Deshaun Watson is facing new legal troubles after a woman accused him of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed against the Browns quarterback on Monday in Houston.
The suit was first reported by Pro Football Talk and it alleges sexual assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress against Watson.
The new accusations stem from a date Waston went on with the alleged victim, who is suing the Browns QB under the Jane Doe pseudonym, back on Oct. 10, 2020, and the suit makes several serious claims.
Watson faced more than 20 lawsuits over improper behavior with massage therapists in 2021 that have nearly all been settled.
The new allegations do have some similarities with previous accusations against Watson, but the alleged victim who filed the suit on Monday was not a massage therapist.
In the lawsuit, according to Pro Football Talk, she alleged that Watson started “aggressively yelling and screaming” at her over the phone after he was having a hard time finding her apartment.
The situation escalated when Watson arrived at the woman’s apartment and she tried to make conversation with him while she was getting ready for the date and Watson wasn’t responding to her as she spoke.
“Jane Doe came out of her bathroom to investigate Watson’s silence and shockingly found him completely naked on her bed, lying face-down on his stomach,” the lawsuit stated. “While Jane Doe stood there in shock, Watson turned his head and aggressively insisted that she massage him, gesturing to his buttocks. Jane Doe asked if Watson meant he wanted her to massage his back, but Watson indicated that it was his buttocks he wanted massaged.”
The lawsuit alleged that Jane Doe became “terrified” and that she tried to appease Watson “by rubbing his back, rather than his buttocks,” but he insisted that she focus “on his glutes.”
As the encounter escalated, Watson is alleged to have flipped over to reveal an erection.
“Watson continued to demand that Jane Doe massage him, gesturing from his knees to his groin,” the suit continued. “Jane Doe froze in fear, unsure of how to refuse Watson’s advances without jeopardizing her safety. Confused and scared, she reiterated to Watson that she wasn’t a masseuse. Watson asked her what she wanted to do instead.”
It was then, according to the suit, that Watson positioned the alleged victim so that she was lying down and he then “partially disrobed” Jane Doe.
Watson is alleged to have then “penetrated her vagina without consent, implicit or explicit” and the suit claims that he “roughly sexually assaulted” the alleged victim for “several minutes.”
Jane Doe was eventually able to break free of Watson and grabbed an item off her dresser for self-defense before screaming at Watson to leave her apartment, which he did.
The report did not indicate if there had been any police report filed by Jane Doe, who is being represented by Tony Buzbee the lawyer who had handled a number of the women who accused Watson of wrongdoing in 2021.
“This is an extremely serious matter,” Buzzbee said in a statement to WKYC in Cleveland. “We intend to pursue this case with the same aggressiveness with which we pursued the others. We want a jury trial. As far as any specific comments on the facts of the case, we believe the lawsuit speaks for itself.”
While a two-year statute of limitation for personal injury cases exists in Texas, there is a five-year span in cases that allege sexual assault.
The Browns have not publically commented on the new accusations.
Watson had been suspended by the NFL for 11 games in 2022 in connection with the 22 lawsuits he faced in 2021.
