One of the civil suits against Texans QB Deshaun Watson has been dismissed, but as Samantha Ketterer of the Houston Chronicle writes, another lawsuit has been filed, which returns the total to 22. The newest accuser is a makeup artist who alleges, among other things, that at various points during two massage sessions, Watson asked her to put her hand on his penis and tried to kiss and grope her.
She also avers that Watson contacted her via social media to request a massage, at which point she made it clear that she was not a licensed massage therapist. Like all of the other plaintiffs, she is represented by Tony Buzbee.
Even more problematic for Watson is the fact that five of Buzbee’s clients have now spoken to police, as Will Hobson of the Washington Post reports. We had previously heard that Ashley Solis — the first accuser to publicly identify herself — had contacted the Houston Police Department, which opened a criminal investigation earlier this month.
Hobson provides a comprehensive look at how this matter has unfolded, including Buzbee’s initial communication with Watson’s management at Athletes First. Buzbee claims that Scott Gaffield, general counsel for Athletes First, did not take the accusations seriously, and while Gaffield was willing to discuss a “reasonable” settlement for Solis — i.e. less than the $100K that Buzbee had offered on Solis’ behalf — he was doing so just so that Watson “can learn a lesson about having put himself in this situation.” Gaffield declined to comment for Hobson’s story, instead referring a reporter to an earlier statement in which he expressed his belief that Watson did not engage in any wrongdoing.
Buzbee, both in his interview with Hobson and on Instagram, fired back at statements from Rusty Hardin, Watson’s attorney, which indicated that any sexual interactions between Watson and Buzbee’s clients were consensual. Hardin had suggested that Watson turned to social media to arrange for massages due to the pandemic, to which Buzbee replied, “Because of COVID, he was reaching out to dozens of different people on Instagram? For massages? … Because of COVID, you would think he would have one person who had tested negative.”
Meanwhile, Hardin — who has accused Buzbee of taking part in a “new kind of extortion using social media and salacious innuendo” — did not speak with the Washington Post for very long, saying that he believes it would be better to address the inaccuracies of Buzbee’s claims in the series of pleadings he plans to file next week as opposed to a newspaper article.
Deshaun “can I have a massage” Watson
If the allegations are true, it seems that Watson believes that every masseuse is “one of those masseuses”.
Constantly making that assumption would invariably lead to crimes (solicitation, sexual assault, etc.).
Rusty Hardin is not doing a very good job here, also why isn’t anyone mentioning that even if the allegations are false Watson at the very least broke covid protocols and endangered himself and teammates.
because covid protocol violations pale in comparison to gross sexual impropriety by a mile.
It’s why I wrote even if the allegations are false. Thank you
no gross sexual impropriety has been proven at this point. merely allegations that most of these women seem apprehensive about making public with their names and faces attached. not saying he’s innocent, but where are the police
Rusty Hardin is scum. Pure scum.
Robert Kraft must trade for Watson
If “it” was consensual he wouldn’t need so many. One in each port is all that would be necessary.
He and Hardin should be working on a group settlement with an NDA, even if it costs him millions, as not settling is risking ten times that much.
He’s gotta pay these chicks off so they go away
The ABA needs to intervene immediately. It may seem that Buzzbee is stretching The Rules of Professional Conduct but he’s knowingly crossed the line with impunity.
I’m not talking validity of the allegations whatsoever. I’m talking about the use of media (traditional & social) as leverage to influence public opinion.
His “Long Game” is the negotiation leverage created by planting the “good luck seating an impartial jury” seed.
Buzzsbee’s “Character & Fitness” is reprehensible. The first time he started his media blitz, he should have been called before The ABA Ethics Committee.
Like Hardin is no executing the Kobe Bryant victimize the victim game plan. Hardin wants all of the accusers outed publicly so he can turn them into pariahs in the media and activate Watson’s fan base to go after each victim and make their lives into living hells.
That’s how Kobe Bryant dodged a rightful rape conviction and forced his victim into settling without any admission of guilt.
That’s truly reprehensible here. That and Watson’s rub and tug misbehavior.
