Twenty two women have accused Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson of sexual misconduct and/or sexual assault.
The massage therapists were, for the most part, hired by Watson himself. Nine of them are licensed massage therapists and the rest are either working towards their license or specialize in other wellness treatments.
Some suits accuse the quarterback of inappropriate exposure. Attorney Ed Klein says consolidation means "there's a pattern of conduct that is the same, even though the women are different, the exact conduct is different. But what they're claiming is there's enough of a pattern that all the cases should be heard at the same time and all together."
He says it's hard to predict whether this benefits the women or Watson. "Now you have a pool of people, and so if there are settlement negotiations it could wind up in a situation where woman number 13 is being offered X amount of dollars and woman number 21 is being offered a different amount for the same kind of conduct. How do you decide which one is going to take what amount of money? If it goes to trial, a jury is going to have some difficulty ferreting out which acts are bad and what conduct should be attributed to him regarding which woman."
Klein says it's too early to predict whether there will ever be a civil trial. The Houston police department is investigating at least one complaints and the NFL is also conducting an investigation.
