Marquita Mays, a Denver mom whose son drowned in a Phoenix hotel swimming pool while traveling for a football tournament two years ago, has filed a lawsuit against the team he played with.
The 5280 Colorado Jr. Buffs, a football club based in Thornton, is named as the defendant in the case, along with its coach Julius Greer.
Mays alleges in her complaint, filed on Tuesday in Denver District Court, that she accompanied her son Darryl Blackmon, 13, to the pool area of the Embassy Suites in Phoenix where the team was staying for a pool party to celebrate their victory in a championship game on May 28, 2022.
Mays said she left her son with the coaches supervising and went across the street to purchase some food to bring back, taking about 10 minutes.
When she returned, she found her son unconscious on the side of the pool and bystanders trying to revive him.
“Upon information and belief, some of the players were swinging each other by their hands and feet, throwing each other into the pool from the pool’s decking,” the complaint alleges.
Blackmon, who didn’t know how to swim, may have been submerged for three to seven minutes in the pool’s deep end, according to the complaint. After a couple of days on a ventilator at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, he deteriorated further and died on May 31.
Mays is suing the team and Greer for negligent conduct and training. She is also suing Greer for outrageous conduct, intentional infliction of emotional distress and fraud.
The complaint alleges that Greer told Mays the team had insurance that she could file a claim against. But when Mays’ attorneys, Fiedler Trial Lawyers, tried to verify coverage, they allege that the certificate he provided was false.
“When Plaintiff Ms. Mays learned that Defendant Julius Greer produced a fictitious Certificate of Insurance, she was inconsolable, angry, and felt that her son died in vain,” the complaint said.
Mays is seeking an unspecified amount in medical, funeral and out-of-pocket expenses, as well as noneconomic damages for mental anguish, emotional distress, past and future pain and suffering and other items.
The 5280 Colorado Junior Buffs didn’t respond to an email request for comment.
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