The woman who filed a civil lawsuit against Deshaun Watson last week has amended her petition to include her name after she was ordered to do so by Judge Rabeea Sultan Collier on Monday afternoon.
The lawsuit, first filed under the pseudonym Jane Doe, is the 26th known civil case filed against Watson accusing him of inappropriate sexual misconduct or sexual assault during massages.
The ruling on Monday was made in an emergency hearing held in the 113th District Court in Harris County (Texas). During the hearing, Watson’s lawyer, Rusty Hardin, asked the court to order counsel to provide the name of the plaintiff and to order sanctions for not originally providing it.
The lawsuit alleges Watson “continually pressured [the plaintiff] into massaging his private area” before he “removed his towel” and “offered to let her ‘get on top.'” According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff “refused to have sex with Watson, however, he was able to pressure her into oral sex” and “Watson paid [the plaintiff] $300 for her services, although her normal charge was $115 for an hour massage.”
Watson is serving an 11-game suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. On Aug. 18, the NFL and NFL Players Association reached a settlement on Watson’s suspension. He was also fined $5 million and has had to undergo a mandatory treatment program.
At the NFL’s fall meeting in New York on Tuesday, commissioner Roger Goodell said he was satisfied that Watson had followed all the terms of his suspension agreement.
“As far as any additional [allegations], we obviously will follow all of those. If there’s new information, we’ll take that into consideration, but we’ll see as time goes on,” he said.
Two grand juries in Texas declined to pursue criminal charges against Watson earlier this year. But Sue L. Robinson, an independent arbiter jointly appointed by the league and players’ union, found that “the NFL carried its burden to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Mr. Watson engaged in sexual assault.”
Robinson concluded in her report that Watson’s behavior was “egregious” and “predatory.”
Last week, Watson was allowed to reenter the Browns training facility for the first time since being suspended since Aug. 30 as part of the settlement. The quarterback can’t practice with the team again until Nov. 14 and won’t be eligible to play until Week 13, when the Browns travel to face his former team, the Texans in Houston on Dec. 4.
ESPN’s Jake Trotter contributed to this report.
Source: www.espn.com