A truck driver who was seriously injured in a fight that ex-NFL quarterback and sports analyst Mark Sanchez allegedly started is now suing Sanchez and Fox Corporation.
The lawsuit accuses Sanchez of causing “severe permanent disfigurement, loss of function” to Perry Tole. He is seeking an unspecified amount in actual and punitive damages, as well as attorney fees.
Images of Tole circulating online show him covered in blood in a hospital bed. Sanchez is facing a for the incident.
The prosecutor’s office announced a level 5 felony battery on Monday, resulting in a serious bodily injury charge added to Sanchez’s misdemeanors. Sanchez intends to plead not guilty, according to a motion filed and granted earlier this week to waive his initial hearing.
His first court pretrial conference is set for Nov. 5.
Fox is named as a defendant in the complaint because the company “knew or should have known about … Sanchez’s unfitness as an employee, propensity for drinking and/or harmful conduct.”
According to police, Sanchez, smelling of alcohol, bombarded Tole and entered his truck without permission, shoving him. Tole sprayed Sanchez with pepper spray. He then pulled a knife to defend himself.
Sanchez was also hospitalized with stab wounds.
The incident occurred in Inian polis, where the Colts were playing the Las Vegas Raiders.
“We are literally talking about people fighting over a parking space and-or a dispute about where people are parking, and it resulted in someone receiving just incredibly significant injures,” Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears said at a news conference Monday.