Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson told journalists Wednesday he didn’t know he was going to be sued Monday, but the plaintiff’s attorney, Tony Buzbee, said he reached out to Watson’s attorneys 10 months ago to discuss a possible settlement.
The discrepancy between those timelines suggests either Watson or Buzbee is lying, or that, curiously, Watson hasn’t been kept in the loop about pending lawsuits.
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As Sportico detailed, the latest complaint accuses Watson of sexual assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe, the plaintiff says Watson assaulted her in her Harris County, Texas, apartment in October 2020. Watson and his lead attorney, Rusty Hardin, deny all of the allegations. Hardin released a statement Wednesday predicting his client would be vindicated as the plaintiff’s allegations are scrutinized through the legal process.
Watson, who has settled 23 of 24 sexual misconduct cases brought by massage therapists, said he “found out” about the allegations “exactly whenever everyone else found out.” Watson therefore claims he wasn’t on notice that he would be sued.
But Buzbee seemingly contradicted that account by saying “we reached out to attorney Rusty Hardin’s office for 10 months in an attempt to resolve this case” and that his client, Jane Doe, “wanted to attempt a private resolution.” Buzbee claims Watson’s attorneys “couldn’t or wouldn’t give this case the attention it was due” and that it is now “too little, too late” for Hardin to reach out.
A complaint is typically filed only after the plaintiff attempts, and fails, to privately resolve the matter with the defendant through a settlement. There are often weeks or months of settlement talks, which ordinarily begin with the plaintiff’s attorney sending a letter to the defendant’s attorney with demands for money or a change in activity (or both).
Even if a defendant believes they’ve done nothing wrong, they might be amenable to a settlement to avoid both the risk of litigation, which they could lose, and—especially important for celebrities—the public spectacle of court proceedings where they’d face reputation-damaging allegations. A defendant’s insurance company, which is mindful of risk, litigation costs and the prospect of having to pay a civil judgment, also sometimes urges a defendant to settle and, depending on the wording of an insurance policy, can effectively take control of the litigation.
Watson has no shortage of reasons to avoid being sued for sexual misconduct, which makes the prospect he wasn’t made aware by his attorneys of Jane Doe’s demand especially perplexing.
In 2022, the NFL suspended Watson for 11 games and obligated him to pay a $5 million fine for conduct detrimental to the league related to allegations of sexual misconduct with massage therapists. The penalty was the result of a negotiated settlement between the NFL and NFLPA following a decision by neutral hearing officer Sue Robinson that Watson engaged in “predatory conduct.”
Watson might genuinely believe Jane Doe’s lawsuit is frivolous and an opportunistic shakedown. Even so, the quarterback would have an incentive to avoid facing the specter of yet another lawsuit where he is accused of sexual misconduct.
To that point, Watson would presumably want to at least weigh the upside of settling the case before it became a lawsuit—and thus a public controversy. The allegation, now public as a result of the complaint being filed, will lead to a new NFL investigation. The NFL will explore the possibility that a player whom the league previously concluded had engaged in multiple instances of sexual misconduct engaged in yet another instance of it. That is not a good set of factors for Watson. Should the NFL deem Watson a repeat offender of the personal conduct policy, he could face an especially lengthy suspension.
In addition to the prospect of a new NFL investigation, Watson has a $230 million guaranteed contract to protect from the reach of new allegations.
Watson’s contract is a private document, but Sports Illustrated says it obtained the agreement and shared some of the provisions. The Browns could deem Watson in default if the team or NFL suspends him for conduct detrimental, if he’s found to have engaged in conduct that reflects poorly on the Browns or if he failed to reveal conduct that could lead him to face a criminal charge or become unavailable.
Watson has not been charged with a crime and there’s no indication the new allegation will lead to a charge, but the prospect of him being deemed to have engaged in conduct detrimental is within the realm of realistic possibilities. That is why avoiding a lawsuit, and the triggering of an NFL investigation, is so important. For Watson (based on what he told the media) to not have the chance to consider a pre-litigation settlement is hard to imagine.
Don’t expect a swift resolution, unless Watson and the accuser work out a settlement that includes confidentiality provisions. Litigation is slow moving and NFL investigations can take many months or longer. Should the Browns eventually attempt to void Watson’s contract, the NFLPA would aggressively fight on Watson’s behalf to protect that contract, with the union arguing the Browns lack the requisite evidence to invoke a termination clause. The dispute would likely work its way through mandatory arbitration long before it could ever wind up in court.
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