Phil Oates

Introduction

Phil Oates is a minority owner of the Sacramento Kings, an NBA investor whose name moved from sports-business listings into California courtroom coverage in September 2026, when a Placer County jury awarded 15.8 million dollars to the widow of a retired California Highway Patrol officer killed in a May 2024 motorcycle crash in Granite Bay involving Oates. The verdict closed a civil case that had shadowed prosecutors’ quiet decision not to charge him criminally after the collision. The civil case is decided; no criminal charge was ever filed.

Background Information

What is publicly known about Oates beyond his Kings stake is thin: the coverage of the verdict identifies him by his team affiliation and by his account of the crash. Patrick Seamus Mulderrig was 59 when he was killed. He was a retired California Highway Patrol officer. Mulderrig had been driving along Douglas Boulevard in Granite Bay when Oates turned left with his Cadillac, according to a police report Flores obtained. Oates was not driving under the influence of any drug or alcohol at the time of the crash, according to that report.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Civil verdict, not a criminal conviction. A Placer County jury has decided the civil case against Oates, awarding damages on a finding of liability under the lower civil standard of proof. No criminal case exists: police referred him to the district attorney for possible citation and manslaughter charges after the crash, but prosecutors did not file a case or cite him. His account to police, recounted below, differs from the picture the jury accepted.

The collision happened in May 2024. Mulderrig had been driving along Douglas Boulevard when Oates turned left with his Cadillac, according to the police report Flores obtained. Oates told police at the time that he saw the motorcycle changing lanes as he began pulling onto the roadway from a turn area and accelerated; he then realized the motorcycle was traveling faster than he had anticipated, and the two collided shortly afterward, according to that account.

Police referred Oates to the district attorney for possible citation and manslaughter charges, but the district attorney did not file a case or cite him for the crash. The civil case went to a jury anyway, and in late September 2026 the Placer County panel awarded Miranda Flores 15.8 million dollars — the figure headlines rounded to 16 million — over the death of her husband. The verdict means a jury has now accepted a version of events in which responsibility for the death rests with Oates, more than a year after prosecutors declined to pursue the same collision criminally. The available coverage contains no statement from Oates or his lawyers disputing the jury’s account or describing an appeal.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The human account of the verdict came from the widow. “I am so thankful to this jury for understanding and recognizing how remarkable my husband Patrick was and the depth of my loss,” Miranda Flores told KCRA 3. “I hope Phil Oates now fully understands what his actions have cost our families.” Her attorney, Roger Dreyer of Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood Campora LLP, framed the case the same way in a statement: “This has always been a case about accountability and responsibility.”

The consequence for Oates is a seven-figure judgment carried under the name of a sitting NBA minority owner, and a public record in which a jury — not a prosecutor — fixed responsibility for a retired officer’s death. The coverage records no comment from Oates, from the Kings organization, or from any lawyer for him, and it does not describe any effect on his role with the team.

Current Status

The judgment now stands against Oates. After the verdict, Flores said she is still having difficulties processing the death: “Now I feel like just a piece of a person. I wake up and try my best to breathe and pretend like I am living, because I know he would want me to be okay. I didn’t just lose my sweet Patrick that day. I lost the life we were supposed to have. I lost all of our todays — and every tomorrow that should have been ours.” The record does not state whether Oates will appeal, whether any payment has been made, or whether the district attorney’s decision not to file criminal charges could be revisited; no criminal proceeding exists in the available coverage.

Impact on Their Career/Life

For Oates, the verdict converts a fatal collision that never became a criminal case into a public, priced finding of responsibility, permanently attached to his name as a Kings owner and searchable alongside every business listing that identifies him by the team. For Flores, it delivered the accountability her side of the case had sought after prosecutors declined to act. The record is silent on his own response to the verdict, on any appeal, and on any consequence within the Kings’ ownership group.

Sources

• *New York Post, “Kings minority owner to pay widow $16M after CHP officer killed in crash” — source