Tony Buzbee's Deshaun Watson Lawsuit Case Text Messages Look Like Fake Evidence

The Tony Buzbee lawsuit, or lawsuits, where he claims up to 22 “Jane Doe’s” report sexual assault on the part of Houston Texans Quarterback Deshaun Watson, deserves more than the extra level of scrutiny because the famed, successful, personal injury lawyer is known to cut-corners in his presentation to, as he puts it, “just win.” Since Tony Buzzbee’s approach has led him to be accused of such things as making up client names, everything he presents in this case must be analyzed under one null hypothesis: it may not be real. I used that point of view in the matter of the alleged Deshaun Watson text messages.

Headlines popped up, and social media posts, claiming that, for example, “Deshaun Watson Alleged Texts Show QB Apologizing To Massage Therapist“. Do they, really? The news posts that appeared Friday March 19th, 2021, purport to show that Mr. Watson was, first, texting about how he liked his massage – that one had his avatar on the left side. Then, another so called text message screen shot seemed to show an apology, but hold everything. There’s no avatar or initials that commonly are seen with a text message screen. One can’t say, “Well, Mr. Buzbee was trying to protect Jane Doe,” because not even DW, which would be Deshaun Watson’s initials, are shown.

Here are the test messages:

This is the one Mr. Buzbee presented on his Instagram page on Thursday, March 18th, 2021. Note that it is not a true screenshot of an entire Instagram text message exchange. There’s no field at the top, at all – nothing is shown. If there was a field, given this pattern, it would have Watson’s name on it – this shows nothing. Basically, Tony Buzbee is asking us to take his word that the photo is a true exchange. But there’s no time stamp, no top or bottom that one normally sees. Like this:

..Or this:

Which brings up another point: the so-called Watson text message has no emojis in it. Mr. Watson is 25 years old – that makes him purely a millenial, and on the young side, at that. According to Kasasa, and Pew Research, millennials are 25 to 40 years old, currently. And the University Pompeu Fabra reports that Millennials use emojis more often in instant messaging than in other communicational contexts.

So, with all of that evidence, why do the so-called Deshaun Watson text message presented have no emojis? Given that there’s no real, conclusive evidence they do belong to the Houston Texans QB, my hypothesis is they’re not there because they were faked by The Buzbee Law Firm, and their senior partners are not millennial. Moreover, the firm is not in the communications business, so it does not think about common forms of exchange in instant messaging – like emojis.

Thus, what was The Buzbee Law Firm doing? My assertion is that the firm was trying to piece-together communications here and there to give the appearance that Mr. Watson made the texts. My assertion is that it’s as if the firm was not happy that what “evidence” it has fit its claims, and so had to, in football parlance, move the goal posts.

The Buzzbee Law Firm Promised “Multiple” Text Messages, But Provided One More

In his Thursday March 18th Instagram Post, Tony Buzzbee said that they would provide “multiple” text messages. But, when Friday came, they only offered up the one where supposedly Watson apologized.

Note, once again, this is not a full screen shot. We’re asked to believe Tony Buzbee that the screenshot is of an exchange where Watson writes what you see above. But one again, the screenshot removes any top area with Watson’s name, or the name of the other person in a redacted fashion. We do get a thumbs up, and not from Watson.

And then lets’ take this other beauty of an example from Tony Buzbee – the one from the “Detective”.

Detective Not HPD - Watson Case — Detective Not HPD – Watson Case

Tony Buzbee said that this was from a “Detective” and then used a word salad to imply that the “Detective” represented the Houston Police Department. The Houston Police Department issued an embarrassing Twitter tweet which read as follows:

At this time, HPD is unaware of any contact between HPD and Houston attorney Tony Buzbee regarding the allegations contained in his recently filed lawsuits and no incident reports regarding these allegations have been filed in our jurisdiction.

At this time, HPD is unaware of any contact between HPD and Houston attorney Tony Buzbee regarding the allegations contained in his recently filed lawsuits and no incident reports regarding these allegations have been filed in our jurisdiction.

— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) March 19, 2021

Ouch.

In other words, the Houston Police Department went out of its way to denounce Tony Buzbee’s claims that anyone representing the organization “reached out” to him. Moreover, in his own words, Tony back-tracked from the fakery by writing that the Houston Police Department was “technically” correct. It’s right there in black and white.

Wowsers.

Tony Buzbee Has Faked A Text Message At Least Once Before: In His Run Against Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner

UPDATE: Here’s proof that Mr. Buzbee has some experience in claiming that a text message existed that he, himself, did not have for public view:

Mayor Turner calls For Criminal Investigation Of Tony Buzbee’s Attack Ad – By Ivory Hecker
Published October 17, 2019 News FOX 26 Houston

HOUSTON – Mayor Sylvester Turner is calling for a criminal investigation of mayoral candidate Tony Buzbee, saying he broke the law in an ad he released last week. Turner claims Buzbee violated Texas’ new “deep fake video” law when he realized his video ad criticizing the mayor over his highly paid airport intern.

The Turner campaign says the ad is illegal due to the iMessage screenshot and the photo of Mayor Turner and Marvin Agumagu.

