After three years of pending lawsuits against dozens of women, Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson may be forced to testify once again in one of the last remaining sexual misconduct cases against him.
An attorney for a woman who filed a suit against Watson in October 2022 asked a Harris County, Texas court to compel Watson to testify in an in-person deposition before Aug. 1, according to documents obtained by USA Today.
“Plaintiff seeks an order from this Court compelling the re-deposition of Defendant Watson in order to propound allowable discovery and have such answers produced,” said the court filing submitted by David Bickham, one of the woman’s attorneys.
Watson last appeared for deposition in this case back in June. However, the deposition was brief because Watson’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, improperly compelled Watson not to answer questions related to other pending cases, like asking whether he had been sexually aroused during other massage sessions. Watson faced 26 women accusing him of sexual misconduct during massage sessions. Watson and his attorney claimed the quarterback sometimes had consensual sexual encounters during massage sessions but denied any wrongdoing. The Cleveland Browns quarterback reached undisclosed settlements with 23 of the 26 women. One dropped her case shortly after filing it, and two more remain.
In this particular case, Hardin aggressively denies that Watson allegedly pressured this woman into oral sex in December 2020. Hardin accused the woman of unrequited love and tore into one of her attorneys, Anissah Nguyen, over a line of questioning to Watson.
“Not only is your lawsuit irrational and has no value at all, but we are not going to be trying other incidents in other cases,” Hardin said to Nguyen, according to the transcript obtained by USA Today. “There’s no secret in the world that he was sued by multiple women and settled multiple lawsuits. But we are not going to try those cases again, and we’re not going to be answering questions about those other cases, all of which are the subject of Confidentiality Agreements.
“You − you jumped in at the last minute,” Hardin continued. “The evidence is going to show and has shown already with the filings just what a bogus lawsuit this is. And you can’t just file a lawsuit against a man that has some money and then get to go into any and everything. Not going to happen. If you want to take it to the Court, you can do so, but he is not going to answer about other incidents. You ask a man to come in here and ask did he ever get an erection during a massage, we’re not answering those kind of questions. We will answer anything you want about (the plaintiff in the case) and her − and his encounter with her.”
