UPDATE: A Grand Jury in Houston ruled that none of the 22 filed lawsuits met the test of rising to a criminal level. In other words, the Grand Jury found that Deshawn Watson did nothing wrong. The mainstream press, not inclined to study, does not understand that such an outcome is rare: Grand Jury events normally result in convictions. The outcome supports this blogger’s assertion that the lawsuits were fake, from the start. Also, a number of people in the Houston Law Enforcement community agree with me.
Tony Buzbee, the famed Houston Super Lawyer, has acted cavalierly in filing 22 lawsuits against Houston Texans Quarterback Deshawn Watson. Each of the lawsuits contains variations of a claim of sexual harassment, but leave out a number of important details that, upon inspection, stress their credibility to the breaking point. From the point of view of this blogger who was once one-step from law school at the behest of Oakland lawyer friends who said I was “already a lawyer and just needed the paper-work”, most of the Buzbee Lawsuits on Deshaun Watson are fake, and the ones that are not are suspect in many ways.
The definition of “cesspool” applies to Tony Buzbee’s Deshawn Watson lawsuits. According to the Meriram Webster Dictionary is: 1 : an underground reservoir for liquid waste (such as household sewage) 2 : a filthy, evil, or corrupt place or state a cesspool of corruption.
In at least three of the civil lawsuits filed where dates of alleged events occurred, the information pointed to violations of state-sanctioned COVID-19 rules against business operation. In addition, a number of cases had no specific day and date of occurrence, bringing into question the very validity of those lawsuits.
Now, it’s important to believe a woman’s claims in these matters, but also with America’s racist history of telling lies against black men, it’s equally important to investigate those allegations and with detailed analysis, before reaching a conclusion.
The Sad Legacy Of Emmitt Till Comes Into Play With The Tony Buzbee Deshaun Watson Lawsuits
Not believing black men and being racist towards black men has produced the 1955 murder of young Emmitt Till. In that case, the 14 year old boy was beaten to death by the husband of 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant. Bryant told her husband that the boy Till whistled at her, then. The violence led to an all-white jury trial, where her husband and the other white men involved were acquitted. But later, in 2007, in a book called The Blood of Emmett Till (Simon & Schuster, Ms. Bryant, then 72-year-old, confessed that she had fabricated the most sensational part of her testimony – the claim that Till whistled at her.
While a 14-year-old boy making a pass at a woman should not yield any kind of punishment, the level of mental illness that is racism was so great in 1955, that Till was not only killed, white-owned newspapers of the day came to the defense of his killers!
Fast forward to 2020, and Amy Cooper’s now well-known attempt to make a false police report against Chris Cooper in New York’s Central Park. His cell phone camera filming the entire moment she was telling lies to the 9-11 dispatcher saved him from what could have been a false arrest, and perhaps the same kind of harm that other black men (Eric Garner for example) have faced at the hands of police in New York City.
And then there’s Fred Lane, Jr. The running back for the Carolina Panthers was killed by his wife Dedre, but claimed domestic violence. Police investigated and found that she not only lied about Fred Jr., but also robbed a bank and did not want him to tell law enforcement. She had invented a scheme to try and take his insurance money. She wound up serving seven years in jail. Fred Jr was my cousin. The last time I talked with him was in early 1999, when I was assigned to make Oakland’s bid to host the 2005 Super Bowl. Dedre Lane should still be behind bars as far as I am concerned.
On top of that heinous act, Dedre Lane robbed a bank in 2003.
I can go on, but the reader must see that it’s important to investigate a claim, regardless of the politics or the political climate of the day. Guilt or innocence can’t be the children of heresay – even as far too many black men have received death because of that dynamic. The only way to stop lies is into investigate claims. Thus.
The Tony Buzbee lawsuits involving Ashley Solis and the Texas April 15th 2020 massage therapist, and then the Los Angeles July 15th 2020 massage therapist, were done at times when it was not legal to operate a massage business due to COVID-19 restrictions. The Ashley Solis date of March 30th, the Texas date of April 15th , and the California July 15th 2020 Los Angeles alleged event (10th lawsuit) are dates were where massage therapy operations were not considered essential services in Texas and California, and were forced to close. That Texas Governor executive order, filed on March 26th of 2020, referred to the very business of doing massage, regardless of the location in an office or at home.
