Cleveland Brown general Desson Watson has reconciled with 20 of the 24 women who have filed sexual harassment lawsuits against him, attorney Tony Bazby said Tuesday morning. In a statement, Buzbee, representing Watson’s attorneys, said the terms and amounts of the settlement were confidential and that these cases would be dismissed once finalized. The first public allegation against Watson for sexual harassment during a massage appointment was made in March 2021, resulting in an attack on lawsuits filed by additional women. Buzbee said Ashley Solis, who filed the original lawsuit, was one of four women who had not compromised. The charges against Watson concerned a massage appointment he had while playing for the Houston Texans. He was exchanged in Cleveland in March after a large court in Harris, Texas’s refused to charge him with criminal charges. The Browns gave Watson an unprecedented five-year, $ 230 million full-year contract. But Watson has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks, with two young women filing lawsuits against him. Buzbee also said he planned to add the Texans as defendants after a New York Times investigation found that the group provided the space Watson used for some of the appointments and gave him a non-disclosure agreement. As of Tuesday, Buzbee had not added the Texans to the suits and it was unclear if the team was a party to the settlements. The Texans did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The settlements come as the NFL considers Watson discipline in the context of his personal political behavior. The League’s researchers interviewed Watson for four days last month, which is generally one of the last steps in the process. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the arrangements had “no effect on the collective disciplinary process”. Buzbee referred to Ashley Solis as “one of the heroes of this story.” In her lawsuit, Solis said Watson deliberately touched her with his exposed and erect penis during a massage appointment in March 2020. Watson admitted in a statement that Solis had “tears in her eyes” after she left. , apologized for the message he felt “uncomfortable”. Solis contacted industry colleagues as well as lawyers for advice on how to respond to what had happened, and in December 2020 contacted Buzbee’s law firm. “Without Ashley Solis, the behavior these women experienced would probably have continued unabated,” Buzbee said in a statement. He added that he was looking forward to judging the cases of Solis and three other women who had not been settled “in due course”.
