Houston Texans News & Rumors

On Monday, Deshaun Watson‘s legal team filed a written response to the lawsuits against him (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). The lengthy document denies all allegations of sexual misconduct.

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More than 20 women have filed civil lawsuits against Watson in recent weeks. Meanwhile, some of those women have contacted the authorities, raising the possibility of criminal charges. In his response, lawyer Rusty Hardin said that he wants a jury trial in order to give Watson a chance to clear his name.

Furthermore, Hardin claims that eight of the plaintiffs bragged about working with Watson while seven of the accusers “willingly worked” or “offered” to work with him after “their alleged incidents”. He also claims that some of the accusers “lied” about the number of times they worked with Watson and told others that they wanted to get money out of the NFL star.

“It was not until the plaintiffs saw an opportunity for a money grab that they changed their stories to convert therapy sessions they bragged about to friends and family to something much more nefarious,” Hardin wrote.

Meanwhile, Watson’s football future remains in flux. Last week, Texans GM Nick Caserio declined to comment on Watson’s status with the team.

“If you want to speculate, you should probably go buy Bitcoin,” Caserio said.

One of the civil suits against Watson was dropped earlier this month. However, another plaintiff came forward a few days later to bring the total count back to 22.

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.

One of the lawsuits against Deshaun Watson has been dismissed, according to attorney Rusty Hardin (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero). Of course, this was just one of 22 civil lawsuits that have been filed against the Texans quarterback, so he still has a long road ahead.

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Earlier this month, a judge ruled that more than half of Watson’s accusers would have to reveal their identities. Meanwhile, the lawyer for the opposing side said that all of the plaintiffs would do so.

“We believe we have names for 20 of the 22 lawsuits. We’ve got one dismissed and we’re looking for one [name],” Hardin said.

Hardin’s comments didn’t specify whether the dismissed case was settled, or if the accuser dropped the suit for other reasons. The plaintiff has since reached out to Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com (on Twitter), explaining that she has dropped her lawsuit “for now” “in light of privacy and security concerns.

“[The] plaintiff reserves the right to refile this case once such concerns are addressed,” the court document reads.

Watson is still facing 21 civil suits and the potential for criminal charges after one accuser — Ashley Solis — contacted Houston police. Hardin says that Solis, the first accuser to publicly identify herself, sought a $100K settlement before she filed suit.