Imagine trying to say a pro athlete wouldn’t try to get a massage during the pandemic when people like Lou Williams and James Harden were caught at strip clubs. I don’t remember what Clevinger was doing when he violated the rules in baseball last year, but I doubt it was to attend a knitting circle or a book club.
He was having dinner with a teammate and friend who was not part of the “inner circle”. The response to what they did was ridiculous back then but 100x more so now looking back on it.
I don’t think the response was to breaking the rule. I think it was to him lying about it to his team while throwing his teammate under the bus.
Plesac got busted breaking curfew, Clevinger skated and they treated these 2 as if they brought the virus back in and contaminated everyone causing numerous deaths.
CLEVELAND — Taking to Instagram on Thursday, Cleveland Indians pitcher Zach Plesac made it clear he wasn’t issuing an apology. Rather, he wanted to share his side of the story after breaking the team’s coronavirus (COVID-19) presentation protocol.
“A few days prior to leaving for this trip, the MLB came up with these new protocols that required a curfew and some other things that would keep us more isolated as baseball players and contain us more in like a bubble-type sense,” Plesac said. “After my start, I went out to dinner with some buddies. We ended up going back to his place — the same group that we went to dinner with … Just hanging out, having a good time. We broke curfew, I came back late and I was reported by MLB security being out in public and coming back late to curfew.”
As a result, the Indians sent the 25-year-old Plesac back to Cleveland in a car service before placing him on the restricted list so that he could quarantine and undergo coronavirus testing before rejoining the team. The team later discovered that Indians pitcher Mike Clevinger had also broken protocol before flying back with the team on Sunday night.
The actions of Plesac and Clevinger — who was also placed on the restricted list — has drawn criticism from media, fans and teammates, including Indians pitcher Adam Plutko. Plesac, however, stated in his video that there wasn’t any malicious intent behind his and Clevinger’s decisions.
“I just did a little bit of research and I found out that [CDC guidance is] changing day to day and 10 people or less is considered a safe gathering, especially if you’re six-feet apart. And that entire night, dinner and hanging out at my buddy’s place after, we were not with more than eight people the entire night,” Plesac said. “So the media’s portraying me and my best friend and teammate to be malicious with our actions when we were really — not justifying what we did, because we left the hotel and according to the new rules, we weren’t supposed to leave.
“But according to the CDC and these guidelines with [coronavirus], we were practicing safe practices in a small group with people who we know have been tested and came back to our curfew late, which was 10 p.m. and have clearly been exposed as being bad teammates, bad people and dragged across the mud. So it’s hard to sit here and watch how things shuffle out and people not knowing the truth.”
Plesac went on to insist that when it comes to the coronavirus, he’s taking safety precautions seriously.
“I understand that there are risks people are taking to play this game. And the last thing I would ever want to do is put anybody at risk. The last thing I would want to do — my little brother has type-1 diabetes, my mom’s a nurse. I understand the significance of this illness and this disease,” Plesac. “And I know how important it is that we must follow certain procedures and guidelines to ensure safety for the entirety of a group.
“It breaks my heart for people to think I’m a bad teammate or a bad person. But I wanted to share with you guys that moving forward, there’s a selflessness lesson taught here and at the end of the day, I want everybody to be healthy. I want to be a good teammate. I want to win baseball games, man. That’s all I want to do. So whatever it takes for me to get back on that diamond and start shoving it up people, trust me, I’ll be ready when they need me.”
New song coming out sung to the tune of 99 bottles of beer on the wall…22 sexual assault cases on Watson, take one down pass around and another one appears…
this would explain why he wanted traded out of Houston so badly
I work in a county jail. I can see first hand how our judicial system is so biased. Poor people are jailed because of this. I have seen athletes booked and released two hours later and then exonerated. Watson will get off Scott free. He will secretly pay off these woman I suppose and he will be right back on the field. He is entitled due process but so are poor people. It is a shame, but money is power.
I think Deshaun is probably guilty of misconduct with at least some of his accusers, but this article in the Washington Post is utter garbage. It’s essentially a press release by Buzbee masquerading as a newspaper article. The national media in the United States is total trash.