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When news emerged last week that Brown quarterback Deshon Watson had reached an agreement in 20 of the 24 civil cases pending against him, many wondered if attorney Tony Busby would continue to fulfill his oath to sue the Texans for their alleged role in allowing of Watson’s alleged misconduct. The answer came in the form of the first case against the Texans, arising from the situation with Watson.
“Today we filed the first lawsuit about what is likely to happen a lot against the Texans from Houston, related to the behavior of Deshon Watson,” Busby said in a press release. Suffice it to say that the vast amount of evidence gathered that the Houston Texans allowed Watson’s behavior is incredibly humiliating. We believe the Texans knew or should have known about Watson’s behavior. We also believe that the submission speaks for itself. “
The lawsuit filed by He Garner against Houston NFL Holdings, LP, claims that Watson requested a massage from her in November 2020 via social media and that he brought with him a non-disclosure agreement provided by the Texans.
“During the massage session, Watson attacked and harassed the plaintiff by aggressively exposing his naked body in front of her, deliberately touching her with his penis and eventually ejaculating on her,” the petition said.
The petition alleges that Watson consistently refused to perform massages at the team’s facility and that he refused to use the services of the team’s chosen massage therapy provider, Genuine Touch. On page 2, the petition states that in June 2020, the owner of Genuine Touch “complained to Texans that Watson was looking for unqualified strangers for Instagram massages” and that “Watson was in danger of contracting Covid, or being sued. . “
The third-page petition accuses Texans of turning a blind eye to Watson’s behavior and that the team actually allowed it by providing the NDA, providing a room at The Houstonian where Watson was massaged, and giving him massage table to use for these sessions.
“Watson was a Texan employee in Houston; the people in the Texas organization knew or should have known about Watson’s behavior, “the petition said. Surprisingly, the fourth-page petition claims that many Genuine Touch employees knew that many Genuine Touch therapists had sex with Watson during massage sessions.
The Texans never investigated Watson, according to the petition. Instead, the Texans gave him a non-disclosure agreement that would protect him from random masseurs he hired through social media.
The lawsuit is intended to impose responsibility on Texans in various ways. It alleges that Watson acted within his employment when seeking these massages, making the team directly responsible for his behavior. (This is a very aggressive stance, as it is difficult to imagine how and why Watson did anything other than act in his own capacity in search of these massages.) It is also alleged that the Texans failed to prevent the ongoing Watson’s misconduct after the team learned or should have known he was involved in suspicious behavior. Finally, he alleges that the Texans and Watson were involved in a civil conspiracy that led to Watson’s alleged attacks.
The Texans issued the following statement on today’s development: “We are aware of the lawsuit filed against us today. From March 2021, we fully support and comply with law enforcement and various investigations. We will continue to take the necessary steps to respond to allegations against our organization. “
At the risk of reading too much in the statement, this is far from the NFL’s “baseless” response to any allegations against him. Given that Watson has already testified that the NDA comes from the Texans, the team can understand that there is a problem. The team’s ultimate defense may lie more in legal arguments (for example, it had no legal obligation to defend those alleged to have been ill-treated by Watson) than in factual ones.
However, the settlement of 20 cases, with four still remaining, should not be seen as a sign that the cases are closed. For Texans, they are just beginning. And for Watson, he may still be a witness in a number of lawsuits filed not against him but against his former team.
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