Why Are There No Criminal Charges Agains Antonio Brown
What to Know Nigh the Assault Lawsuits Against Deshaun Watson
Twenty-2 women have filed civil lawsuits in Texas accusing the quarterback of a design of coercive and lewd behavior.
Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson is the subject of 22 civil suits filed in March and April which charge him of coercive and lewd sexual behavior, with two that allege sexual assault. He has non been charged criminally and his lawyer has denied the accusations. Here'south where the cases stand:
Who is Deshaun Watson?
Deshaun Watson, 26, is a star quarterback for the Houston Texans, one of the best in the N.F.L. at his position.
In September 2020, he signed a four-year contract extension worth nearly $111 1000000 guaranteed, tying him to the Texans through 2025. Just Watson, disenchanted by the team's poor personnel moves and failure to uphold a pledge to include him in the search procedure for a new bus and full general manager, has requested a trade. Watson has a no-merchandise clause in his contract that allows him to cull his next destination. Just the Texans emphasized in Jan that they had no intention of trading him, creating an impasse that has lasted for more than two months.
In the past year, Watson grew into a leading voice among Black players who accept protested racial injustice and police brutality. During the 2022 off-flavour, he took part in a player-led video that urged the league to support protests by players, and subsequently the police in Minneapolis killed George Floyd, Watson marched with his family — Floyd grew up in Houston — in a downtown protest.
[RELATED: Volition Deshaun Watson play football game this season ?]
What is Watson being accused of?
Twenty-two women accept accused Watson of assault in civil lawsuits filed in Harris Canton, Texas. The lawyer representing them, Tony Buzbee, said the women have largely echoed one another's claims of sexual misconduct and coercive beliefs confronting Watson.
Although the 22 suits filed to date share many similarities, only two include claims of sexual assault: Watson was said in both cases to have pressured women to perform oral sex activity during massages and was accused in one of too having grabbed a woman's buttocks and vagina. The civil suits allege that Watson engaged in a pattern of lewd behavior with women hired to provide personal services, coercing them to touch him in a sexual manner, exposing himself to women he had hired for massages, or moving his trunk in ways that forced them to bear upon his penis. The incidents cited in the suits were said to take occurred from March 2022 to March 2021.
Two of Watson's accusers publicly identified themselves on April 6, giving statements that described their declared encounters. Ashley Solis, the first of the 22 women to file conform, read from a statement at a news conference held at Buzbee's role. Another woman, Lauren Baxley, provided a letter she addressed to Watson that was read by one of Buzbee's associates.
Watson's lawyers filed a movement on April 8 asking the court to compel the plaintiffs to reveal their identities, citing the use of pseudonyms in civil suits as a violation of Texas state law. They condemned Buzbee for "conducting discovery by Facebook and trial by press conference" and for "asking the public to act as judge and jury."
Twenty-one women added their names to the suits, which were consolidated for a gauge'southward review. One accuser dropped her arrange out of privacy and condom concerns, and one new case was added, bringing the total number of active ceremonious suits confronting Watson to 22.
At least one other massage therapist publicly accused Watson of similar beliefs but had non hired Buzbee to represent her. She told Sports Illustrated in late March that she was considering legal action.
Meredith J. Duncan, who teaches tort law and criminal law at the University of Houston Constabulary Eye, divers ceremonious assail as intentionally or knowingly touching someone in a style that a reasonable person would regard as offensive.
"It just and then happens in this example, the civil assault involves his genitals," Duncan said. "But forcing another person to perform a sexual act, that'southward a more than aggravated form of sexual assault."
How has Watson responded?
Watson hasn't commented publicly since the night of March sixteen, when the first complaint was filed. He said on Twitter that he had "never treated any adult female with anything other than the utmost respect" and that he had rejected "a baseless half dozen-figure settlement demand" made past Buzbee before the commencement suit was filed. Watson'due south amanuensis, David Mulugheta, publicly dedicated his customer in social media posts on March 19.
Rusty Hardin, who represents Watson, issued a argument on March xix calling the allegations against his client "meritless" and released a more than detailed statement on March 23, in which he refuted the veracity of all the claims and described the starting time of two allegations of sexual set on as a blackmail effort.
In another statement, issued on March 31, Hardin highlighted firsthand testimonials of 18 massage therapists who said they had worked with Watson over the past five years without experiencing any of the beliefs described by the plaintiffs in the lawsuits.
