The family of slain NFL quarterback Steve McNair has filed a lawsuit after his widow and two children said a television crew trespassed and invaded their privacy.
The lawsuit states they were then subjected to painful questions about McNair's murder.
According to the lawsuit, a crew from “Crime Watch Daily” — a syndicated program produced in Los Angeles — visited the McNair home in August.
"This is a lawsuit for damages. It's a Tort lawsuit where plaintiffs seek to recover for trespass, invasion of privacy and emotional distress," said legal analyst Nick Leonardo from Nashville's WTVF.
With cameras rolling at the front door, McNair's widow Mechelle McNair said the crew started asking "… intrusive questions of her regarding the death of her husband, Steven McNair.”
And were "persistent in attempting to bait Mechelle McNair into discussing painful details of her husband's death in the presence of her minor children."
Steve McNair — who spent 13 seasons in NFL as quarterback of the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens — was shot and killed by his alleged girlfriend in 2009 in Nashville. Police said it was a murder-suicide.
But at the time, Vincent Hill — a private investigator — claimed someone else was involved. He even wrote a book about the incident.
"There's still hundreds of unanswered questions," said Hill in 2010.
Back then Metro detectives emphatically debunked his theories.
“[I] can tell you most of that speculation and innuendo is Vincent Hill," said detective Pat Postiglione of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, in 2010.
But Hill was with “Crime Watch” at the McNair home this August. He's also named in the lawsuit.
Mechelle McNair claims the crew refused to leave and "maliciously suggested she was concealing the truth about the death of…" her husband. And that her children had "to endure the painful, untrue and unwarranted verbal assaults regarding the death."
Police said Steve McNair's murder case is long closed.
The McNairs' lawyer said the family just wants such hurtful questions and unwelcome visits to stop.
In addition to suing for trespass, invasion of privacy and emotional distress, the McNairs want the court to issue a permanent injunction to ban the use of any video shot that day at their home.
WTVF reached Hill by phone. He said the visit to the McNair home was only for a few minutes, that they never went inside, and that the questions were not malicious.
WTVF reporters did not hear a reply from “Crime Watch Daily.”
