Deshaun Watson Settles Three of Four Remaining Lawsuits, per Report
Editors’ note: This story contains accounts of sexual assault. If you or someone you know is a survivor of sexual assault, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or at https://www.rainn.org.
Judge Sue L. Robinson has reportedly reached a decision to suspend Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson for six games, sources told MMQB‘s Albert Breer.
Ahead of Robinson’s decision Monday, Tony Buzbee told ESPN’s John Barr that the Browns quarterback has agreed to settle three of the four remaining civil lawsuits filed against him.
Twenty-five women filed civil lawsuits against Watson starting in March 2021, and only one dropped her case due to privacy concerns in April ’21. Watson, then, agreed to settle 20 of the 24 civil lawsuits in June ’22. Tony Buzbee, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, announced the news, saying the terms and amounts agreed to are confidential and “we won’t comment further on the settlements or those cases.”
With the latest set of settlements, there is only one outstanding civil suit remaining against Watson.
More than two dozen women have detailed graphic accounts of sexual harassment and sexual assault that occurred during massage therapy sessions. The accounts range from Watson allegedly refusing to cover his genitals to the quarterback “touching [a plaintiff] with his penis and trying to force her to perform oral sex on him.”
The quarterback has denied all allegations against him, and two Texas grand juries declined to indict him on criminal charges earlier this spring.
