A jury found former Kansas City and Miami wide receiver Tyreek Hill liable Tuesday night on two counts of battery during his civil trial. The same Miami jury found him not responsible on five other counts of battery, one count of assault, one count of intentional emotional distress and one count of continuing domestic violence.
The jury awarded Hill’s ex-wife, Lakeeta Vaccaro, $500,000 in compensatory damages, but awarded no punitive damages.
The trial came amid the couple’s ongoing divorce in which Vaccaro said Hill physically and verbally abused her during their marriage, including once trying to punch her in the stomach while she was pregnant with their daughter. Hill told jurors he verbally abused his wife, whom he in turn accused of stealing his money, but the NFL said he did not physically harm her.
(The physical abuse complaint was initially made confidential by a court clerk at the request of Hill’s legal team. After intervention by a media group, including Defector Media, the document became public.)
Jurors were presented with seven counts of battery, each tied to a different date Vaccaro said Hill injured her, as well as one count of assault, also tied to a specific date. In their mixed verdict, jurors seemed to say that for some dates they believed Vaccaro presented enough evidence and for others she did not.
Those two dates are from early January 2024 and April 7, 2025. Vaccaro told the court that on the January date, she and Hill fought over a proposed postnuptial agreement that escalated into Hill knocking her down, yelling at her, ripping off her necklace and putting his hands around her neck. On the stand, lawyers presented a photo showing a red mark near his collarbone. Vaccaro said she took the photo shortly after that pileup, when she saw the red mark near his neck.
On April 7, 2025, Vaccaro’s mother called Sunny Isles Beach police, appearing frightened while the couple argued. Jurors heard clips of that 911 call. They also heard audio from a nanny cam that was recording at the time. Reporters were not allowed to release the nanny cam footage, but Vaccaro’s attorney, Paul Schwiep, read it aloud during his closing statements. (You can also read a full transcript here.)
“We’ll see when the crew comes here. We’ll see what can happen,” Schwiep told the jury, quoting from the transcript, before asking the jury: “Is there a veiled threat in there?”
Evan Marks, another attorney for Vaccaro, told Defector afterward: “Tyreek Hill was found by a jury to have committed battery against his wife, and the jury awarded compensatory damages. Domestic violence is unacceptable. We are pleased with the jury’s verdict.”
Hill’s legal team said they, too, viewed the verdict as a victory, focusing on the eight counts on which the jury found him not responsible, as well as the fact that Vaccaro got far less than his lawyers asked for in his closing statements ($8 million, one for each count of battery or assault). Attorney Michael Gottlieb told Defector: “From our client’s perspective, this was a defense verdict. They alleged much more egregious conduct and, based on the award the jury awarded, it was a defense verdict.”
Ultimately, Vaccaro’s legal team asked jurors to believe her testimony that Hill physically assaulted her multiple times and that she didn’t tell more people because she saw how struck they were by Hill’s fame. They pointed to supporting testimony from his family members, including his mother and sister, as well as audio from the 911 camera and the nanny.
Hill’s lawyers, meanwhile, asked jurors to rely on the testimony of several police officers who responded to calls for help involving the couple in three different locations in Florida: Orlando, Southwest Ranches and Sunny Isles Beach. All testified that they did not make an arrest every time they were called. And Hill’s legal team focused on how long Vaccaro stayed with him, even after he said the physical abuse began. As Gottlieb told jurors in his closing statements: “After all that abuse, she went to the Pro Bowl with him.”
At one point during the trial, while being questioned by one of his attorneys, Christi Bright, Hill was asked if he thought he had been a good husband.
His own response: “Dude, I don’t. I don’t.” So Bright asked him to explain in what areas he wasn’t a good husband, and Hill responded, “I don’t. I really don’t. I just think, well, I’m talking about football, but I just think after watching the movie, there’s a lot of areas I can improve on.”
While playing for Oklahoma State, Hill pleaded guilty to domestic violence against his pregnant girlfriend. (The program fired him and he finished his college career at Division II West Alabama). In 2019, while in the pros with Kansas City, Hill participated in investigations by law enforcement and child protection workers into possible child abuse. No criminal charges have been filed in the 2019 case. New details have emerged about it following the recent civil trial, but the judge did not allow anything from 2016 or 2019 to be presented to the jury.
There’s no way to know for sure if the lawsuit had any impact on the 32-year-old’s attempts to re-sign with a new NFL team. Hill’s NFL career already seemed to be coming to an end last year after a brutal knee injury. The Finns released him five months later and no team listed him on their 2026 team.
That seemed likely to change with the start of the new NFL season and several teams, including Hill’s former team in Kansas City, losing receivers to injuries. As the trial approached, Hill’s agent had said he expected his client to sign with a team within a few days. Then the trial began. A week later, Kansas City announced that they had signed a new wide receiver who had already won a Super Bowl with them: Justin Watson.
Gn sports
