Mike Meltser breaks down Texans being named as defendants in lawsuit related to Deshaun Watson
For Houston Texans fans, the lawsuits involving quarterback Deshaun Watson wherein multiple women have accused him of sexual assault became the Cleveland Browns’ problem after the trade.
However, attorney Tony Buzbee, who is representing all of the plaintiffs in the civil suits, filed a civil suit naming the Texans as plaintiffs in Harris County district court on Monday.
In a statement from the Texans via Aaron Wilson from the Pro Football Network, the club says, “We are aware of the lawsuit filed against us today. since March 2021, we have fully supported and complied with law enforcement and the various investigations. We will continue to take the necessary steps to address the allegations against our organization.”
Attorney Mike Meltser, a sports radio host for SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio, joined “In The Loop” on Sports Radio 610 [KILT-AM] Monday to talk about the implications of what the Texans’ involvement in the lawsuit as defendants could mean.
Here is a transcript of John Lopez and Landry Locker’s interview with Meltser.
What do you make of the lawsuit?
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“Well, I’ve read this lawsuit twice and I feel like I’m still digesting it. Essentially what Tony Buzbee on behalf of the plaintiff here, whose name is Toi Garner — I apologize if I am pronouncing that wrong — is basically alleging that the Texans knew or should have known about Deshaun Watson’s behavior and proclivities to massage therapists, and therefore, they should be held liable for the things that he did to the massage therapists. And they’ve done it through a couple of different ways that I’m sure we’ll get into, but that is the fundamental part of this lawsuit that Tony Buzbee is trying to connect the massage therapists to the Texans and the key thing will be: what did they know and when did they know it and what did they do about it?”
What would you take from this lawsuit that may pique interest and lead you to believe why they would want to include the Texans?
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“I thought there were a couple of things, but to me, there are a couple of ways that Tony Buzbee in this lawsuit attempted to connect the Texans to the behavior that may or may not have been going on. So, the first is Genuine Touch is the massage therapy place that we all read about in the New York Times a couple weeks ago, and the owner is somebody named Joni Honn. And according to the lawsuits, as early as June of 2020, Joni Honn complained to the Texans that Deshaun Watson was seeking out unqualified strangers for massages via Instagram. That would be number one.
“Number two, Tony Buzbee cites to a deposition — this is [director of player care & sports medicine] Roland Ramirez admitting to the Houston Police Department that he and [executive vice president of football operations] Jack Easterby helped secure a membership at the Houstonian for Watson where some of these things may have taken place. Roland Ramirez, third thing, admitted that Deshaun asked for a massage table from the Texans and Ramirez in that part of the deposition admitted that it was strange.
“There was a very interesting — I guess this is number four or five now — section of the lawsuit where it talks about this November 2020 Instagram post — remember by Niah Smith where she stated, ‘I could really expose you’ about Deshaun Watson, and this is when — if you remember the New York Times story — Deshaun goes to the Texans, gets the NDA from Brett Nacara, there’s a whole bunch about that. Well, this lawsuits claims that the Texans removed that social media post by Nia Smith. How that did that I am not sure about. But that’s what that lawsuit claims at least two or three times.
“And I guess my last one is there is a bunch of writing here in the middle portion about a massage therapist. I’m probably going to butcher this lady’s name, and I apologize if I do so, but Magen Weisheit, who was not under a formal contract but seems to be basically a massage therapist who routinely provided massage therapy services to Texans players. This is somebody who apparently went to London with them, and I think that was 2019. And there are some interesting text messages in this lawsuit in that when Magen learned about the Ashley Solis complaint, which was not in March 2021 when we all found out about it, but a year earlier in March 2020, there’s a text message in this lawsuit in which Magen Weisheit asks, ‘Out of curiosity, was it Deshaun Watson?’ I thought a key part of the lawsuit, which, to me, at this point is not proven, is the idea that Magen Weisheit, she stated — I don’t know where, when, how — that she intended to reach out to the Texans. Then Tony Buzbee wrote, ‘Assuming that she did so, the Texans would have been on notice as soon as March 2020.’ But it only says ‘assuming she did so.’ We don’t know if she actually reached out to them and let them know about the Ashley Solis complaints.”
There is a perception Magen Weisheit reached out to the Texans
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“Here’s where I’m at. This is the way my mind works. For me, when I, especially in the last hour, me reading 42 pages, it’s hard to fully digest every single sentence that’s written. That’s pretty obvious, right. But I think my mind, I have a good sense of how these things operate and what the keys are. And, to me, the hard thing that Tony Buzbee on behalf of his client would have to overcome in this lawsuit basically is, okay, what did the Texans actually know? Because if they knew Deshaun Watson was being threatened in an Instagram post in November 2020, and if they knew from the people at Genuine Touch that, hey, we’re worried a little bit about Deshaun setting up massages with people who aren’t licensed or doing it through Instagram, it doesn’t meant he Texans had any idea that Deshaun Watson was doing what he is alleged to have done, if that makes sense. Like, there is, to me, a gap between the Texans gave a massage table to Deshaun Watson, which that’s a little weird. I think we can all agree on that, and the Texans may have known through some of the employees that Deshaun Watson was reaching out to massage therapists via Instagram. But does it mean they were on notice of his misconduct? They will argue that they were never on notice of any misconduct until we all found out in March 2021.”
