Texans' Deshaun Watson accused of indecent conduct in civil lawsuit; QB denies wrongdoing

[Eastport bills]

Watson and his attorney have miscalculated his defense badly. They had a chance to settle with the creepy Tony Busbee and start the rehabilitation process, but Hardin decided to play hardball. Watson is a sexual predator who would be ruined or facing jail time if he wasn't a star QB, but  now will be dragged through countless embarrassing court proceedings until his jackass lawyer swallows his pride and settles for much more money than Busbee originally wanted. The tarnished rep will do irreparable harm to degenerate Watson, because advocate groups in any city he goes to will hold ownership hostage for signing him. To all the Watson groupies who compared this morally reprehensible creep to JA17, leadership is displayed on and off the field. 

 

[BillsFan4]

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/houston/2021/04/14/395798/20-deshaun-watson-accusers-named-one-woman-drops-lawsuit/
 

Quote

Another woman filed a lawsuit accusing Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson of sexual assault on Wednesday — the same day the names of 20 additional women were made public after Harris County judges ordered their lawyer to amend several lawsuits.

 

One woman dropped her lawsuit, citing privacy and security concerns, according to court documents. One woman remains unidentified in court documents. A hearing on that case was canceled Wednesday afternoon.

 

There are now 21 women accusing Watson of sexual assault in separate suits.

 

[wppete]

2 hours ago, Eastport bills said:

Watson and his attorney have miscalculated his defense badly. They had a chance to settle with the creepy Tony Busbee and start the rehabilitation process, but Hardin decided to play hardball. Watson is a sexual predator who would be ruined or facing jail time if he wasn't a star QB, but  now will be dragged through countless embarrassing court proceedings until his jackass lawyer swallows his pride and settles for much more money than Busbee originally wanted. The tarnished rep will do irreparable harm to degenerate Watson, because advocate groups in any city he goes to will hold ownership hostage for signing him. To all the Watson groupies who compared this morally reprehensible creep to JA17, leadership is displayed on and off the field. 

 

And all along Deshaun loses sponsor $$$, will end up paying his victims millions $$$ and Rusty Hardin is probably billing him millions $$$ also... I’m sure Texans will come after that signing bonus from last year. I predict Deshaun ends up in Prison and broke... IMHO

[Eastport bills]

7 minutes ago, wppete said:

And all along Deshaun loses sponsor $$$, will end up paying his victims millions $$$ and Rusty Hardin is probably billing him millions $$$ also... I’m sure Texans will come after that signing bonus from last year. I predict Deshaun ends up in Prison and broke... IMHO

I don't know if they can get a Houston jury to lock him up. You know me or you, for similar crimes would be wearing orange for the foreseeable future and women abusers don't do well on the inside. 

[Mr. WEO]

7 minutes ago, Eastport bills said:

I don't know if they can get a Houston jury to lock him up. You know me or you, for similar crimes would be wearing orange for the foreseeable future and women abusers don't do well on the inside. 

 

Good point.  I'm sure potential jurors in Houston were very sympathetic to Watson before this story broke......

[BuffaloBills1998]

They confirmed that 21 women are going to reveal their identities and will be moving forward on the lawsuits. 
 

just my opinion but I think Watson is done. I can see a scenario where he gets blacklisted from the NFL and will probably sue the NFL. Wouldn’t surprise me the least bit of that happens

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/21-women-to-surrender-anonymity-and-move-forward-with-civil-suits-against-deshaun-watson-231130312.html

Edited April 15, 2021 by BuffaloBills1998

[mannc]

2 hours ago, BuffaloBills1998 said:

They confirmed that 21 women are going to reveal their identities and will be moving forward on the lawsuits. 
 

just my opinion but I think Watson is done. I can see a scenario where he gets blacklisted from the NFL and will probably sue the NFL. Wouldn’t surprise me the least bit of that happens

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/21-women-to-surrender-anonymity-and-move-forward-with-civil-suits-against-deshaun-watson-231130312.html

Anyone who thinks he’ll be taking the field any time soon is delusional.

