Ruggs’s lawyers, David Z. Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, said in a statement that they were conducting their own investigation and asked for judgment to be reserved “until all the facts are gathered.”
The Raiders said in a statement that they were “devastated by the loss of life and our thoughts and prayers go out to the victim’s family.”
Ruggs’s involvement in the crash is the latest crisis during an unusually tumultuous stretch for the Raiders organization. The team announced over the summer that several high-ranking executives — among them Marc Badain, the team’s longtime president, and Ed Villanueva, the chief financial officer — had resigned. Mark Davis, the team’s owner, acknowledged last week that they had departed because the Raiders had overpaid taxes for years and may not be able to recoup the money.
Then, in October, Coach Jon Gruden resigned after The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal published stories detailing emails the coach sent over a 10-year period in which he used sexist, racist and misogynist language.
Even as turmoil has engulfed the organization, the Raiders, at 5-2, have gotten off to their best start since 2016. They have won both of their games under the interim head coach, Rich Bisaccia, and are in first place in the A.F.C. West.