{"id":887794,"date":"2026-10-19T14:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/887794\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T14:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:46:12","slug":"ex-nfl-star-shawne-merriman-to-pay-4m-in-playboy-employee-wrongful-death-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/887794\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NFL Star Shawne Merriman to Pay $4M in Playboy Employee Wrongful Death Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                          Ex-NFL Star Shawne Merriman<br \/>\n                          Ordered to Pay $4M in Playboy Employee Death Case<\/p>\n<p>\n                                                                        Published<br \/>\n                              October 19, 2026<br \/>\n                            1:00 AM PDT<br \/>\n                                                                      |<br \/>\n                                                                Updated<br \/>\n                                  October 19, 2026<br \/>\n                                6:45 AM PDT\n                                    <\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20261018_8c05647309584994a4e105c90a998dfb\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:867fe253-f4e2-413e-84ab-686cd0df70e1\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/8c05647309584994a4e105c90a998dfb_md.jpg\" alt=\"shawn-merriman-Kimberly-Fattorini-getty-1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Former NFL star <a href=\"https:\/\/cms.tmz.com\/ncr\/person\/df196ed5-5d64-5e9a-8162-ce29467e8841\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shawne Merriman<\/a> has been ordered to pay up in a wrongful death lawsuit involving a Playboy employee who died of an overdose &#8230; TMZ has learned.<\/p>\n<p>According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, a Los Angeles judge entered a $4 million judgment against the former Chargers linebacker and three other defendants earlier this month over the 2017 death of Kimberly Fattorini.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20261018_7a4e00cf92094b8e8a2e4e073e27223f\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:867fe253-f4e2-413e-84ab-686cd0df70e1\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/7a4e00cf92094b8e8a2e4e073e27223f_md.jpg\" alt=\"Kimberly-Fattorini-getty-1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The ruling comes after a jury found Merriman and the other defendants liable last year &#8230; awarding Kimberly&#8217;s parents, DeAnn and Ferdinand Fattorini, millions in damages.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"continued\" class=\"continued-anchor\"\/><\/p>\n<p>As TMZ previously reported &#8230; Kimberly&#8217;s parents sued Merriman in 2019, claiming he drugged and possibly sexually assaulted their daughter before she overdosed following a night of partying.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20261018_eba754b1049d4ff280c4a9db0067102f\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:867fe253-f4e2-413e-84ab-686cd0df70e1\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/eba754b1049d4ff280c4a9db0067102f_md.jpg\" alt=\"Shawne-Merriman-getty-1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit alleged Kimberly texted a club promoter that Merriman&#8217;s friend had poured GHB &#8212; commonly known as a date rape drug &#8212; into her drink. Her death was ruled accidental, with alcohol, cocaine and GHB found in her system.<\/p>\n<p>Merriman previously denied any wrongdoing, with his rep telling TMZ the allegations were baseless and police had investigated without finding evidence of wrongdoing on his part.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20241213_dc88e4b744984929942d5900e5d3ca3c\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:867fe253-f4e2-413e-84ab-686cd0df70e1\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dc88e4b744984929942d5900e5d3ca3c_md.jpg\" alt=\"hawne merriman san diego chargers 2010 sub\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The newly filed judgment holds Merriman, J.P. Castro and Monica Maass responsible for the $4 million award, along with Elias Wehbe.<\/p>\n<p>The judge also ruled in favor of the nightclub defendants, including The Highlight Room, Tao Group and The Warwick &#8230; meaning they won&#8217;t have to pay damages to Kimberly&#8217;s family.<\/p>\n<p>The judgment was officially entered October 5, more than nine years after Kimberly&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ex-NFL Star Shawne Merriman Ordered to Pay $4M in Playboy Employee Death Case Published October 19, 2026 1:00&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[3,349,99,2415,2525],"class_list":["post-887794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-tmz-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}