As of March 18, Houston-based attorney Tony Buzbee had filed three lawsuits against Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson on behalf of three massage therapists alleging inappropriate conduct and sexual assault. Now, Buzbee has filed a total of seven suits, and as Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com writes, at least five more will be on the way.
No criminal charges or complaints have been filed against Watson, but according to Barshop, Buzbee is pushing to change that. The attorney plans to submit affidavits and evidence concerning the alleged misconduct to the Houston Police Department and the Houston DA on Monday morning, and he will also request that a grand jury consider the evidence.
Obviously, that is part of Buzbee’s effort to increase his leverage in his civil suits, and the fact that he is submitting affidavits and evidence to the DA’s office does not mean that the DA will believe those materials represent probable cause to initiate criminal proceedings. Still, it’s clear that this matter is not going away, and Watson’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, says a response is forthcoming.
“I’m extremely proud to represent Deshaun Watson and wholly stand behind him against what we believe are meritless allegations,” Hardin said. “However, we will wait to comment in detail until we’ve completed our review of the numerous, evolving allegations from Mr. Buzbee. We will respond next week and ask you to keep an open mind until we do so.” (Twitter link via Mark Berman of FOX 26).
Up until the suits were filed, Watson had been all over the headlines for football-related reasons. He and the Texans were playing a game of chicken over the three-time Pro Bowler’s trade demand, and on March 19 — even after the seventh lawsuit — Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle reported that several clubs remained interested in swinging a trade for Watson. That includes the Eagles, whose interest had not been reported previously.
“We need to know more facts before making a firm decision on a trade, but, yes, we’re still interested,” said one NFL executive. “How could you not be interested in Deshaun Watson possibly being your quarterback? The guy is an incredible talent.”
Said another exec, “[w]hat Deshaun Watson has been accused of obviously doesn’t match up at all with what we’ve heard and know about him as a really great person, but you can’t ignore these serious allegations. What that means is making sure you’re doing your homework and making sure you have all the facts before you get heavily involved in trade negotiations. There’s the NFL investigation, the court stuff and you have to let it all play out and make an informed decision. Yes, we’re still very interested in Deshaun Watson. What he has done on the field checks every box for quarterback play.”
If these allegations are not resolved in Watson’s favor in short order, you can expect that interested teams will stop their pursuit of the Texans’ signal-caller.
Wow three of them huh. I’m sure it was just a coincidence and he didn’t do nothing wrong.
7 in total lol
Nice to see you making an informed decision based on the evidence and witness testimony you’ve collected. Thank goodness you’re not smart enough to be a DA. I just pray you never end up on a jury.
Comments should probably be off on this post, can’t comment about covid but sexual assault allegations no problem, what are you doing trade rumors, something about this situation seems super weird to me though, squeaky clean guy becomes a rapist the second it’s convenient for his billion dollar employer…I don’t know, however I feel the courts will do the job and end all speculation and show the truth
this is getting worse by the minute for him. the Houston Texans screwed up by not trading him. now all the other interested teams they ain’t going to give up anything near what everybody thought they would get now if anything at all.
this at very least could be a league suspension, that’s the very best scenario if you’re DeShaun Watson. this could potentially go to the criminal court, and you know you have a high profile professional athlete young black man making as much money as he does and if it’s any white women dizziness there will be some people on the jury that already have their minds made up.
I’m a white guy, I don’t believe every single time I hear a situation where the race card is thrown I don’t always believe it. in this case I do believe there could be some racial propaganda going on.
now if they have text messages and what not to proves he did this he deserves to go to jail as a sex offender but if this is money situations where people are going to try to take words out of context to a text message it’s despicable. I do believe not all the women that are making these claims I do believe some of the women most likely realize who he was and how much money he makes and saw a prepaid lottery ticket. every time there is a case where a woman is either raped or sexually assaulted but they wait a long period of time to report it and then don’t even report it to the judicial system, to start personal lawyer, makes me think it’s a money grab solely.