“For one thing it purports to show a phone with a text message allegedly from Mr. Agumagu to the mayor, and our forensic experts said very likely it’s just an artistic rendering, but they’re presenting it as: This is the mayor. This is the text message from this young man, which they obviously don’t have,” said Sue Davis, a Turner campaign spokesperson.

Tony Buzbee confirms the screenshot with the airport intern’s name and photo at the top is an artistic rendering.

“Well, it doesn’t show the text message. It’ just demonstrates that there was a text message,” Buzbee said.

“So you created that graphic?” we asked.

“Well I didn’t, but the ad people just to demonstrate there is a text, and there is a text,” he said.

Buzbee says the mayor’s cell phone records show the mayor texted Agumagu at 10:59 p.m. on a Sunday in January 2018. This was before the internship was created in a hiring freeze when the mayor said the city couldn’t afford to give firefighters a raise.

“They were exchanging texts late at night. Why?” Buzbee asked.

The Turner campaign spokesperson shows a side by side of an original photo with the mayor and the intern, as well as what appears to be an altered photo of the mayor that appears in the ad.

“He’s taken his nose and widened it at the bridge and widened it here. He’s doctored a photo,” Davis said.

In other words, in running for Mayor of Houston against Mayor Turner in 2019, Mr. Buzbee had no problem with presenting what he thought a text message had in it, even though he never saw it. In the process, he created an alternative story to suit his objectives. Buzbee has not produced evidence of a real text message he has in his possession in the matter of Houston Texans Quarterback Deshaun Watson.

Moreover, Mr. Buzbee is on record as making Mr. Turner’s nose larger. The reason, many guess, has to do with race, as the Houston Fox 26 article points to.

The Houston Super Lawyer also presented a text message that he tried to present as if it came from the Houston Police Department, or showed that Houston Police Department knew about the the Deshaun Watson matter, when it did not.

Faking Text Messages Is A Common Problem Today – And Common In Legal Cases

It’s clear to this blogger that the text messages so brainlessly lauded by so many were manufactured by the Buzzbee Law Firm. Moreover, according to Jim Vaughn in “Text Message Screenshots: Real Or Fake?”, a blog post for iDiscovery Solutions, faking text message screenshots in preparing evidence for case, like this Deshaun Watson Lawsuit, is all too common and problem. Here’s what Mr. Vaughn wrote on August 1, 2019:

Fake news, false identities, and phony emails – in today’s digital world, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to detect fact from fiction.

For lawyers and investigators, discerning what’s real when dealing with digital evidence is more difficult than ever. This is due, in part, to how easy it is to create fake evidence.

Specifically, a rise in fake text message apps makes it almost effortless to falsify all types of instant mobile communications – iMessage, SMS, MMS, and chat. Nearly every aspect of the text message can be fabricated, including the sender and recipient, time stamp, and delivery status.

With the click of a button, the imposter can download an image that looks like a genuine text message, making it nearly impossible for an untrained eye to notice the difference between a real chat and a fake.

Uncovering Fake Evidence In Litigation And Investigations

In litigation and investigations, fake texts can wreak havoc. This is not to say that you should assume screenshots of text messages are fake, but diligence is recommended. Consider these scenarios:

Hostile Work Environment – An employee claims that a co-worker made unwelcome comments, and he or she provides HR with screenshots of text messages allegedly proving the accusations. The HR team member notices that on the screenshot, the wireless carrier is not capitalized (“verizon” instead of “Verizon”).
Trade Secret Theft – Two members of the sales team give their resignations. One of their former colleagues discloses a series of text messages implicating that the former salespeople stole trade secrets and confidential information days before leaving the company. The manager of the sales team observes that the text message bubbles are gray and black (even though they were disclosed as color printouts), which seems out of place from traditional messaging color schemes.
Child Custody – One parent produces text messages proving the other parent’s lack of involvement in the child’s life, including failure to pick up the child at arranged times or provide financial support for the child. The family court officer receiving the screenshots detects that the date and time stamp on the text messages is in the future, instead of in the past.

In each of these situations, the veracity of the text messages is critical to the legitimacy of the claims. The HR professionals, attorneys, and court officials involved in these circumstances – and other matters with similar scenarios – should not accept the communications at face value. Rather, a properly trained forensics examiner should be consulted to confirm the authenticity of the text messages.

One can even make a fake text iMessage using an online app like this one: click here.

Deshaun Watson’s Legal Team Should Bring In A Properly Trained Forensics Examiner, But Anyone With Digital Communications Experience Can See The Buzzbee Law Firm Faked The Messages

This calls into question the entire Buzzbee Law Firm case against Deshaun Watson, and I wonder if Tony is really creating the legal version of social media bots, and calls then “Jane Doe” and then believes he can cough up a six-figure payment from the Texans Quarterback.

This finding also calls into question the media today. The so-called mainstream media has served as a kind of echo chamber for Mr. Buzzbee, failing to really look at his claims, and believing his words without challenge.

In closing, this is a disappointing look for a man who’s success has, more often than not, benefited the Houston community. But Tony also has a nasty track record of going after successful black men: Texas A&M Coach Kevin Sumlin, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and now Houston Texans QB Deshaun Watson.

But what it looks like Tony Buzzbee is doing must stop: having the appearance of making fake text messages is one more bit of evidence that the very underpining of our democracy – clear communication – is being warped for power and money.

Stay tuned.