The widows of National Hockey League star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, filed lawsuits against the Salem County, N.J., man charged in the brothers’ deaths following an alleged drunken-driving crash in August.
The Columbus Blue Jackets forward, 31, and his brother, 29, were riding their bicycles in Oldmans Township when a driver struck and killed both. Authorities say Sean Higgins, 44, hit them while driving under the influence of alcohol. He can be seen struggling to perform a field sobriety test on body-camera footage made public.
Meredith Gaudreau, Johnny’s wife, and Madeline Gaudreau, Matthew’s wife, filed two lawsuits last month accusing Higgins of being “negligent, careless and reckless” that August night. They are seeking unspecified damages in Salem County Superior Court.
In court filings, Barbara Davis, a Marshall Dennehey attorney representing Higgins in the civil case, denied the allegations.
“Answering defendant was not negligent in any manner or respect,” the attorney’s responses to the complaints say.
Neither Davis nor William Lane, the O’Connor, Parsons, Lane & Noble attorney representing Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau, responded to requests for comment.
The deaths of the Gaudreau brothers shocked the hockey world and the Salem County community in which they grew up. The two were back in their hometown to attend their sister’s wedding, but the groomsmen-to-be were killed the night before.
Meredith Gaudreau paid tribute to her late husband in a series of social media posts following his death in which she called him “the absolute best dad in the world.” During the funeral service, she announced that she was pregnant with their third child.
Madeline Gaudreau was also pregnant when her husband was killed. She gave birth in December to a boy named Tripp Matthew.
“He was born to be a dad,” Madeline Gaudreau said about her husband, who had a minor-league hockey career, at a memorial service in September. “The moment we found out about our son Tripp, it consumed his every day.”
Higgins was indicted in December on counts of reckless vehicular homicide, first-degree aggravated manslaughter, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, and tampering with physical evidence. He pleaded not guilty to all charges last month, after Salem County prosecutors offered a plea deal recommending 35 years in prison.
A Drexel University graduate and an Army National Guard officer who used to work for a Pennsylvania addiction services provider, Higgins drove a black Jeep Grand Cherokee on the evening of Aug. 29. While attempting to pass two other vehicles on County Route 551 in Oldmans Township, he veered into the Gaudreau brothers, striking their bicycles from behind, prosecutors said.
He told state troopers that he drank five or six beers before getting behind the wheel. Higgins struggled to complete a field sobriety test, and his blood-alcohol content was above the legal threshold in New Jersey, prosecutors said.
Higgins’ mother, Elaine Higgins, told The Inquirer in September that the crash was “pure accident.”
“He’s an honorable man, he’s not a monster,” she said. “I’m not just saying that because I’m his mother.”
The lawsuits filed by Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau also accuse unnamed individuals of “unreasonable intrusion” and “causing the unreasonable publicity” that affected their private lives.