Aaron Hernandez, a former NFL star tight end, did not escape jail or break into Tom Brady’s home last week but there was a report published on a saitre sports news site that said otherwise.
The fake report said the ex-New England Patriot player “escaped from the Bristol County House of Correction and Jail in Massachusetts, a county sheriff’s department spokesman said Wednesday.”
It was published on Empire Sports, which only publishes fake sports news stories.
The article got tens of thousands of likes and shares on Facebook, and it got hundreds of thousands of pageviews this week.
Empire Sports doesn’t include a disclaimer saying it’s satire, but it only has satire stories. “Colorado Rockies Baseball Team To Sell Marijuana Brownies At Their Concession Stands,” reads one of the titles of a fake article on the website. “Lebron James To Sign With Dallas Cowboys and Leave NBA After Season Ends,” another one says.
The fake Hernandez breakout and incident involving breaking into Brady was not covered by national or local media outlets. Hernandez also isn’t in “prison,” as the article claims, because he has not been convicted. He’s currently locked up in the Bristol County House of Correction awaiting trial for murder.
Hernandez was involved in a jailhouse fight last week, reported ESPN.
The network reported that Hernandez, 24, was put in isolation for a month, meaning he will spend 23 hours a day in his cell, and he'll eat his meals there.
Hernandez allegedly beat another inmate but neither man was seriously injured.
Last week, the families of two men found fatally shot in Boston in 2012 have filed wrongful death lawsuits against Hernandez.
Boston-area media report that the lawsuits were filed Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court on behalf of the families of Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado. Each seeks $6 million.
The men were sitting in an SUV in the city’s South End in July 2012 when another SUV pulled up and someone inside opened fire.
Nobody has been criminally charged with their deaths, but Hernandez has been identified by police as a suspect.
The 24-year-old Hernandez is being held without bail after pleading not guilty to murder in the unrelated death of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd in North Attleborough. Lloyd was dating the sister ofHernandez’s fiancee.
Hernandez is now facing four lawsuits, including one by Lloyd’s family and another by a former friend who alleges Hernandez shot him in the face.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
