An ugly dispute between the widow of the late Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins Jr., who was fatally struck by a dump truck in Florida in 2022, and his parents and sister, is now playing out in federal court in Pittsburgh.
Haskins’ family on Wednesday sued the Steeler’s widow, accusing her of misusing his name and image on social media and refusing to share her husband’s ashes.
The plaintiffs — Haskins’ mother and father, Tamara and Dwayne Haskins Sr., and sister, Tamia Haskins, all of Clarksburg, Maryland, as well as the Haskins Family Foundation — are suing Kalabrya Haskins, of Atlanta, alleging harassment over their attempts to use his name and image on social media.
The lawsuit claims that Kalabrya Haskins has complained about the family posting about Dwayne Jr. on Instagram, leading to the social media platform disabling their accounts.
According to the complaint, since Haskins Jr. died, the plaintiffs have “experienced constant harassment from the defendant whenever they have attempted to reference his name, image and likeness in public forums such as social media.”
In one instance, according to the complaint, Dwayne Haskins Sr.’s account was disabled because he “created ‘an account that looks like it belongs to a celebrity.’”
“This decision was made despite the fact that Dwayne Haskins Sr. simply shares the same name as his famous son, but has not otherwise posted any content on Instagram,” the complaint said.
The dispute is set against a backdrop of squabbling in Allegheny County Orphans’ Court over the quarterback’s estate, which is being administered by his widow.
Accusations of bad behavior date back at least to a memorial service for Haskins Jr. in Potomac, Md.. His parents alleged that Kalabrya Haskins attempted to take a painting of their son that belonged to them.
An attorney for Kalabrya Haskins did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Thursday.
Haskins Jr., a standout quarterback for Ohio State, was a first-round draft pick for the former Washington Redskins and played there from 2019 to 2020. He joined the Steelers in 2021.
On April 9, 2022, Haskins Jr. was struck by a dump truck and killed on Interstate 595 near Fort Lauderdale while traveling back to Pittsburgh from training with teammates.
At the time, Haskins, who had ketamine in his system and a blood alcohol content of at least .20%, was trying to get gas for a rental car that had stalled on the interstate.
He was 24 years old.
According to the federal lawsuit, the Haskins family didn’t know about the March 19, 2021, marriage between Haskins Jr. and Kalabrya Haskins, and they had never met her before they wed.
The lawsuit said that Instagram disabled Haskins’ sister’s account when on May 3 — what would have been her brother’s 27th birthday — she posted his picture and a portion of a letter he wrote to his family in 2021 titled “Who I want to be.”
“Today, May 3, Dwayne would have been 27 years old. To celebrate his birthday, I wanted to create a piece to honor him. In the last year of his life, Dwayne wrote a letter titled, ‘Who I want to be’ and shared it with me. It’s an honor to share how Dwayne saw himself,” she wrote. “Dwayne wrote, ‘So the man that I am now, he’s accountable, he’s god-fearing, he’s hard-working, he’s a competitive freak, a loving son, a goofy brother, a caring friend, and a compassionate partner.’
“The quote is how he wants to be remembered. ‘Who I want to be’ is just a small token of appreciation for the light Dwayne was not only in my life but everyone’s… . Happy Birthday, Bud; you will always be my Goofy Brother. I love you for eternity.”
The post included her favorite picture of her brother, the complaint said, an image of custom football leather and handwriting from Tamia Haskins and their mother.
The lawsuit alleges that the shutdown of Tamia Haskins’ Instagram account adversely affected her livelihood since clients cannot reach her or see her work.
It also has stopped her from being able to access the direct messages she shared with her brother over the years, exacerbating emotional distress and pain, the complaint said.
The lawsuit also alleges that Kalabrya Haskins has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Haskins Family Foundation, which his parents and sister started a year before his death, according to the foundation’s website.
Attached as an exhibit, the letter instructs the foundation to stop collecting donations in Haskins Jr.’s name, saying that “as the surviving spouse,” she maintains the legal right to his right of publicity.
Featured Local Businesses
Another organization, the Dwayne Haskins Jr. Foundation, is represented by Kalabrya Haskin’s attorney. It was registered in Pennsylvania 13 days after the Steeler’s death, state records show.
According to the complaint, Kalabrya Haskins has based her actions on Pennsylvania’s Right of Publicity statute, which protects any person, living or dead, whose name or likeness has commercial value and is used for that or any advertising purpose.
However, the lawsuit continued, the statute includes a fair use exception: “The name or likeness is associated with a news report or presentation having a public interest.”
The lawsuit also includes 22 lines of redacted material with a note that said it should be reviewed by the judge privately “and thus should not be seen by defendant or her counsel, or otherwise exposed to the public.”
Afterward, the complaint tells the court that Kalabrya Haskins should be “legally prohibited from challenging, in any manner, the plaintiffs’ project.”
It does not specify what the project is.
The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment against Kalabrya Haskins to prohibit her from taking action to undermine the project.
In exhibits attached to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs also allege that Kalabrya Haskins continues to refuse to provide an accurate accounting of Haskins Jr’s assets and estate and that she has liquidated much of them.
It also accuses her of trying to steal a painting of him that was used during a memorial service and refusing to give the family any portion of Haskins Jr.’s ashes after she had him cremated.
Kalabrya Haskins filed a lawsuit for wrongful death against 21 defendants stemming from the accident that killed her husband, naming as defendants the Florida Department of Transportation, the company that owned and operated the dump truck that struck him and the club where he had been earlier.
Many of the defendants settled, according to filings in the Dwayne Haskins Jr. estate case in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
They include Sorrel Development, which owned the dump truck, for $500,000, Ace Rent a Car for $50,000, the Florida Department of Transportation for $10,000; Drive Shack Palm Beach for $50,000; E11Even Miami for $40,000 and Blue Anchor Pub for $40,000.
The estate also settled with Progressive Specialty Insurance for underinsured motorist liability for $750,000.
Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2019 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of “Death by Cyanide.” She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.