MOBILE, Ala. — The attorney for the family of former Saraland High School quarterback KJ Lacey has asked a Mobile County judge to award $2.1 million in the KJ Lacey lawsuit against a Daphne man and the private investigator he hired to look into the player’s football eligibility.
The request came in written closing arguments filed after a non-jury trial held last month in Mobile County Circuit Court. The defense has filed its own arguments asking the judge to throw out the case.
The Lacey family sued John Edward Quinnelly Sr. and Eric Winberg in 2022, alleging defamation and slander over statements about whether KJ Lacey was eligible to play football for Saraland High School. The family alleged that Quinnelly went to extraordinary lengths to harass them, including hiring Winberg to follow them.
‘The Human Cost’
Plaintiffs’ attorney Elizabeth Citrin framed the case in her filing as one about the toll that public accusations took on a teenager and his family.
“This case is about the human cost of turning vengeful false accusations against a fifteen-year-old student-athlete and his family into a public campaign and private vendetta,” Citrin wrote.
She pointed to testimony at trial that Quinnelly, “by his own repeated admissions, did not merely submit eligibility requirements to the Alabama High School Athletic Association.”
According to Citrin’s filing, Quinnelly hired Winberg, declared the investigator’s report and its “disputed conclusions to be ‘indisputable proof,'” and then accused KJ Lacey and his father of lying.
How the $2.1 Million Breaks Down
Citrin’s proposed award is divided among members of the family, with an additional amount sought as punishment:
- KJ Lacey: $1.2 million for the invasion and public exposure of his private family life.
- Karle Lacey, his father: $150,000 in compensatory damages.
- Whitney Lacey, his mother: $100,000 in compensatory damages.
- The family’s three younger children: $100,000.
- Punitive damages: an additional $550,000.
Compensatory damages are meant to make up for harm a plaintiff has suffered, such as damage to reputation or emotional distress. Punitive damages serve a different purpose: they are meant to punish conduct a court finds especially wrongful and to discourage similar conduct in the future.
“Quinnelly and Winberg, two obsessed grown men, sought the most extreme harm against him and his team, where he was a leader,” Citrin wrote of KJ Lacey.
‘They Chose the Method’
The filing argues that the defendants had other options available to them if they believed there was an eligibility problem, and that they deliberately chose the most public and damaging route.
“Defendants chose the method, the language, and the audience,” Citrin wrote. “They chose surveillance instead of restraint. They chose accusation instead of verification. They chose ‘indisputable,’ ‘lying,’ ‘guilty,’ and ‘knowingly played illegally’ instead of acknowledging uncertainty. They chose schools, news organizations, texts, and social media instead of a confidential submission to the proper decisionmaker.”
That argument goes to the heart of a defamation claim. Asking a governing body to look into a question is one thing; publicly declaring someone guilty before that body has ruled is another, and it is the latter that the family contends caused the harm.
The Defense’s Position
Quinnelly’s attorney, Tom O’Hara, argued in a filing of his own that the lawsuit should be dismissed, or that the judge should enter judgment for the defendant, “based on the insufficiency of the evidence.”
During the trial, Quinnelly testified that his goal had been to get the Alabama High School Athletic Association to properly investigate Lacey’s eligibility. He acknowledged on the stand that the association’s board had the final say on eligibility questions.
Quinnelly also told the court that the AHSAA had declared his own son ineligible in 2019 and forced Daphne High School to forfeit a game, and that he wanted the association to apply its rules evenly. Explaining why he hired an investigator, he said, “I didn’t want it to come from me. I wanted it to come from a professional.”
Under cross-examination, he held to that position. “None of this would have happened if they had just done their job and investigated,” he testified. “That’s all my intent was.”
Background: A Transfer and Four Years in Court
The dispute dates to 2022, when KJ Lacey transferred from Daphne High School to Saraland High School. Quinnelly suspected that the family had not actually moved to Saraland and that the quarterback was therefore ineligible to play there.
Saraland’s school system first went to court over the matter, suing Quinnelly and accusing him of spreading falsehoods about Lacey’s eligibility on social media and to news organizations. That lawsuit was settled in 2023.
The Lacey family’s own suit against Quinnelly and Winberg proceeded separately and went to trial in September before a judge rather than a jury.
Winberg’s conduct has drawn scrutiny outside the courtroom as well. The state board that regulates private investigators fined him after finding that he entered private property without permission while conducting surveillance.
KJ Lacey completed his high school career at Saraland and now plays college football at the University of Texas.
What Happens Next
Because the case was tried without a jury, the judge will decide whether the family has proven its claims and, if so, how much in damages to award. The judge is not bound by the amounts proposed in Citrin’s filing and may award more, less or nothing, or may grant the defense’s request for judgment in Quinnelly’s favor.
In weighing a defamation claim, a court typically considers whether the statements at issue were assertions of fact rather than opinion, whether they were false, what the speaker knew or should have known, and what harm resulted. The judge’s ruling will address those questions as they apply to both Quinnelly and Winberg.
No date for a ruling has been announced. Either side may appeal once a final judgment is entered.