Moreover, the order explained that it would last to April 3, 2020, and be removed only after consultation with the CDC. But it is clear from the records that the Texas Governor did not order the reopening of massage businesses after April 3, 2020, and would not do so until June 3, 2020.
The document called “Deshaun Watson Lawsuit 5” also has the same COVID-19 problem. The document claims that the encounter with him “took place at a spa in Houston” on June 2, 2020, but does not list the time of the meeting or even the name of the spa, itself. Moreover, it was not until June 3, 2020, that Texas Governor Abbott issued an executive order as part of the reopening process, and calling for social distancing and mask wearing to be practiced by massage businesses. The Texas Governor Greg Abbott had not issued any executive order to remove the March 26th Executive Order that prohibited the operation of massage businesses.
Given the gravity of the COVID-19 problem, it’s mind-boggling that a lawsuit regarding the operation of a type of business that was targeted for shutdown in many states, did not even mention that issue. It is equally mind-boggling that the Plaintiffs would fail to mention that they or Watson was masked or not. And if Watson was so bad from a COVID perspective, wouldn’t that complaint show up in the lawsuits against him, and especially in the California case (considering that State’s more stringent view of protections from COVID-19)?
That lawsuit logic problem may very well be because it was Tony Buzbee and The Buzbee Law Firm that crafted the lawsuit stories. Because they’re not in the massage business, it never once occurred to them to consider COVID-19 restrictions, and the chance that they may place their lawsuit claims in jeopardy just by the appearance of making up a story, rather than telling the truth.
And Where The COVID-19 Prohibition Issue Doesn’t Exist, Other Lawsuits Have Giant Credibility Problems
“Deshaun Watson Lawsuit 6” reports the alleged event happened twice in the lawsuit, then works to attack its own credibility. The lawsuit summary reads that Watson asked for treatment in October of 2020, then in November of 2020. But, incredibly, and on the same page of the lawsuit, it reads that Watson scheduled a massage for October 19th 2020, then reads the same encounter happened on October 19th 2020 – no specific times are provided for what was written as a “scheduled” meeting. That implies that times were recorded, but no time for Watson’s arrival was given in the lawsuit.
The same is true for the allegations that Watson “reached out” for a meeting via text “around” November 2 – but then fails to tell when Deshaun Watson really did come to the office, only that he came to the venue. How can the plaintiff assert the event really happened and say that it was “scheduled” but not provide specific times for the meeting, or tell what time he came in?
Indeed, a number of Tony Buzbee / Deshaun Watson lawsuits fail to list specific times of events:
Fully, 13 of the 22 lawsuits filed lack any specific times of events, and some of the lawsuits do not even bother to add specific days, just entire months. In other words, we are to believe that the event happened on some one day of an entire month, but the Plaintiffs can’t seem to remember the day. But the overall fact is that 60 percent of the lawsuits filed lack any attempt at event specificity, and yet we’re supposed to believe the Plaintiffs were licensed, professional massage therapists. You know, the kind that have schedules with dates and times and invoices.
For example, the document called “Deshaun Watson Lawsuit 18” does not list a specific dates, thereby opening themselves up to more credibility challenges. “Deshaun Watson Lawsuit 18” reads the massages by the licensed therapist (if there was one) occurred “sometime in 2020”, which makes it more possible than not that the sessions happened (if they really did) during periods when massage business activity was prohibited because of COVID-19.
“Deshaun Watson Lawsuit 17” does give a specific date and has times, but it is reported to have occurred at the Plaintiff’s mother’s home. Moreover, the Plaintiff writes that she’s a flight attendant, and not a professional, licensed massage therapist. Moreover, she claimed to have been a “massage therapy student” but also “owned her own business”. And does this mean her mother was there and met Mr Watson? That’s not stated. And it is fair to wonder if her mother knows she’s mentioned in this lawsuit?
