Deshaun Watson, the Houston Texans star quarterback, officially dismissed allegations made by the 22 women who alleged he behaved sexually during massage therapy sessions on Monday, accusing these women in a civil court of fabricating their stories for money.
The file, which deals with all 22 claims against Watson, states: “These claims are full of misrepresentations of Mr. Watson’s conduct. These range from misleading to fraudulent to defamatory. “
Watson only received the names of all of his accusers last week after the lawsuits were filed anonymously against him from mid-March. Two of his accusers voluntarily identified in April and judges ruled that month that the women who bring lawsuits against Watson must identify themselvesaccording to state law.
Since then, Watson and his attorneys have sought to investigate the prosecutors and their allegations and found in the court record that they found evidence that “numerous allegations in this onslaught of cases are simply not true or correct”. In refuting some of the allegations, the file stated that eight of the women who complained boasted about massaging Watson and seven women who had willingly cooperated with or offered to work with Watson after the alleged wrongdoing occurred. including a woman who had turned up at his house to give him one more massage before he even booked an appointment with her.
The file also alleged that some plaintiffs told others they were “trying to get money out of Watson,” some of the prosecutors lied about being traumatized by the behavior accused of Watson, and some had their social media -Accounts cleared or deleted and evidence discarded Watson would need to build an adequate defense.
“I firmly believe this is an asset to a wealthy athlete,” said Rusty Hardin, Watson’s chief attorney, in a telephone interview on Monday. “When you ask, ‘Are you saying that all 22 are lying about whether he has committed sexual misconduct?’ I am sure. “
Hardin said in a press conference on April 9th that there had been “some friendly meetings” between Watson and his accusers.
Tony Buzbee, the plaintiffs’ senior attorney, said in a statement Monday that Watson’s response to the allegations did nothing for his cause. He called Watson’s “weak and vague” allegations against his accusers “demonstrably false” in Monday’s court file.
“As expected, and despite his attorney’s earlier testimony, Deshaun Watson’s only defense is to call these brave liars,” said Buzbee.
Filing the court on Monday is just one step in a long lawsuit that can take months, if not more than a year, to complete. The trials have accused 25-year-old Watson of engaging in indecent behavior with women he hired through social media platforms to give him massages this year and last. The allegations accuse him of exposing himself during the massages, of moving his body so that his female massage therapists touch his penis, or of forcing women to touch it in a sexual way. In two cases, women said he had forced them to have oral sex.
At least one other massage therapist who had not filed a lawsuit against Watson publicly accused him of similar conduct despite not hiring Buzbee as a representative. She told Sports Illustrated In late March, she was considering legal action.
The court document filed on Monday stated that one of the two plaintiffs who accused Watson of forced sexual acts “tried to blackmail Watson” before suing him.
“She asked him to pay her $ 30,000 for” indefinite silence “because their encounter would be” embarrassing “if exposed,” said the court record of a prosecutor.
That plaintiff also asked Watson’s marketing manager for a copy of the nondisclosure agreement she and Watson signed “because she didn’t want people in her industry to know that she was offering oral sex to her massage client,” the file said, adding that Watson has a record of a phone call of a conversation in which she discusses her concerns.
Hardin moved to court in Monday’s court document. He later stated that a lawsuit might be the only way for the public to weigh all the evidence and rightly decide what happened between Watson and the women he hired to massage him.
“I am absolutely certain that if any day there is a trial, a jury will find each of these allegations false,” said Hardin. “But if we have to go back to court, it’s a long way.”