if he did do with the legend and it can be proven and depending on the severity of the stuff he should spend time in jail, he should not get special treatment cuz he’s an athlete and he’s rich that’s not right. now if it’s proven that these women have lied or exaggerated the truth, they themselves need to go to prison.
you know the thing is right now all this stuff could be proven in a court that it was all bs, lies, just a woman looking to get paid, regardless if it’s proven this isn’t true, you and I both know that in public opinion he’s already been found guilty, and that he definitely did it and even if the truth does come out and it was all a lie, public opinion has already found him guilty so his image is already damaged. I hope for the women sake that these allegations are not a lie (I don’t mean I hope DeShaun Watson did it to these women) what I mean by that is I hope they didn’t lie because if they did they go to jail in my opinion and even know it could come out it was all a lie the public is already found the show I’m watching guilty soon and if that’s a freaking liar it’s despicable
He probably didn’t do it like you said another young BIPOC railroaded by a white system, and who is pointing the finger? Asians, who have systematically participated in the marginalization of our black brown and latinx brothers and sisters and others are continuing to use whit supremacy as a shield in their oppression.
I totally agree with you, if a whit woman sees a well to do BIPOC on the defense stand it’s almost a slam dunk conviction, like with OJ
Now it’s the Asians ? Gimmie a break all I see in the news is elderly Asians being attacked by people for nothing other than being Asian
Theyre trolling/arguing with the above comment. Between their other comment and pointing out OJ (who wasnt convicted), its quite clear this isnt their actual stance.
You do know not all massage therapists are asian, correct? So far, all of them are being referred to as jane doe, so to assume that they are all asian because of a profession, if youre looking for a racist, look in the mirror.
So you are assuming they are asian?? Talk about profiling and racist. Ignorant comment.
Who’s railroading him? The court that hasn’t even convened yet? Watson has money, much more money than anyone here has regardless of race. Like O.J., that will be the most relevant factor in how this case turns out, regardless of his actual guilt.
This is is a civil suit for damages, besides. This is MUCH different than a criminal case, and nothing like the murder charge that O.J. faced. At least give it a few months before jumping to conclusions-or better yet, realize that in reality none of us know anything about anything except what we read. Forming an opinion on cases we know nothing about serves no purpose.
OJ was found not guilty
And some of the accusers are African American women.
*white
You’re racist
Put the coffee down.
He gives a new meaning to the hand off play
As usual there is a little truth to what everyone is saying however let’s get this timeline clear and the lawyer into focus Watson says he wants out of Houston then these lawsuits come out by a HOUSTON lawyer hmmmm I wonder if he is a Houston Texans fan yet a lot of these allegations were well over a year ago they didn’t want to mess with the QB now that he wants out of Houston and it’s game on? This lawyer sounds like a rabid Texans fan and a few of my ex girlfriends if I can’t have him no one can lol this seems way more like a revenge plot than anything of substance
If this is true, where the heck do you think the accusations would come from? Cleveland? Dude live in Houston.
Here we go with tigerd7335 using his tiny Tin foil cap to actually thik this is a conspiracy the texans are making up to hurt there only asset. Lol this is almost as bad as the q stuff some Trump supporters believe in. Sorry to inform you but Watson can’t control himself with women…..unless texans used a body double or a clone it’s likely Watson fault (especially if there’s texts) Hope Watson goes to jail, as many sexual predators should.
and I’m sure many fans agree with you on the fact that if he did this he deserves to go to prison for a long time. but I said in the above posts I made, the women could be just making this up because they have a lottery ticket in their minds. they could be thinking you know what he may want to sit there and pay me some money just to keep this out of the public. now am I saying that’s the case no I’m not. what I am saying let’s see how it plays out. if I had to put money on it I would say he did do it. but until all the facts are heard and everything else there could be proof that he did. and as I said it could be a lie so it’s wrong to sit there and say he did do it and he’s going to prison and say the women are lying they just want some money.
