Two of the 22 women who have filed suit against Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson have amended their claims to include counts of negligence and gross negligence, as Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today reported last month. In addition to creating more grounds for financial recovery, those claims allow the plaintiffs to propound more discovery, and the gross negligence claim carries with it the possibility of punitive damages.
As Schrotenboer noted in a separate piece, almost all of the lawsuits already included counts of civil assault and infliction of emotional distress, and other suits could be amended to include the negligence-based claims as well. Essentially, those claims allege that Watson “knew of his sexual proclivities in massage settings” but did not take steps to prevent those proclivities from manifesting or to warn the plaintiffs of them.
David Ring, a Los Angeles-based attorney who has represented sexual assault victims and whom Schrotenboer consulted for his article, acknowledges that the new claims represent something of a reach (“how does a person negligently have a massage?” Ring wondered). Nonetheless, they have already helped the plaintiffs achieve an important discovery-related victory. The parties were battling over whether Watson should be compelled to list all women that gave him massages since 2019, and the court ruled that he must do just that, as such a list could be relevant to proving Watson’s alleged proclivities.
Shortly after the suits were filed against Watson, the quarterback’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, publicly released a list of 18 other therapists who had sessions with Watson but who had no issues with him. The plaintiffs, though, want to know more about those sessions, along with sessions Watson might have scheduled with women aside from the 18 therapists and 22 plaintiffs. If Watson had sexual relations with them, that could bolster the argument that he routinely scheduled massage sessions with sexual intentions, and it will make the plaintiffs’ claims more believable.
So even if the legal theory behind the amended suits is shaky, the plaintiffs might still be backing Watson into a corner, as Ring and South Texas College of Law Houston professor Kenneth Williams believe. Although plenty of harm has already been done to Watson’s reputation, he was still able to land a historic contract from Cleveland and can begin taking steps towards redemption if he settles these cases quickly and avoids further revelations of (at best) embarrassing and (at worst) predatory behavior.
Per Adam Ferrise of Cleveland.com, the trial of this matter is unlikely to take place before August 1, and the parties have agreed that no trial will be scheduled between August 1 and March 1, 2023, so as to avoid conflict with the football season. As such, if the cases ultimately proceed to trial, there will be no resolution until sometime next year.
Just another Thug.
His arrest record says different
Screenshot this to feel the shame in 24 mo
He will not be arrested for this. Already been declined to press charges. He’s a bit of a freak but I don’t see why charges weren’t brought against him if he were guilty
Good luck hope it works out for you usually does in the end for the browns right
f*** the texans for doing this to Deshaun
They forced him to get massages and get allegedly unwarranted happy endings from the masseuses?
Interesting take…..
I’ve always loved the defense: If there are others that didn’t file or complian that somehow lessen the justification that others have? I would be curious how many of the massage therapist he set up meetings with were men? How many were of a specific race? I’d like to hear the age grouping of the therapists? There’s little doubt he a sexual gratification from the massages.
Massages themselves are not a crime. The other elements are what make it a crime. Where the therapists willing partners or coerced into performing acts for money? Where the theropists reluctantly convinced to doing more than they would have if not for financial gain? 22 alleged victim certainly indicate a high likelihood that this is alot more to this?
With the NFL message on race, LGBTQ, sexual identity, gender equality the Commissioner will be front and center too. Will he back up the league message with a stern disaplinary message or is all that just window dressing to appease fans and income? We will know when its concluded.
This is a civil case. There are no crimes discussed in this context.
True, but the NFL conducts its own investigation under its personal conduct policy. If its investigation is truly independent, it would not wait for the entire lawsuit to play out. It would complete it and decide on any fine or suspension before the season.
All the evidence won’t come out until the civil cases and that won’t happen until March. So you’re willing to suspend a guy without all the evidence?
You’re obviously blinded by your support for your teams QB and should sit this one out. I’m sure if Watson was dealt to the Steelers to replace Browns favorite “Rapelisberger” your opinion would be the same.
True. Not the point of the post but thanks for that correction. The criminal counts as of this post have been rejected by the grand jury and currently in the hands of the civil courts.
Just pay the women 500k each and say good bye to them.
Almost sounds like you are saying you can do whatever you want if you have enough money.