What does it mean for the Texans in the case regarding the massage therapist who was allegedly fired for her conduct with other Texans players?
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“I think it’s an open question. I honestly don’t know the answer to that, because who knows where that — you mentioned it. It says that they knew about it. How did they know? How was that person terminated? Who was the entity that was terminating that person? And it all comes back to what I said about a minute ago, which is: were the Texans ever on notice of any misconduct? That, to me, is the key here. When I look at lawsuits, I always look at the claims first. What, in this case, is Tony Buzbee claiming the Texans did wrong? And his claims are civil assaults, intentional affliction of emotional distress, negligence, vicarious liability. So, real quick on those. I think assault is going to be hard to connect because what Deshaun Watson is alleged to have done is what we call legally — they’re called ‘intentional torts,’ like, it’s intentional conduct. And it’s pretty challenging to hold somebody else responsible under a principled agent theory for something that Deshaun Watson did himself. The intentional affliction of emotional distress, I don’t even pay attention to myself. Negligence, to me, is really the key of this lawsuit. But it’s how do you connect the Texans through Deshaun Watson to this plaintiff? And I would argue, or I might argue if I were their attorneys that just because they knew that Deshaun Watson was threatened or that Deshaun Watson was reaching out to massage therapists on Instagram doesn’t mean they were ‘on notice of his misconduct.’ So, hopefully, that makes sense.”
How does Tony Buzbee’s claim that the Texans knew or should have known play in civil court?
(Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)
“I think it’s hard to argue that they should have known, because you have to establish that through the evidence. I will tell you guys about this lawsuit and most of them. I would shocked if they went to trial, but if they did, you would have to prove through the evidence that the Texans knew something, and I think it’s a much more tenuous — it’s a way more difficult argument to say that they should have known about this, especially when it comes to the Magen Weisheit part that, well, she wasn’t surprised that Ashley Solis complained. But did she, Magen Weisheit, did she put the Texans on notice? She intended to reach out to them to advise them about it, but did she actually do that? What did they actually know? It might look bad in the New York Times that Brent Naccara, their director of team security, gave Deshaun Watson an NDA. But because Deshaun Watson used that NDA, does that mean that the Texans as an entity, as an organization are responsible for Deshaun Watson’s conduct? I think that’s going to be a very difficult thing to prove legally.”
What does the naming of the Texans mean for Deshaun Watson? Is this just even more on his plate? It doesn’t detract from the allegations against him, nor does it make him look better. Would he have to testify in a case like this?
Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
“Theoretically he could. They could also use arguably the depositions that he has already gone through and in the process of going through as well. I would say that it’s not something that helps, but we’re at the point — and this is me reading the lawsuit — like, obviously there’s the part about what Deshaun Watson did during the massages, and I’m at the point where these are serious allegations. We all discussed them for the last 15 months or so. It’s basically the same kind of pattern and practice as we’ve seen in the other now 24 lawsuits against Deshaun himself. I don’t think it helps him, but if you’re also asking me — it’s not going to help Watson in the court of public opinion, and I — it’s a hard question to direction answer but it’s not a good thing for him, but ultimately he’s got the hearing tomorrow [with the NFL]. I think the NFL is going to make the decision it is going to make, and the hard thing is it just makes this situation for the NFL and the Texans harder to resolve and harder to close because now you’ve roped in one of the teams, and they’re going to have stronger defenses than Deshaun Watson did because of the claims being made. But I don’t know if it’s going to be incredibly easy to get rid of these claims. I think they will ultimately prevail is my estimate or they’ll settle, but this news, I think, contributes to the feeling of a collective feeling that when is this going to end. Because it seems like it is not going to end overall anytime soon.”
Is this leverage for settling the other remaining cases?
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“Maybe, although it depends on what Tony does as far as filing lawsuits against the Texans. So, this is on behalf of one, obviously, Toi Garner, and I know he said — I think on Instagram — his preferred method of communication that he is going to file more. The timing is going to be important on this because he’s going to have to connect when the Texans were on notice to things that happened after. So, for instance, if the owner of Genuine Touch let the Texans know, ‘Hey, I’m a little bit worried about Deshaun Watson seeking out strangers for massages on Instagram.’ That’s June 2020. So, that’s not going to apply and there’s a statute of limitations issue to people who came before that. So, that would be anybody theoretically after that. But maybe. When you’re a plaintiff you’re always seeking plaintiffs with deep pockets and they certainly have those.”
