Deshaun Watson’s legal team is fighting back against the numerous allegations against him.
Now that most of the names of the accusers have been released, Watson’s defense team answered the allegations in court on Monday, claiming to have found numerous flaws in the suits.
“Since March 16, 2021, when the first of twenty-two lawsuits was filed against Deshaun Watson (“Mr. Watson”), he has been adamant that he did not engage in any of the improper conduct that has been alleged. At the same time, he and his defense team have insisted that they adamantly oppose, condemn, and disapprove of any type of sexual misconduct against women.
Legitimate claims should be reported to authorities, taken seriously, and their proponents treated respectfully. However, in the few days since Mr. Watson has learned the identity of his accusers, his legal team has already uncovered evidence that numerous allegations in this onslaught of cases are simply not true or accurate. For example:
- 8 plaintiffs bragged about, praised, or were excited about working with Watson after their sessions.
- 7 worked with or offered to work with Watson after their alleged incidents
- 3 lied about the number of sessions they had with Watson
- 3 lied about alleged trauma and resulting harm
- 5 told others they wanted to get money out of Watson
- 5 have scrubbed or deleted entirely their social media accounts
It was not until the plaintiffs saw an opportunity for a money grab that they changed their stories to convert therapy sessions they bragged about to friends and family to something much more nefarious.
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. For example, in the first lawsuit filed, Plaintiff Ashley Solis implies that Mr. Watson’s question—asking if she “was comfortable with certain areas [his) organization is making him get worked on” was somehow sexually suggestive.
That same question, however, posed to a therapist not seeking to exploit Mr. Watson, was perceived as it was intended: a legitimate therapeutic inquiry. 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.
These lawsuits are replete with mischaracterizations of Mr. Watson’s conduct. These range from being misleading, to fraudulent, to slanderous. Importantly, only two of the twenty-two lawsuits allege that Mr. Watson forced any type of sexual activity—an allegation Mr. Watson again vehemently denies.
