By admin 
The case between former Charlotte Hornets player LaMelo Ball and a boy who says the star point guard broke and drove over his foot is officially coming to an end. A judge accepted a settlement agreement behind locked courtroom doors Monday afternoon.
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Angell Joseph, now a teen, says he ran up to Ball’s car for an autograph as a 12-year-old in 2023 and instead got a broken foot and “debilitating” complex regional pain syndrome. Joseph and his mother once asked Ball for $3.75 million. Ball settled that 2024 lawsuit on the day it was supposed to go to trial in June, The Charlotte Observer previously reported, but for how much remains a mystery.
On the sixth-floor of the Mecklenburg County Courthouse Monday, Judge Troy Stafford accepted a common motion to seal the settlement and had a Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office deputy escort a Charlotte Observer reporter out of the room. According to a one-line online docket entry, Stafford approved the amount and terms. He is expected to soon solidify it with a signed order, which will close the case.
Ball was accused of breaking Joseph’s foot when he drove away from the Spectrum Center in uptown Charlotte after a scrimmage in October 2023. His mother wasn’t able to file a proper report or insurance claim because Ball drove away, according to the lawsuit. That’s why they went to court.
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The case continued for more than two years. It once named the Hornets, too, but the team was dismissed from the case. At one point, Ball — formerly the highest-paid athlete in Charlotte — asked a judge to dismiss the case and order the family pay his attorneys fees. A judge also ordered Ball to stop rescheduling depositions and tell attorneys what prescription drugs, if any, he was taking at the time of the reported incident.
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Attorney Charles William Hinnant, III, representing Joseph and his family, declined to comment outside the courtroom. Attorney Christi Hunoval, who represents Ball in this case and others, did not respond to emails and calls requesting comment.
Hunoval also represents Ball and his manager, Jermaine Jackson, in a lawsuit brought by former Carolina Panthers star Cam Newton’s family business. Ball and Jackson failed to pay rent for Newton’s old uptown apartment, which is now owned and rented out by Agape Property Management Group LLC. That case is still pending.
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