At a news conference on April 9, Hardin acknowledged that Watson took part in sexual acts with some of the women, but claimed that they were all consensual.
"Never at any fourth dimension, nether any circumstances, did this fellow engage in annihilation that was not mutually desired," Hardin said.
Buzbee, in a argument released on Apr thirteen, denied that argument.
"Mr. Watson may now claim he had consent to practise what he did to these victims, but let's be clear — in their minds he didn't have consent, PERIOD," the statement said.
Where are the incidents said to take taken place?
Almost of the incidents are said to have taken place in Texas, but according to the complaints, two are said to have occurred in Georgia, where Watson is from, and in California and Arizona, during his visits there. All of the lawsuits were filed in Harris Canton, Texas, considering that is where Watson lives and works.
Volition Watson face criminal charges?
The Houston Police Department said on April 2 that it had begun an investigation later a complainant filed a report confronting Watson. The declaration of the investigation on Twitter did not specify the nature of the study, and it was not clear whether the complainant was ane of the women who had filed civil lawsuits. Until the Police force Section's announcement, there had been no indication of a constabulary written report filed confronting Watson.
Will the N.F.L. accept any action?
The league opened an investigation into Watson's conduct on March 18. In a letter addressed to Buzbee, Lisa Friel, a special counsel for investigations at the league, requested the cooperation of the accusers. A league spokesman said the matter was nether review in relation to the N.F.L.'south personal conduct policy. That policy governs off-field behavior involving players and coaches. In a statement on April ii, after the Houston Constabulary Department announced its investigation, the league said it was "continuing to monitor all developments in the matter which remains under review of the Personal Conduct Policy."
The Texans said in a March eighteen argument that they would "continue to take this and all matters involving anyone within the Houston Texans organization seriously" and that the team would not comment further until the league's investigation had ended, a process with no public timeline. In his start public annotate on the affair, Texans master executive Cal McNair wrote in an April email to flavour ticket-holders that the arrangement took the allegations "very seriously" and would cooperate fully with the Houston Police force and N.F.L. investigations.
"While we wait the determination of these investigations, we express our strong stance confronting any form of sexual attack," McNair said.
How have Watson'south sponsors responded?
Nike suspended its contract with Watson on April 7, the day after two of the accusers gave public statements describing their allegations.
"We are deeply concerned by the disturbing allegations and have suspended Deshaun Watson. We will continue to closely monitor the situation," the company said in a statement.
Watson's deal with Apple's Beats By Dre reportedly will not be renewed. Many of his other sponsorships, which included Rolex and several Texas-area businesses, were allowed to expire.
Who is Tony Buzbee?
Tony Buzbee is a Houston plaintiffs lawyer who has worked on personal injury cases for years but is perhaps best known for his involvement in mass tort and class-action cases, including the litigation subsequently Hurricane Ike and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a decade ago. He doesn't announced to accept represented many women in cases involving sexual assault.
A old marine, Buzbee flaunts his outsize personality and wealth on social media. The first 2 words on the website for Buzbee's police firm are "Just Win," and he has a tattoo of a shark on his right forearm.
Although he has said he does not support the Texans, Buzbee, a Texas A&M graduate, in 2022 put upwards x billboards urging the team's now-deceased owner, Bob McNair, to typhoon Johnny Manziel, an Aggies quarterback; McNair didn't accept his advice. Buzbee lives on the aforementioned tony Houston street every bit Cal McNair, merely said in a news conference that he did not know McNair. Buzbee also unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Houston in 2019.
Who is Rusty Hardin?
A former Texas state prosecutor who became a defense lawyer, Hardin has represented numerous prominent clients, from star athletes to the bookkeeping business firm Arthur Andersen in the Enron scandal. He also worked in the independent counsel's office in the Whitewater investigation during the Clinton administration.
Among the athletes he has dedicated are the pitcher Roger Clemens, against perjury charges in 2012; the N.F.L. running dorsum Adrian Peterson, who was accused of felony child abuse in 2014; and the North.B.A. star James Harden, who was accused in 2022 of paying four people to attack and rob Moses Malone Jr., the son of the Hall of Fame N.B.A. player.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/article/deshaun-watson-sexual-assault-lawsuit.html
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