Deshaun Watson’s lawyer, Rusty Hardin, has revealed that a woman has dropped her civil lawsuit against the Texan defender, Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reported Tuesday.
“We believe we have names for 20 of the 22 lawsuits,” Hardin said. “We have one fired and we are looking for one (name)”.
The court document, however, says that “the complainant reserves the right to complete this case again once these concerns have been resolved” and says that the process has been dropped “for the time being” in light of privacy concerns.
Last week, in two separate hearings, State District Judge Dedra Davis accepted Hardin’s request to identify one of the 22 applicants. A second judge made the same decision in the cases of 12 other women on Friday afternoon. Later that day, lawyers reached an agreement to release a 14th name.
By Friday, only two women had been publicly identified.
Houston attorney Tony Buzbee released a statement Tuesday night saying his law firm will change all 22 lawsuits to reveal the names, “even those that are not the subject of a court order.”
In his statement, Buzbee stated that his law firm “had previously tried to provide the defense counsel with the names of the plaintiffs who sued Deshaun Watson and intends to do so in a timely manner”.
“We were concerned about the safety of these applicants and asked the Watson team to accept a protection order in which identities could be used in litigation but not passed on to the world.”
However, Hardin said in a statement last week that when his law firm asked Buzbee “to identify his clients a few weeks ago, he refused and told us to file a motion.”
“While I understand that anonymity is often used as a shield for victims, Mr. Buzbee uses it like a sword,” Hardin said in a statement Thursday. “While protecting his clients from public scrutiny, Mr Buzbee continues to use their anonymous allegations to destroy Mr Watson. It is simply not fair. And we look forward to resolving these issues in court.”
As of Tuesday evening, 11 trials had been amended to reveal the names of the applicants.
- March 30, 2020, at the applicant’s home in Texas
- April 19, 2020, at a spa in Houston
- June 2, 2020, at a spa in Houston
- July 15, 2020, at a house in Beverly Hills, California
- August 2, 2020, at a hotel in Houston
- August 28, 2020, at The Houstonian Hotel, Club and Spa
- September 24, 2020, to a room rented in a salon in Houston
- Multiple meetings between 9 September 2020 and October 2020, at a spa in Houston
- Two sessions, October 19 and around November 2, 2020, at the applicant’s office in Houston
- December 28, 2020, at an office building in Houston
- January 21, 2021, in Houston
The 22 civil lawsuits currently on the Harris District Clerk’s website, which were filed between March 16 and April 2, allege sexual harassment and assault during massage appointments in the past year, including one earlier in March.
The charges range from refusing to cover her genitals to forcing women to have oral sex.
In addition to civil lawsuits, the Houston Police Department released a statement on Friday (April 2) stating that someone submitted a report on Watson.