After arguably one of his worst games as starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns, Deshaun Watson had a civil lawsuit filed against him on September 9th,2024, for sexual assault and battery. A few days later Watson’s attorney and the accuser’s attorney released public statements. This is a new allegation for Deshaun Watson, previously he was accused of sexual misconduct by over 20 massage therapists. This allegation is for a more serious charge than the previous allegations.  And it is a civil lawsuit not a criminal charge.

The alleged incident is reported to have happened in October of 2020 when Watson played for the Houston Texans. The lawsuit was filed in a court located in Houston Texas. The details of the incident that were filed in court documents, were made public this week, and are disturbing. Without going into too much detail of the report. It appears that this alleged incident was a crime.  Which leads to a question that is not being asked regarding this awful situation.

The plaintiff’s attorney Tony Buzbee is now stating that his client will interview with NFL investigators in 2 weeks. He also said that he has 2 witnesses along with a pertinent video. What that exactly means? I am not sure. But what he said brings up the question as to why the police were not involved? Did the alleged victim in fact go to the authorities? If so, what happened? Or why didn’t she do that sooner? I can understand that people deal with traumatic events differently. This issue really isn’t who is telling the truth here. The issue is what can be proven by evidence.

It is always recommended to a victim of a sexual assault to report to a medical facility to collect physical evidence. When time passes the evidence is lost. With 4 years passing, this case is going to be hard to prove or disprove by lack of physical evidence. There maybe witnesses and circumstantial evidence of the actual relationship between Watson and the plaintiff. That will be difficult to prove guilt of sexual assault in a court of law. But in the court of public opinion, sometimes evidence isn’t needed at all.