Tyreek Hill Civil Trial Ends in Mixed Verdict; Wife Awarded $500K

Tyreek Hill has been found liable on two of 10 battery claims in a civil assault and battery case brought by his estranged wife, resulting in a split verdict.

A Miami jury awarded Lakeeta Vaccaro Hill $500,000 in compensatory damages, but rejected her request for punitive damages.

Hill hugged attorney Christi Bright after the verdict was announced, then smiled and shook hands with members of his legal team as he left the courtroom.

‘Mr. Hill was very pleased that he was able to get his story out and to be able to tell the world what he’s not been able to speak about,’ Bright told reporters. ‘He’s very grateful.’ 

The six-person jury reached its decision following nearly four hours of deliberations, bringing an end to the week-long trial in which both Hill and Vaccaro described separate allegations of physical and verbal abuse.

Hill, who has been sidelined since suffering a serious knee injury last year, is expected to pursue a return to the NFL and could seek a new team in the coming months.

The NFL could still impose discipline. In a statement to PFT, the league said: ‘We have been monitoring developments in the matter which remains under review of the personal conduct policy.’

Hill’s future in the league remains uncertain, although agent Drew Rosenhaus described the situation as ‘fluid’ during an interview with a local news station. ‘A deal could happen any time,’ he said.

In closing arguments, Vaccaro’s attorney Paul Schwiep told jurors that ‘her account is consistent and it’s corroborated by contemporaneous evidence.’

Schwiep asked the jury to award Vaccaro $8 million in compensatory damages, saying the money would help ‘restore her dignity’. 

‘Money doesn’t undo the harm, but it’s just how our civil justice system works,’ Schwiep said.

Hill’s lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, offered a sharply different account, arguing that the lawsuit was ‘all about money and divorce.’ He told jurors the abuse allegations emerged only after Vaccaro lost a bid for additional spousal support.

‘Her ambition to take his money wasn’t met. So she files this action,’ Gottlieb said.

Vaccaro, the sister of former NFL safety Kenny Vaccaro, testified last week that Hill punched her in the stomach while she was pregnant with their daughter. She also alleged that he pulled her hair, pressed a smoldering blunt against her face, twisted her breasts and left her stranded by the roadside on one occasion.

Hill rejected those allegations during his testimony in Miami last Thursday. He also accused Vaccaro of taking ‘around like [$60,000] a month’ from a family account, pressuring him to remove his mother from their home and playing an indirect role in the fire that destroyed the couple’s South Florida mansion.

Hill did not provide a specific explanation for how Vaccaro, or arguments between the couple, contributed to the 2024 fire. The blaze was initially attributed to a child playing with a lighter in an upstairs bathroom.

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‘I feel like me and [Keeta’s] arguments were part of the reason why my house burned down,’ Hill said.

In a statement provided to The Daily Mail, Vaccaro’s attorney Evan Marks rejected Hill’s accusations on his client’s behalf: ‘The statements made by Mr. Hill are completely and totally false.’

Hill did not deny all of Vaccaro’s allegations.

For instance, he admitted to throwing her up against a wall, and also apologized for cursing out both her and her mother in a recorded rant.

‘As I’m getting my clothes, I feel somebody brush up behind me,’ Hill said. ‘And that person brushing up behind me is my wife, and I’m like, hold on, hold on… That continued for like five minutes.

‘I told her don’t you ever touch me again in your life. I pushed her against the wall. And I tried to force her to get off me. I created a hole in the wall, trying to force her to get off me that night.’

Hill also admitted to making threats to Vaccaro.

‘I did, I did make statements about she wasn’t safe,’ Hill said. ‘I did make statements about me being able to get people to hurt her. Like now, looking back, I wish I could have handled that situation better.

‘I wish I could have talked to my wife better. I wish I could take it all back.’

According to Hill, the former couple’s fights centered on his insistence that she sign a post-nuptial agreement, his claims that she stole from him, as well as her accusations of infidelity against him.

‘I would literally have conversations with the mothers of my [other] kids and she would be, ‘You’re doing, X, Y, Z with them. You’re being intimate with them,’ he said.

Hill also claimed Vaccaro opposed his decision to buy his mother a home after she was displaced when the couple’s mansion burned down in 2024. Meanwhile, Hill said, Vaccaro brought her mother to stay with them for ‘two years’ following the birth of their child. 

Hill described their 18-month marriage as a tumultuous time in his life, that he believes harmed his career with the Miami Dolphins. He has remained a free agent since the end of the 2025 season, when he suffered a significant knee injury that ultimately required surgery. 

Hill’s mother-in-law also testified, claiming the couple’s relationship was chaotic as she was cross-examined for around 90 minutes. 

In court, Alesia Vaccaro testified that she didn’t directly witness the former Dolphins star hit or punch her daughter. However, she described their relationship as ‘tumultuous.’

These days, Hill is rehabbing in hopes of joining an NFL team – something his agent Drew Rosenhaus said he has discussed with several franchises.

‘I felt like if you look at my career before and my career after I got married it was, like, trending down,’ he said. ‘And it was, like, bad. I was like, “man, am I really putting this product on the field? Do I really look that bad?” It was hard.’