[YoloinOhio]

 

[YoloinOhio]

“Watson, through his lawyers, contends that: (1) eight of the plaintiffs “bragged about, praised and were excited about massaging” Watson; (2) seven of the plaintiffs “willingly worked or offered to work” with Watson “after their alleged incidents”; (3) three plaintiffs “lied about the number of sessions they actually had” with Watson; (4) five plaintiffs “lied about their alleged trauma and resulting harm”; (4) five plaintiffs “told others they want to get money out of” Watson; and (5) five plaintiffs have “scrubbed or entirely deleted their social media accounts.”

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/04/19/deshaun-watsons-first-official-response-calls-the-lawsuits-against-him-a-money-grab/

[GunnerBill]

38 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

“Watson, through his lawyers, contends that: (1) eight of the plaintiffs “bragged about, praised and were excited about massaging” Watson; (2) seven of the plaintiffs “willingly worked or offered to work” with Watson “after their alleged incidents”; (3) three plaintiffs “lied about the number of sessions they actually had” with Watson; (4) five plaintiffs “lied about their alleged trauma and resulting harm”; (4) five plaintiffs “told others they want to get money out of” Watson; and (5) five plaintiffs have “scrubbed or entirely deleted their social media accounts.”

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/04/19/deshaun-watsons-first-official-response-calls-the-lawsuits-against-him-a-money-grab/

 

(5) is interesting to me in particular. We had a spate of rape and sexual assualt trials (criminal trials) collapse completely in the UK a few years ago because accusers had attempted to wipe their social media and then historic correspondence was found that cast serious doubt on the allegation that the activity was non-consensual. If the assertion from the Watson side is true I would be suspicious of the five plaintiffs in that category and the likelihood of their cases standing up.

 

(1) to (4) however are pretty flimsy as defenses go! 

[Albany,n.y.]

On 4/14/2021 at 7:34 PM, YoloinOhio said:

A makeup artist? He really got creative 

Watson's defense: "I thought she told me she is a makeout artist." 

[mannc]

28 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

(5) is interesting to me in particular. We had a spate of rape and sexual assualt trials (criminal trials) collapse completely in the UK a few years ago because accusers had attempted to wipe their social media and then historic correspondence was found that cast serious doubt on the allegation that the activity was non-consensual. If the assertion from the Watson side is true I would be suspicious of the five plaintiffs in that category and the likelihood of their cases standing up.

 

(1) to (4) however are pretty flimsy as defenses go! 

I agree, but it’s not clear what is meant by scrubbed.  And if they just made their accounts private, that would not be a problem.  I don’t know how Watson’s team could know at this point whether the accounts have been scrubbed or deleted...

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

(5) is interesting to me in particular. We had a spate of rape and sexual assualt trials (criminal trials) collapse completely in the UK a few years ago because accusers had attempted to wipe their social media and then historic correspondence was found that cast serious doubt on the allegation that the activity was non-consensual. If the assertion from the Watson side is true I would be suspicious of the five plaintiffs in that category and the likelihood of their cases standing up.

 

(1) to (4) however are pretty flimsy as defenses go! 

 

On the other hand, women involved in legal actions against famous men are routinely subject to truly horrifying attacks from the general public on social media, and it's not enough to just deactivate the account; any clues left in there can lead to family being doxxed and harassed.  Because of this, deleting or scrubbing a social media account should not be interpreted as casting doubt on a story.

 

Then, even if they aren't worried about being doxxed or attacked, there's the point that defense attorneys in sexual assault cases routinely attack the behavior and character of the plaintiff and would be happy to use evidence from their social media to do so.

 

To me, (2) is the most interesting - if someone is seriously upset or traumatized by the behavior of a client, I would think they would decline future bookings with that client.  The caveat is if, like the massage therapist interviewed in SI, they put some kind of caveat in their future willingness as she said she did "if you behave more professionally" and clarified the services they provide, ie "only do massage".

 

[mannc]

3 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

On the other hand, women involved in legal actions against famous men are routinely subject to truly horrifying attacks from the general public on social media, and it's not enough to just deactivate the account; any clues left in there can lead to family being doxxed and harassed.  Because of this, deleting or scrubbing a social media account should not be interpreted as casting doubt on a story.