There’s no given name of the business, or the business type. For example, is it an LLC or a c-corporation? Houston, Texas is known for hosting a giant number of illegally established “massage therapy” practices that are really just fronts for prostitution. And while the Texas legal focus has been to work to stop human trafficking, it completely misses the grey area, where the person has taken up sex work to make ends meet on her own, without any other associates.
On that note consider Deshaun Watson Lawsuit 13, where the Plaintiff states July 2020 as the general time that Watson and she “made contact” on Instagram but gives no dates or times of when they actually had the alleged session. It just goes right into the porn-level descriptions that some media organizations shamefully repeated in their so-called “coverage” of this matter. It’s very easy to just pick any one of the so-called 22 lawsuits and find enormous levels of misinformation in any one of them.
Deshaun Watson Lawsuit #3, 4, 5, 6 Are Total Lies Says Rusty Hardin
Houston TV Station KHOU wrote that Jane Doe 3, 4, 5, and 6 were all lies or outright extortion attempts:
Jane Doe #3 – Case No. 15613
The third lawsuit filed alleges sexual assault during a massage at a Houston office building in December 2020.
The woman said Watson “aggressively dictated” what he wanted and made it clear that he was a professional football player who could help or hurt her career.
She accused Watson of asking her to massage his genitals, then forcing her to perform oral sex.
According to the lawsuit, she felt intimidated and threatened and was afraid of what would happen if she resisted.
The woman said she blacked out from fear and now suffers from panic attacks, anxiety and depression.
Watson response: “Her business manager acknowledged to Mr. Watson’s marketing manager that the contact was consensual, but she still wanted money. Plaintiff claims in the lawsuit that she is “disgusted” by Mr. Watson. Yet, after her therapy session with him, she bragged to friends and family members about massaging Mr. Watson and told them that she thinks he is a kind person.”
“Plaintiff admittedly sought to “blackmail” Mr. Watson before she filed suit. She asked him to pay her $30,000 for “indefinite silence” because her encounter would be “embarrassing” if revealed. More importantly, when Mr. Watson’s marketing manager, Bryan Burney, asked her whether she was claiming that something happened against her will, she confirmed that everything that occurred was consensual. Finally, she told Mr. Burney that she wanted a copy of the NDA that she and Mr. Watson signed because she did not want people in her industry to know she had provided oral sex to her massage client.”
Jane Doe #4 – Case No. 15937
The lawsuit says Watson initially contacted the licensed esthetician’s boss, asked for a photo of the plaintiff and asked if he could give the plaintiff a massage.
During the first appointment in September, the woman said Watson became aroused and asked her what she was going to do about it.
She said she was afraid to complain because she didn’t want to risk her job or career.
During the next appointment in October, the woman said Watson told her she was wearing too many clothes, tried to kiss her and tried to put his penis in her hand.
She said she cut the session short and Watson became angry and left.
Watson response: “A security guard at the spa where Mr. Watson received a massage stated that plaintiff was happy and laughing after her interactions with Mr. Watson. She was excited about having worked on him and did not want any other therapist to work on him.
She claims she was “fearful” and felt “violated, terrified and disgusted” after her therapy sessions with Mr. Watson. “She does not explain why then, on more than one occasion, she messaged him after his football games to check in on him and asked to massage him again.”
Jane Doe #5 – Case No. 15938
The massage therapist said Watson was respectful at the beginning of the massage in October 2020. But she said he began moving in a “provocative manner” and exposed himself.
When Watson arrived for a second massage in November, she said he caught her off guard and kissed her, then asked her to focus on his buttocks and penis area.
She refused but said he moved in a way that his penis touched her hand.
The civil assault lawsuit alleges he offered to pay extra for a massage in that area and she refused, so he got angry and left.
Watson response: “In stark contrast to plaintiff’s statement that after the alleged incident she told Mr. Watson that she “would not work for him” and “has not been able to move on from these experiences,” she contacted Mr. Watson multiple times telling him that she was attracted to him and wanted to go out on dates with him.
Jane Doe #6 – Case No. 15943
This massage took place in September 2020 at a Houston salon where the woman rents a room, according to the civil assault lawsuit.
The woman alleges Watson asked if he could be naked and if it was OK if he became aroused, but she told him to cover himself.
