Ezekiel Elliott’s lawyer: Dog attack victim was trespassing

An attorney for the Cowboys star says the pool cleaner bitten in the March incident did not have permission to be on the property that day.

Friday’s report of a dog attack on the Frisco property of Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott came with a statement from the player’s attorney: “Ezekiel was in no way negligent in connection with the alleged incident and intends to vigorously defend the lawsuit.”

Less than twenty-four hours later, that vigorous defense began in earnest. Attorney Frank Salzano tells TMZ Sports, who first reported the March attack of a woman hired to clean Elliott’s swimming pool, that the woman did not have permission to be on the property at the time.

“The plaintiff was unauthorized to be on the premises the day of the incident and either willfully disregarded and/or negligently ignored her employer’s policy which required Elliott to be notified in advance of any visits. We look forward to further establishing the plaintiff’s contributory negligence during the course of this matter.”

According to the woman’s claims, she was “ambushed” by Elliott’s three dogs in March. The attack sent her to the emergency room “in immense pain” and required surgery to repair bite damage to her forearm.

TMZ has posted photos of the woman’s injuries, along with a warning regrading the images’ graphic nature.

The woman, who has reportedly been unable to work since the attack, is suing the Cowboys star for an amount between $200,000 and $1 million. An attorney representing her claims that “the attack has scarred her for life — both physically and mentally.”

“Our client attempted to resolve this matter out of court,” the lawyer continued, “providing a description of what happened and pictures of her injuries, but Elliott didn’t bother to respond.”

Elliott did respond, however, via Twitter to someone who appeared to make light of the situation. A user with the screen name “Haleigh” posted on Friday, “Devin used to clean Ezekiel Elliott’s pool (a Dallas Cowboys football player) & someone just told me his new pool tech was mauled by his 3 dogs and is now suing for $200,000 and my first thought was ‘wish it would have happened to Devin’ lmaoo”. The tweet ended with two moneybag emojis.

Elliott responded later in the day with three tweets of his own. The original post by Haleigh has since been deleted.

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