Making a social media account private is one thing.  But I can tell you that if you are a plaintiff in a case like this, scrubbing or deleting things from your social media account--especially content that might be relevant to the case--can lead to very serious legal consequences, including dismissal of the case.  It doesn't matter how afraid you might be of doxxing or harassment.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 minutes ago, mannc said:

Making a social media account private is one thing.  But I can tell you that if you are a plaintiff in a case like this, scrubbing or deleting things from your social media account--especially content that might be relevant to the case--can lead to very serious legal consequences, including dismissal of the case.  It doesn't matter how afraid you might be of doxxing or harassment.

 

Say more about this, please.  Because I don't think there's a requirement to put your friends and family in the line of harassment, and as I understand it a lot of the social media favored by the current generation has a time limit on how long stuff stays around anyway.

 

[GunnerBill]

5 minutes ago, mannc said:

Making a social media account private is one thing.  But I can tell you that if you are a plaintiff in a case like this, scrubbing or deleting things from your social media account--especially content that might be relevant to the case--can lead to very serious legal consequences, including dismissal of the case.  It doesn't matter how afraid you might be of doxxing or harassment.

 

Agree, and it happened here. We had to change the Crown Prosecution Service guidelines about how they should approach social media accounts in such cases. 

 

EDIT: To the extent, I should say, that there is currently a debate about whether prosecutors have gone too far the other way in the UK and are risk averse to bringing cases. The point is, and I have made it before, the criminal standard is such that all the defense needs to do is create doubt. And in these sorts of cases where there is no physical evidence, and no witnesses, a social media message that casts any doubt on the assertion that the encounter was non-consensual is in itself a problem. If the accuser has then attempted to get rid of that message even if just part of an indiscriminate scrub it is basically curtains. We had cases thrown out of court halfway through trials, wasting millions of pounds of taxpayer money. 

 

These cases against Watson remain, at this stage, civil. That means the standard is lower but the likely impact of an attempted scrub that reveals a message that could be interpreted in a certain way is still very damaging to that plaintiff's chances of success. If the assertion Watson's team have made is true I would advise the Buzbee to drop those 5 cases from his claim. They are much more likely to hurt him than help him in court. 

Edited April 19, 2021 by GunnerBill

[Numark3]

36 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Say more about this, please.  Because I don't think there's a requirement to put your friends and family in the line of harassment, and as I understand it a lot of the social media favored by the current generation has a time limit on how long stuff stays around anyway.

 

The general rule is once you know litigation is a possibility, you have to preserve all possible evidence.  So it depends on when they scrubbed social media history, and it what extent it constitutes evidence.  
 

 

[mannc]

59 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Say more about this, please.  Because I don't think there's a requirement to put your friends and family in the line of harassment, and as I understand it a lot of the social media favored by the current generation has a time limit on how long stuff stays around anyway.

 

In cases like this, it is standard procedure for the defense to request view only access to ALL of the plaintiff's social media accounts.  The stuff a plaintiff posts there is every bit as admissible as her emails and other communications.  As to family and friends, that can be dealt with by redacting content or names that are considered irrelevant (although that can be tricky) and/or by entry of a confidentiality order that prohibits public disclosure or other uses of the information that's turned over.  If someone's family or friends were being harassed by the defense team, that would be brought to the judge's attention and dealt with swiftly and severely.  It's also helpful to remember that the plaintiffs will probably be provided access to all of Watson's social media content, as well.  

 

From what I understand, you're right; stuff like Snapchat disappears quickly, if not immediately.  Not much they can do about that, unless the content could be obtained by subpoenaing the social media company.  (Not sure if that's possible.)

 

[GunnerBill]

28 minutes ago, mannc said:

 

From what I understand, you're right; stuff like Snapchat disappears quickly, if not immediately.  Not much they can do about that, unless the content could be obtained by subpoenaing the social media company.  (Not sure if that's possible.)

 

 

Depends on the tech. End to end encryption apps like Whatsapp you can't hack into the back way through the company. Not sure how snapchat works. 

[YoloinOhio]