Watson’s attorneys file denial of assaults
Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson’s legal team on Monday filed a denial of the 22 allegations of sexual assault and harassment, questioning the credibility of the women and contending that some of them were eager to give the football player praise after the massage therapy sessions in question.
The denial comes days after Watson’s attorney Rusty Hardin successfully pushed for the names of the women to become public, which he said would allow him to investigate and respond to the lawsuits. The Hous
ton Chronicle does not typically identify victims of alleged sexual assault or harassment.
Watson is accused of misconduct during massage sessions in 2020 and 2021 in Texas, California, Georgia and Arizona. Hardin, who has represented highprofile Houston athletes such as former Astros pitcher Roger Clemens, previously said that any sexual contact that occurred was consensual.
“These lawsuits are replete with mischaracterizations of Mr. Watson’s conduct,” Hardin said in the filing. “These range from being misleading, to fraudulent, to slanderous.”
Tony Buzbee, a Houston attorney known for his personality and multi-million dollar settlements, is representing the women. He has repeatedly stated the women are not suing Watson for his money and are instead seeking to stop bad behavior.
Buzbee on Monday released a statement and said Hardin could have chosen to address specific claims in the lawsuits but mostly attempted to discount the women.
“As fully anticipated and despite his lawyer’s previous statements, Deshaun Watson’s only defense is to call these brave women liars,” Buzbee said. “The weak and vague allegations made in defendant’s response are demonstrably false.”
Rose Luna, CEO of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, said the filing Monday highlights why women are hesitant to report or fear reporting their sexual assaults. One study in the National Library of Medicine found that false allegations are uncommon and occur at a rate of 2 percent to 10 percent.
“This kind of legal maneuvering is exactly why the criminal justice system can be so harmful to victims, why they fear reporting and pursuing justice,” Luna said. “The statistics on false reporting would support, not lead us to question, the credibility of these survivors.”
It’s unknown where Hardin found the claims in the filing, although he said his team was “discovering an avalanche of false accusations” since learning the women’s identities.
He did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
In his response to the lawsuits, Hardin said that several of the women bragged about massaging Watson or praised him after their sessions. Others offered to work with him again, and one said she was attracted to Watson and wanted to go on dates with him, the attorney said.
Hardin highlighted one line from a lawsuit where the first woman to accuse Watson, Ashley Solis, said Watson asked her if she was comfortable with certain areas his organization wanted him to get worked on. She took the comment as sexual innuendo, Hardin said, but others did not see it that way. Solis publicly identified herself during a news conference in early April.
“Innocent questions about whether the therapists were comfortable with the therapy Mr. Watson sought evolved into sexual inuendo that the plaintiffs used to bolster their claims for money,” Hardin said. “Ms. Solis’s skewed perception of Mr. Watson’s legitimate and innocent query became a prototype for the assembly line of similar allegations in subsequent lawsuits.”
Several of the women failed to disclose they had more sessions than what they said in their lawsuits, and some of them told others that they wanted to get money out of Watson, according to the filing. One woman’s business manager told Watson’s marketing manager that the sexual contact was consensual, Hardin said.
Many of the women have also deleted or altered their social media accounts, where some evidence might have been found, Hardin said.
Only two of the 22 lawsuits allege he forced any type of sexual activity, Hardin said.
Most of the women contend in the lawsuits that Watson exposed himself, moved his body so his penis would touch them and repeatedly asked for treatment around his groin and anus. Three plaintiffs allege that Watson either forced or coerced oral sex.