my main question is if this happened to so many of these females, in some cases they waited over a year to report this. my question would be why? did they try to extort money from him and he said no?
the only thing that even makes me think there’s even the slightest chance of something might not be true is, why didn’t they report this as soon as it happened if not a day or two after it happened? and also why did they go to a lawyer to sue him, instead of going to see a court commissioner to try to have charges brought against him.
those two questions put some doubt in my head that this did happen. Buteverything the women are saying could be true they were just afraid to report it before. the women could be thinking that there will be people that read this or see this on the news and automatically think that they are money hungry women that don’t care if they hurt him as long as they can get some money out of it. maybe they have a good reason to wait so long for this to happen to report it. but the biggest one is why didn’t they go to try to charge him criminally? why did they try to sue him?
Believe all women even women who claim an assault took place 30 years ago on a day xhe can’t remember at a friends house xhe can’t remember and the assault was someone falling on top of xer we are to believe ALL victims implicitly.
Well, most.
@bumpy this is pretty far fetched…..several of the accusations have been recent if you look into court preceding the main case was filled about a year ago with others jumping on. Court stuff takes time to file necessary paperwork coupled with getting a judge to hear your case. I just find it hard to believe that 12 different people with evidence made it up to sully a guy whom the texans want to keep or potentially trade. All these case are going to criminal court as well so it’s not just about dollars, tony buzbee said he has collect substantial evidence and has turned it over to houston pd. At this point we should all wait and see evidence before making opinions.
This is possible, but you usually take your time to file a lawsuit. so the well over a year timeline makes complete sense.
I’m not accusing him of being guilty and I am keeping an open mind towards his innocence/guilt in this, but the hole “conspiracy theory” people are throwing around is a whole lot easier to believe when there is 1 or 2 women involved. Once you’ve got 12 or more women who presumably don’t know each other and are spread across several states, are making the same claims, the chances of it being any kind of conspiracy seem rather far-fetched to me.
It’s entirely possible that this is just some kind of money grab, but at this point I highly doubt the Texans or the lawyer have conspired. Also, what would the motivation be for the Texans? If they keep him, there will be protests, crazed fans, and distracting media everywhere. If they’re looking to trade him, they’d be killing his trade value. Doesn’t make sense either way
We’re over analayzing the particulars. It’s no hard to find people to plead that someone powerful hurt them. It’s also not hard to see why a person hurt by someone powerful would stay quiet. Either way, at the end of the day, we as unnconnected football fans are just guessing. The cynic in me says thatWatson arranged this to lower his asking price. I’m joking of course, but we really can’t come to any conclusion with any certainty either way right now. We really shouldn’t, either. It might be less gratifying but letting the law work is better than what we can do (that is, if the Houston law enforcement authorities determine that there is enough to act on criminally with the evidence recently submitted to them) as readers on a football rumors site. Does it feel as good? No, but we honestly don’t know too much as is.
Steelers going to trade for him? They already have one are QB who sexual assaulted someone
Too bad the Lakers can’t trade for him since their idol was one too.
If this is true, where the heck do you think the accusations would come from? Cleveland? Dude live in Houston.
It’s obvious the Texans posturing about being fully committed to Watson failed miserably as a damage control technique. They desperately needed to find a new strategy that would allow them to save face while backtracking from their previous stance. Even if Watson is exonerated of any wrongdoing the Texans have “conveniently” got what they needed.
How have they got what they wanted or needed? Are you thinking he will just say ok I don’t want to be traded and this will disappear? Right now they have a qb that could end up in jail or suspended. No chance of trading him and no future with team probably. Total mess
agree. this is even worse than their worst case scenario.
crosseye –
See my counter-argument above. I think you’re way off base. They’d have nothing to gain
The Texans now can now distance themselves from Watson without looking like fools. If this evolves into a criminal case then they can probably also recover some guaranteed money from Watson offsetting what would likely be a drop in his trade value.
Who’s even going to be interested at any price if anything criminal comes of this? The conspiracy theory makes no sense. Period.
