack hit Holloway from behind and knocked him to the ground, witnesses said.

Pack is a co-defendant in the civil case and was later criminally charged with simple misdemeanor assault. Those charges were later dismissed. Morant was never criminally charged.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, or (901)208-3922, and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter, @LucasFinton.

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