Damn.
Four more women have accused Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson of sexual assault.
The new lawsuits, all filed Thursday and made publicly available Friday morning, mean seven women total have alleged Watson assaulted or harassed them. All of them are massage therapists, work at spas or specialize in body conditioning and wellness. Many of them are single mothers.
Each of the allegations center around separate occasions in 2020, mostly involving Watson reaching out to the women via social media and asking for massage sessions, according to the litigation. In each suit, the women describe a situation in which Watson is almost completely in control, dictating their work and refusing to listen when he made them uncomfortable.
[…]
Watson has not commented on the claims since Tuesday, when he categorically denied disrespecting any woman and said he looked forward to clearing his name. He is being represented by Houston attorney Rusty Hardin, who has worked with other prominent Houston athletes such as former Astros pitcher Roger Clemens.
His agent, David Mulugheta, commented about the cases Friday on Twitter.
“Sexual assault is real. Victims should be heard, offenders prosecuted,” he said. “Individuals fabricate stories in pursuit of financial gain often. Their victims should be heard, and those offenders also prosecuted. I simply hope we keep this same energy with the truth.”
All of the women’s suits have been brought by Tony Buzbee, another well-known attorney and a former mayoral candidate.
See here for the background. As before, the story contains graphic details that I’d rather not reproduce here – go read the story for the rest, but be prepared, it’s quite ugly. There are more lawsuits coming, too. I don’t know what to think right now. The allegations are horrible, but Watson does have the right and the opportunity to address them and defend himself. Maybe one or more of these cases will end up with a verdict or a settlement, and maybe none of them will. At some point, we all have to make up our minds. I would much rather live in a world where none of this happened, but I don’t get to make that choice. The Press has more.
The Texans fumbled yet again. Trying to keep an unhappy superstar player who’s publicly announced he doesn’t want to play for you never works, and now this. I didn’t expect the Texans to know this would happen, but rather if the differences are irreconcilable, you ought to accept reality and make the best trade you can. Like the Rockets did (hopefully).
Andrew Cuomo should advise him. Cuomo used to be the best person in the country at handling a pandemic, until he had the most deaths of any state, some of them caused by him, and then the women keep coming out saying he harassed and assaulted them. But he is not going to resign or have any consequences. And I remember celebrities saying that he was doing everything a president should do. Now we know that he compares to President Clinton.
MORE LUCRATIVE BY THE DOZEN: ON DRUMMING UP BIZ
A tweet shared by J Scherer has it that a 13th civil lawsuit against Deshaun Watson is now on file with the Harris County district clerk. As relayed, “Attorney Tony Buzbee previously said he was representing at least 12 women against Watson and talking to another 10 about suing the Texans QB.”
Question raised: Is this sort of thing clever law firm marketing or the kind of promotion of professional services that pushes the boundaries of improper solicitation/barratry, with legitimate concerns of putting the legal profession in disrepute (even without humanoid pig-head commercials)
See Hogs-at-the-Trough Commercial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A756zyAzyk )?
In other words, do we need more tort and barratry reform, assuming this conduct is fully within the letter and spirit of the existing regime regulating the conduct of Texas attorneys? – Note that this would involve commercial speech, not political campaign speech.
What do you think, Paul Kubosh, from your angle and experience?
ALSO CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN
FROM A RESOURCE-CONSTRAINT PERSPECTIVE
Perhaps the Texas Lege should just pull out all stops and proactively even the playing field to facilitate me-too litigation across the board (by repealing the barratry statute) and provide for cases to be consolidated and assigned to a mass-tort/MDL judge. Sylvia Matthews perhaps.
SBOT could then inaugurate a Me-Too specialty section with suitable online audio-visual CLE programming.
OPPORTUNITY BECKONS
It arguably could, would, and should be a boon to the lawsuit industry in business-friendly Texas, and could be managed efficiently on the taxpayer-funded end by experienced legal talent, including well-seasoned jurisprudential experience recently rendered redundant by imprudent decisions on the part of hordes of poorly-informed metropolitan voters.
I dunno, I’m just not so sure about all this Watson jazz. Certainly I’m not in his position or income bracket, but I can’t imagine he’d be going to massage parlor workers for sex if he could afford $5K knock ‘em dead escorts for ..um…companionship. At some point it has to be quality over quantity. Fourteen gals ain’t gonna mean shit if they end up being ‘15 mins of fame’ media whores.