There is no crime and if he had no money they wouldn’t be pursuing him for settlement. Almost like saying sometimes women sue rich men so they can get their hands on his money.
A significant amount of sexual assaults or rapes go unreported for various reasons such as difficulty to prove intent, fear of retaliation, embarrassment regarding the situation, lack of physical evidence, he said she said nature of the incident in question, whatever.
As such there are some people involved in such situations who litigate with the understanding that they won’t win the case but feel the responsibility and necessity of going through with the process in order to protect others from the specific individual in the future. It is less likely that someone facing these types of charges will put themselves in similar situations in the future (scared straight) but also far more likely to reach a conviction on any potential future charges if there is a documented history of this behavior. Long winded way of saying there’s a lot of other reasons why people sue than just trying to get someone else’s money.
The gross negligence claim seems like a pretty far stretch. Watson already violated, according to the plaintiffs, their rights by coercing them into have sex. I’m not sure how he was supposed to do that responsibly, or what established specific duty to them that he had that he violated. If just by doing them wrong means that he violated his duty to not do them wrong, that would mean that every single defendant in every single civil case has been grossly negligent.
If NFL has any balls at all this guy should be suspended for a year. When 1 person complains or files a suit that’s one thing … 22 women…. 22 suits … dude has issues. I’d be pissed if my team traded or signed this guy. Yet fans clammer for support of this guy. If you’re average Joe , like most of the people on here were suspected of the same it would be handled completely different. I would find it hard to root for this guy. Very hard.
Regardless of the number of complaints, the NFL’s procedures require it to conduct an independent investigation under its personal conduct policy. It should not be under the same timeline as the courts. It has gotten testimony from the women, I believe. It should be able to reach a decision on whether to fine and/or suspend him before the season starts, but we know they’ll probably wait for the courts.
Everything about this stinks. the entitled QB who thinks there are no rules for him, the NFL for what has so far been a spineless response, and the lawyer money grab on all sides.
I think, at the very least, each of these incidents/accusations should be punishable. He should not be able to bundle them into “an incident”. Four games per accusation for a total of 88 games would be fair.
So you’re willing to suspend the guy when the courts didn’t have enough to charge him? We had a President that was accused by more women than this and nothing happened to him
Yes. I’m talking about the personal conduct policy that Watson agreed too. Trump didn’t agree to any personal conduct policy, and the Republican voters didn’t seem to care when he bragged about it on tape. I don’t know what to tell except that I would hold Watson to the conduct policy he agreed to, regardless of how many presidents, other athletes, actors, executives, and other creeps have gotten away with.
Fully. Guaranteed.
No matter what comes out later.
The question is how bad would the revelations have to get for Cleveland to bench him.
Actually bodies in his basement? Might not be enough.
Just because you don’t have a good quarterback, no reason to hate
We get it…he could kill your mother and you’d help him bury her in the woods.
But only now that he’s become a Brown, had he been dealt elsewhere this homers take would be just the opposite.
He is 28-25 for his career. All of this is for a QB with a .500 record. Not only is he a creep, he also isn’t very good.
So, part of the defense’s theory is apparently that there are people who have given Watson a massage but did not report a rape or assault afterwards? Really? Like that’s an accomplishment?
Did any of the women actually go to the police that night or the next day and fle a report? I never heard any did
I’m sorry, but are you implying that someone doesn’t report a rape or sexual assault within 24 hours, it can’t be or likely isn’t true? Please tell me that’s not what you’re suggesting.
And in any event… it’s not relevant. Im asking about those who didn’t accuse him at all. Whether they accused him 5 minutes later or one year later doesn’t matter if it’s true.
Monkey’s Uncle is correct, but let’s also be clear that rape was not what Watson was accused of. Not all sexual misconduct is rape, though most of the time it is either non-consensual or involves an underage victim (which is conceptually not consensual according to the spirit of the law).
Watsons fetish isn’t criminal just obsessive and now expensive. How much its damaged his public perception is yet to be determined. The NFL now has to decide what is the proper punishment for a man’s moral compass based on society’s values.
Sexual assault is criminal.
Heard one of the accuses texted him 19 times after the incident happened. Wanted to get together again and friends number.
Remember Number 45 ( DT) had 26 women accuse him and alot of people said fake news and they were after his cash. He was elected and was he charged????