Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson faces at least 22 lawsuits from women accusing him of sexual assault. The allegations vary in the types of sexual assault alleged, but they seem to all involve massage therapists. This post explores Watson’s legal jeopardy.
In the 22 lawsuits against him, 22 women seek money damages. While you can seek an apology, generally courts don’t order apologies; they order monetary damages. That’s the American system. If you see an apology, that’s generally in the context of a legal settlement.
Since no one has publicly presented the evidence in support of these lawsuits, it’s hard to say whether Watson is going to end up owing these women significant amounts of money (not to mention face a substantial loss of earnings), or worse.
An interesting twist is that the Houston police department is investigating. Given that prosecutors would need significantly more evidence to succeed in a criminal case, as opposed to a civil matter, they will likely make credibility evaluations in determining whether to charge Watson. So if they don’t charge him due to “insufficient evidence”, that doesn’t mean he’s innocent or that the women won’t succeed in their lawsuits.
Because the 22 lawsuits and the criminal investigation have just begun, the real battle is a public relations one. Watson’s attorney’s comments appear designed to do two things: (1) keep Watson off the NFL Commissioner’s exempt list (a de facto suspension), and (2) to keep potential jurors from thinking he’s committed sexual assault.
To do that, Watson’s attorney has said at least one of these women “sought $100,000 in hush money.” $100,000 to stay quiet. Read more here: ESPN Story. They’ve also continued to assert his innocence. What they haven’t done is show evidence of how each of the 22 lawsuits lack merit. That could be telling since we’re dealing with 22 women. If the defense is these 22 lawsuits are trumped up by their same attorney, we haven’t seen any evidence of a conspiracy among these women, other than that they are all represented by the same law firm. Joint representation is commonly used to reduce attorneys’ fees and is generally not great evidence of a conspiracy.
Would 22 women file frivolous lawsuits, knowing their names would likely eventually be made public? Watson’s attorney says the matter will be solved in court. It’s actually more likely these lawsuits will be settled quietly, but we’ll all have to wait and see.