“Watson offered $100,000 to plaintiffs for….”: Deshaun Watson attempted to shut his accusers down and suppress their voices
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Ashley Solis, one of the prime accusers of Watson
The Deshaun Watson probe appears to be an infinite loop with no end in sight, just when the NFL league office and others following this case closely anticipated that it will come to a conclusion, we came across a new 23rd accuser who filed another case while there are reports of a 24th accuser also preparing to file a case against him. Watson clearly does not have a chance to shut the case down now and suppress it considering a large number of accusers.
Be it in the NFL, NBA, or any major sports league, or with any person who has a lot of fame and power, when such allegations surface, their first instinct is to pay the accusers off and shut the case down. So it was only natural that Deshaun Watson does the same, he also reportedly attempted to suppress all the noise before it was wide open in the public domain. However, he went a little too far and overestimated the power of money, and had unrealistic expectations.
Also read: “In NFL, nice guys finish SOL”: Mike Florio believes Jimmy Garoppolo needs to get serious
Deshaun Watson wanted to pay off the accusers $100,000 to remain silent and pretend like it never happened:
In the lawsuit filed against the quarterback, there are some details buried deep in the fine print, page 2 of the 23rd, and a most recent lawsuit filed against him by Nia Smith reveals something shocking. “We now know that Deshaun Watson offered each plaintiff $100,000 to settle their cases, but not allow would accept that amount, due to the aggressive nondisclosure agreement that Watson’s team proposed.”
He tried to settle all the cases at the earliest, at that time the QB was still a Houston Texan and rumors of a trade to the Miami Dolphins had begun to swirl around the league and the team wanted all the cases settled before it decided to get him on board. 18 of the 22 cases were ready to be settled but four plaintiffs were against this which led to the whole deal falling through.
The reason for 4 of the accusers refusing to accept his money was the terms of the nondisclosure agreements. Watson’s attorney Rusty Hardin explained in a podcast that the Dolphins indirectly drafted the settlements and specifically requested for an NDA to be put in place.
The settlement claims were derailed due to Tony Buzbee, the representative for all plaintiffs wanting nondisclosure language, and Hardin and Watson not wanting this. The defendants’ attorney told that Buzbee did not wish that the public to know how much his clients were getting in return for dropping all charges.
Towards the end of October, each of them would have been $100,000 richer, the exact amount that all the accusers requested before the first lawsuit was filed. Looking back now, Deshaun would pounce at the chance to settle these cases at the very first chance he got.
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Sumedh Joshi
(2235 Articles Published)