American footballer Deshaun Watson is due to be hit with a 24th lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct, less than a week after a previous case was filed.
Attorney Tony Buzbee told Cleveland.com that another massage therapist will be filing a civil suit on Monday, 6 June, following another of his clients – Nia Smith – filing the 23rd lawsuit against the Browns quarterback earlier this week.
The two new suits are the first Watson has faced since the first 22 were files in March and April last year.
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The latest was announced on the same day that Watson’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, backtracked on controversial comments made during a radio interview, in which he said that ‘happy endings’ are ‘not a crime’.
Speaking to Sean Pendergast and Seth Payne on SportsRadio 610, he had said: “I don’t know how many men are out there now that have had a massage that perhaps occasionally there was a happy ending… If that has happened, it’s not a crime, OK, unless you are paying somebody extra or so to give you some kind of sexual activity."
Hardin added: “Doing something or saying something or being a way that makes you uncomfortable is not a crime. And so we’ve had two grand juries find that, and nobody seems to want to listen.”
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After the comments went viral on social media, Hardin issued a statement on Friday evening, asserting that Watson ‘did nothing wrong’, saying: “As two grand juries have made clear, Deshaun did nothing illegal. Deshaun has always acknowledged consensual sexual activity with three of the plaintiff massage therapists after massages.
"And Deshaun has repeatedly sworn under oath that he did not force any of his accusers to have sexual contact.”
Hardin continued: “On a Houston radio show interview today, I mentioned that a massage that has a ‘happy ending’ is not illegal, meaning it is not illegal for someone to have consensual sex with a therapist after a massage unless the sex is for pay. Deshaun did not pay anyone for sex. I was using the term hypothetically and not describing Deshaun’s case.
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“I have reiterated to others it’s not ok to do anything that a woman does not agree to do. These women have alleged assault in their pleadings. I was speaking in a hypothetical situation.
"If there is a consensual sexual encounter after a massage, that is not a crime nor the basis for a civil lawsuit. I was not talking about what Deshaun did or did not do or expected or did not expect.’’
Jess Hardiman