Attorney Tony Buzbee. who has filed numerous suits against Deshaun Watson accusing the star quarterback of sexual assault, has now backtracked on his original contention that he would be handing over evidence to the Houston Police Department.
Buzbee had the following to say in an Instagram post.
“Our team has been roundly criticized because these numerous brave women haven’t filed formal criminal complaints with HPD (although we have provided info to other organizations),” Buzbee posted. “Here is my worry. When I ran for Houston mayor against the CURRENT mayor, I called for the resignation of the former police chief. I was thus reluctant initially in these important cases to provide info to HPD, at least while Art Acevedo was the Police Chief — even though my brother-in-law is a long-term HPD officer. Mr. Acevedo has now left Houston for Miami.”
“Yet, I’ve since learned that my legal opponent, Mr. Hardin, has a son who is on of the exclusive Command Staff of HPD. I am not saying in any way that Deshaun Watson’s lawyer, Mr. Hardin, has a son who has a position that would compromise HPD and its investigation. I support his service, along with all Houston police officers — I think the rank and file know that. But, I am saying that me and my clients will go elsewhere to provide our evidence to investigative authorities. Stand by.”
“This is our legal team’s response to the hundreds of requests we have received at our Houston office for comment; even though we have an extensive staff, your inquiries are overwhelming! We will continue to conform our conduct to the ethical rules for lawyers in Texas. We take our obligations very seriously. We will say this once, and encourage those inquiring to pay attention to our public filings, rather than lawyer statements in the media. These Deshaun Watson cases continue to mount; we filed two more public cases today.”
This is not the first time that Buzbee has changed his tune regarding turning over evidence to law enforcement. He originally maintained that he would turn it over last week. However, that day came and went with nothing being turned over. Now he’s changing his story again.
The Texans also released their second statement since news of the first allegation broke on Tuesday.
“We’re certainly cognizant and aware,” he said. “We made a statement at the beginning about where the organization stood. I would say it’s a legal situation, it’s a legal process, so we’re certainly respectful of that,” Caserio said on the podcast. “We certainly take them very seriously. The allegations, what’s been discussed, are certainly troubling. And organizationally that’s not something that we can condone. But again, we’ll let the legal process take care of itself and however it’s going to unfold we’ll certainly comply and do what we can to help and facilitate a resolution for everybody.”