Former Dolphins offensive line coach Jim Turner, was fired last season for his involvement in the bullying and harassment scandal involving Richie Icognito and Jonathan Martin. His actions were first brought to light by attorney Ted Wells’s report which was released in February 2014.
Turner believes his reputation and career have taken an unfair hit because of the report and is seeking damages for defamation. He strongly believes his inability to attain a future coaching position in the NFL is possibly permanent.
Per Adam Schefter, “In the lawsuit, Turner alleges that the NFL commissioned Wells and Paul Weiss to write a report that would placate the public and assign blame to certain individuals such as Turner, while the law firm was well-paid and well-positioned for future work on NFL cases such as the one that turned out to be Deflategate.”
Turner’s attorney, Peter Ginsberg, believes that Wells and Weiss unfairly assigned blame to Turner and others while failing to include important testimony from current and former Dolphins staff members. In addition, Ginsberg also believes that Wells knew accusations of Turner creating an atmosphere that allowed bullying and harassment to happen were untrue but included them in his initial report anyway.
Richie Icognito has come out himself admitting that Wells left out “Teammate testimony, stuff like that” in his report that could have helped Turner’s case. Turner was fired anyway by the Dolphins and has yet to land a coaching position elsewhere.
Also of note, this case will surely spark speculation as to whether Wells was really working as an independent investigator. A topic that has been brought up in his involvement in the “Deflategate” case as well.