She said he “continued to move his body in a way that would cause his penis to repeatedly touch the plaintiff’s hand.”
The woman said she was shocked and moved away, and then Watson ejaculated while lying on his back.
She said she stopped the session and left the room.
Tony Buzbee’s Deshaun Watson Lawsuits Read As More Fiction Than Fact
My investigation of all of the 22 lawsuits is ongoing at this time. But, again, the fact that none of the 22 Tony Buzbee lawsuit documents referred to COVID-19-related laws or and care to prepare the massage environment against COVID-19 transmission, and that most of the lawsuits fail to report a specific date and time and exact place of when an event happened, is alarming.
It is also bothersome that the lawsuits seem to try and establish the plaintiffs as professionals in business, with “scheduled” massages, but then fails to provide specific times when the meetings were set and Watston arrived. One can’t just brush this off as poor record keeping. No court of law will give plaintiffs a break here – especially if that would result in the an appearance of fraud in someone’s complaint. In other words, courts are not about the business off permitting plaintiffs to file sloppy lawsuits that amount to finger-pointing without any real evidence.
Moreover, the lawsuits appear to try and get around the motion to dismiss that should be filed because they claim that “no money is sought” (as in the case of Jane Doe 5 Lawsuit, to provide one example) but then, again, that is countered by the explanation that the plaintiffs is “damaged” by loss of revenue and seeks “relief”. Given that malady, alone, I believe the cases should be dismissed under Rule 91a – Dismissal of Baseless Causes of Action.
Rule 91a – Dismissal of Baseless Causes of Action reads as follows:
91a.1 Motion and Grounds. Except in a case brought under the Family Code or a case governed by Chapter 14 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a party may move to dismiss a cause of action on the grounds that it has no basis in law or fact. A cause of action has no basis in law if the allegations, taken as true, together with inferences reasonably drawn from them do not entitle the claimant to the relief sought. A cause of action has no basis in fact if no reasonable person could believe the facts pleaded.
The reader may wonder why Tony Buzbee has produced lawsuits that can be broadly described as vague? The answer would seem to appear in the fact that he’s used to filing class-action lawsuits, where keeping matters vague is a common standard. In “The Limits of Vague Pleading”, McGuire Woods reports that:
Class action practice provides plaintiffs with some odd pleading incentives. Two that cause continual problems are the need to keep things vague (in order to emphasize commonalities over any variations that may arise from more specific details) and the need to frame one’s complaint as broadly as possible to maximize the potential recovery in settlement negotiations.
The Tony Buzbee Lawsuits are rich in vague language, and copy / pasted scenes of alleged sexual behavior on the part of Watson. The lawsuits are shockingly simular in what they report, and look for all the world like Buzbee’s staffers just slapped together the same basic words for all of the lawsuits. In other words, it looks made up and sloppy at that.
Given the appearance of fake claims in the initial study of the Tony Buzbee Lawsuits against Houston Texans QB Deshaun Watson, and where it is evident that just moving to randomly evaluate a lawsuit’s claims leads constant basic data gaps that would normally be in place to prove a story actually happened, I have to share an early conclusion: these lawsuits were, for the most part, made up.
I assert Tony Buzbee’s organization, with a small group of people including a group of massage therapists that others have already identified , took a handful of Deshaun Watson encounters with women who may have been fronting as massage therapists to the general public, tried to make the few look like a lot, and altered the stories to make Watson look bad in the court of public opinion.
Why?
Because, in my view, the end objective clearly was that the Texans wanted to get back at Watson for making the organization look bad in public, and feared losing millions spent paying him if he was to successfully jump to another NFL team. Watson wanted to be traded because he believed the Texans went back on a promise he says the organization made to involve him in the process of the selection of a head coach.
To repeat, the Texans were looking like cads in the court of public opinion, and about to lose the star QB they just gave millions to. It’s very logical to assume the organization engineered the Tony Buzbee fake lawsuits because of the impact they’ve collectively had on Deshaun Watson. As of now, he’s stuck with a team he does not want to play for, and with some in the media, and the NFL itself, hanging the 22 questionable lawsuits over his head like some sword of Damocles that’s ready to drop in case the Texans do try and activate him.
Stay tuned.