I’m not suggesting Cal McNair is hiding behind a grassy knoll but any student of history knows that Texas is fertile ground for a conspiracy.
Out pacing Gov Coumo. Must be a great kid.
Still 20 behind 45, though. Might be hard for him to catch up now.
Buzbee sounds like a character from the bee movie.
Maybe DW requested a trade because he couldn’t find any more masseuses to assault, so he was looking for new territory. Maybe he knew some lawsuits were coming and was trying to get out of Dodge quickly. Maybe all 12 of the complainants were mad he didn’t become an exclusive client so they’re conspiring against him. Maybe none of us know what the hell happened, if anything, so we should let an investigation take place first
I have to admit, I gave him the benefit of the doubt after the first one because he has always seemed like such a good dude, even in college. After 7 though, it’s impossible to defend him.
Unless they are all being paid off.
Every arm chair expert comes forward to give their opinion. Facts are not important, if they are not the way I think. Regardless of who a person is, they live in the USA where a person is presumed innocent till proven Quilty by the evidence. All we know is a number of people have accused Watson of some form of sexual misbehavior. We don’t even know what that involved or with who. Yet many have already talked about him going to jail, a conspiracy to get back at him for wanting to leave Houston. Doesn’t anyone consider that Watson is a human being and is facing serious allegations, if true will ruin him and if not true will still scar him. Therefore can’t people wait for facts to come out before we decide what should happen to him
Welcome to the USA
People shouldn’t assume he’s quilty. 😉
Then why is there 29 women accusing him. If this was anyone else like a white man, he’d already be in jail.
Oddly when you add this to his pissing and maiming his way out of Houston somehow Carson Wentz seems to have gotten far worse coverage of not formally requesting a trade out of Philly.
And the funny thing is he can’t go back to Houston after his insistence he won’t and now no other team will take a chance while these issues are pending.
I’m just going to assume there’s 3 sides to this story, the lawyers side, watsons side, and the truth
Are all of his accusers represented by the same lawyer?
If so, it could be coordinated and the benefit of the doubt must be given.
If not, seven is a lot and there should be receipts to establish proximity, at least, unless he paid cash only.
That’s how a class action lawsuit works, after the first one comes forward others can join to strengthen case.
From deshawn’s standpoint the problem he has is that he was searching the web Instagram Facebook you name it looking for these women some of them he was flying into Houston to give him a special massage this is insane you’re trying to tell me there are no massage therapist in Houston or associated with the Houston Texans?
It’s pretty hard to say that it’s a conspiracy against the Sean when the 12 women or more women were from such diverse locations across the country and every one of them has the same story which means it’s a pattern on his part,,pun intended.
Like most of these kids they start getting serious money we’re not talking about people who making $100,000 a year he’s making more than $100,000 a quarter for 15 minutes, they get inflated sense of self they get this opinion of themselves that they can do anything and that’s where this kind of behavior stems from.
Can you possibly imagine making $100,000 for 15 minutes work $400,000 a game * 17 games a year that’s insane
This man signed an extension for 156mil for 4 years. That’s 39mil a season. There’s 16 games. That’s almost 2.5 million per game. That’s 625,000 per quarter. That’s 41,667$ per min of gameplay. These players should never get paid that much, it’s insane. Plus he gets indorsements. And the man is 25 years old. He probably thinks he’s GOD. Send him to jail, he should like it there, with all the ass play he was trying to get during his massages
You gotta just let this play out with the NFL and probable impending police investigation. One account okay maybe you say its fabricated, 21 women? Sounds more Harvey Weinstein now. But no sense in vilifying him at this point, innocent until proven guilty… but it doesn’t look good. And I wouldn’t trade for him, and give up 3 or 4 1sts and a player? If it goes sideways legally, you’ve set your franchise back years.
I do not buy all this crap from BUZZBEE
He wanted to be Mayor not long ago. Wonder if will run again.
I feel for Watson. No offense but timing of this is suspect. BUZZBEE is suspect as well.
