A onetime friend of Aaron Hernandez who claims the former NFL star shot him in the face in Florida filed a lawsuit Monday against CNN, alleging the network invaded his privacy when it aired images of him recovering from the gunshot wound in a West Palm Beach hospital.
Lawyers for Alexander Bradley, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut.
The 12-page civil filing alleges that CNN obtained images of Bradley lying unconscious in his hospital bed at St. Mary’s Medical Center, where he was being treated after the February 2013 shooting.
The network obtained the images without Bradley’s consent and aired them, also without his permission, in a CNN documentary last year entitled “Downward Spiral: Inside the Case Against Aaron Hernandez,” the civil filing says.
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Representatives for CNN could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
“Because St. Mary’s disclosed the photographs of [Bradley’s] medical condition to CNN ... or improperly provided access to CNN, CNN was prohibited from further disclosing or publishing [the images] without the expressed written consent” of Bradley, the filing says.
His lawyers said airing the photos of Bradley, “seemingly unconscious, bloodied, bandaged and intubated, was and would be considered highly offensive to a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities.”
The attorneys said Bradley has suffered damages and emotional distress, including “anger, confusion, frustration, shock, sleeplessness, depression, stress, and anxiety about CNN’s accessing his private hospital room while he was unconscious, bloodied and intubated.”
He is seeking compensation in excess of $100,000, according to the filing.
The hospital is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit and could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night.
Bradley alleges that Hernandez, a former New England Patriots tight end, shot him in the early morning hours of Feb. 13, 2013 in Riviera Beach, Fla. after they left a local night club.
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Hernandez was convicted last year of first-degree murder in the June 2013 fatal shooting of Odin Lloyd, of Dorchester, in a North Attleborough industrial park. Hernandez is serving a life sentence in that case, but an automatic appeal will be heard before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Next year, Hernandez is scheduled to stand trial in Suffolk Superior Court for allegedly killing Daniel de Abreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28, during a drive-by shooting in Boston’s South End in July 2012.
Authorities say Bradley was a passenger in Hernandez’s vehicle when he committed the murders, and Bradley is expected to testify for prosecutors during the upcoming trial. Hernandez is also charged with witness intimidation in the case, for allegedly shooting Bradley in the Florida incident in an effort to silence him. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Bradley had also sued Hernandez in Florida for the alleged attack in Riviera Beach, and the civil case was settled in March. Terms were not disclosed.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.