Sheriff seeks charge against Aaron Hernandez after jail fight

The Bristol County sheriff’s office is seeking a criminal charge against former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez stemming from a recent fight that he had with another inmate in the jail where he is being held.

Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for the Bristol district attorney, said Thursday that prosecutors were informed that the sheriff’s office had filed an application for a criminal complaint with the clerk’s office, but he declined further comment.

A clerk magistrate will decide whether to allow charges to go forward against Hernandez for his alleged role in the altercation on the morning of Feb. 25 in the Bristol County House of Correction and Jail in North Dartmouth.

It was not clear on Thursday what the sheriff’s office is seeking to charge Hernandez with. Neither sheriff’s officials nor lawyers for Hernandez responded to inquires on Thursday night.

Authorities have said that Hernandez and the other inmate clashed briefly, but no one was seriously hurt.

Hernandez, 24, is being held without bail as he awaits trial on murder and weapons charges in the execution-style slaying of Odin L. Lloyd, 27, of Dorchester, whose bullet-riddled body was found in an industrial yard near the athlete’s North Attleborough home in June.

Hernandez has pleaded not guilty. He is also being investigated for his possible involvement in a July 2012 double slaying in Boston’s South End, but he has not been charged in that case.

The families of the South End victims, Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado, recently filed wrongful death lawsuits against Hernandez in Suffolk Superior Court. The families seek $6 million each in damages and allege that Hernandez was the trigger man in the fatal shootings.

Hernandez also faces a wrongful death suit brought by Lloyd’s family in Bristol County, as well as a civil action in Florida from a former associate, Alexander Bradley, who claims Hernandez shot him in the eye in February 2013 after they argued at a Miami strip club.