Guess the women all want a piece of the money pie since Watson will sit out if does not get traded. Would all this have come out if he had been before now. I know the contract extension and more. But guess with the 20 million could lose and more sitting out all these women want their chance at making him lose more.
I find it suspect too with Cuomo too.
Yes would take serious if something else were not happening with person involved.
I will only take this seriously if the women describe Watson’s genitalia in detail. Compare it to a picture I have of it my buddy snapped for me when he was working at arrowhead in the locker room after the playoff game. Dong! That’s right.
I’m curious, how would a woman describe one from another…well enough to make it unmistakably identifiable? Unless there were any odd or unusual distinguishing features, your comment is ridiculous.
And congrats on hanging out with guys who like to take pictures of dicks in the locker room. Sounds like you run with a really cool crowd
Oh, and he snapped the pic FOR YOU? That tells me a whole lot about your sexual interests & hobbies
Yeah I collect sports & entertainment memorabilia. I’ve got tamba hali’s old helmet from the same friend, also a pair of boxers Salvador Perez soiled just last season. I have one of Sammy Davis Jr’s glass eyes. My man cave is a bit of a horror show to be honest. Different strokes for different folks. 😉
None of those things explain your desire for pictures of male genitalia. But hey, live your life as you see fit.
Better keep stuff like that quiet though because I’m pretty sure that taking pictures of someones junk without their knowledge and distributing it is highly illegal and could cause your friend to lose his job and spend some time. You never know who’s reading these threads. But like I said, live your life as you see fit.
He had his junk out in public. In a Jackson County publicly paid for facility. There is no expectations of privacy under those conditions. Derrick Thomas probably thought he had an expectation of privacy on the items in his house. But he died. Living NFL paycheck to paycheck. The bank sold his house and auctioned his belongings. I was one of hundreds of people going through his stuff at auction. I bought a used toothbrush and half tube of toothpaste from his master bathroom for 40$. I had a shadow box made with them displayed below an oil painting of him. I tried to buy the unused seat belt out of his wrecked car. But you had to buy the whole car for scrap price. That sent me down the path of collecting oddities. That’s why 58kc is in my user name. Dong!
All things to be proud of. Congratulations. Dong!
You’re fricken weird af. I wouldn’t tell anyone that story….
Glad to see Rusty Hardin is still kicking it down in Houston. Correct me if I’m wrong, but he defended Clemens and Pettite back in the day.
Also defended skaggs and lost. Tried to sue angels but found no evidence of wrong doing outside of the one dude who went to jail.
It’s obviously possible that Watson is guilty of one or more of these charges.
It’s obviously possible that it’s a money grab, coordinated or otherwise, on the part of the accusers.
One rotten aspect of this is that even if Watson is completely innocent… he loses.
Sounds like it may be an “unhappy ending” for Deshaun.
I’m not referring to this case in particular…just some defense attorneys in this world.
Has anyone ever heard a defense attorney say anything like “my client is probably guilty…all of the evidence points that way. He’s not a very nice person and I’m embarrassed to represent him”?
Of course not…every defense attorney claims their clients are “innocent, misunderstood, framed, and the evidence will show that. All eyewitnesses and victims are liars”. I mean…I know a guy has to make money, but how do some of these people sleep at night? Especially when they KNOW their client is guilty of horrible crimes and they try to get them off on technicalities to let criminals back into society??
I commend the ones that have a conscience and defend legitimately innocent people or protect people from wrongful prosecution, but man there are some dirtbags among them that’ll sell their soul for a dime. I guess I’ve been watching the ID channel a little too much lately LOL
Your point stands, this case’s particulars aside. Of course, a defense attourney who believes that his/her client is guilty has really very few meaningful options. Again, this is a general statement and not meant to reflect the particulars of this case…. after all, it’s not like prosecutors or plaintiffs’ attourneys are too much different.
If Buzbee is behind it, don’t believe a single word of it.
Texas is such a crap place.