Lawyers for former NFL player Aaron Hernandez have put in a request to get him transferred to a jail located closer to Boston due to worries over his safety and the distance they have to drive to talk with him.
According to The Associated Press, Michael Fee and James Sultan accused the jail of putting "bizarre and unprecedented" restrictions on Hernandez, who they say is not allow to be alone while making a phone call and Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson allegedly is violating privacy and due process rights.
They claim the sheriff is focused on simply using the accused athlete for "self-promotion and virtually non-stop publicity," and has "abandoned" making sure Hernandez is safely held.
Fee and Sultan also said that since Hernandez allegedly threatened to kill a prison guard and got into a fight with another inmate, the player is at risk in the jail.
The Boston Herald reports that Hodgson has denied the accusations the attorneys have made against him. "This is all old news," he said. "I knew about all these allegations, and it's just not true, and they know it isn't true.
"They sent us a letter quite some time ago about these allegations, and we responded to them in writing and categorically denied all of them with evidence," the sheriff said.
In their court filing, Hernandez's counsel have asked that their client be moved to a county jail located in North Dartmouth.