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Don\u2019t try to fool us with spin, and don\u2019t insult us by talking about \u201cdue diligence.\u201d Some NFL team is going to trade a bunch of assets for Deshaun Watson, a Pro Bowl quarterback who has been accused of sexual misconduct<\/a> in lawsuits filed by 22 women, for one simple reason: It wants a Pro Bowl quarterback so desperately that it doesn\u2019t care he was accused of sexual misconduct by 22 women. This is the way of pro sports. People who wouldn\u2019t trust Watson alone in a room with a loved one are eager to have him on the field.<\/p>\n\n Watson can help people win a Super Bowl, or at least win enough games to stay employed. Through his lawyer, he has denied any wrongdoing and asserted that the 22 women who accused him of sexual misconduct are lying. And a grand jury declined to indict him on criminal charges (more on that later). But there is one overriding fact you should always remember about a man who has been accused of sexual misconduct by 22 women, which is that he has been accused of sexual misconduct by 22 women. The conversation about Deshaun Watson\u2019s \u201ccharacter\u201d should start there and never stray very far.<\/p>\n\n So, to the Atlanta Falcons: If you trade for Watson, don\u2019t sell us any garbage about how you got to know him when he was your ball boy. You know, as though a ball boy could never go on to commit sexual misconduct. To the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints: Not a word about \u201cdue diligence,\u201d O.K.? You need a quarterback and Watson is a great one. If you cared about his character, you would Google him, and then you\u2019d have to grapple with those accusations of sexual misconduct by 22 women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cleveland Browns, you have already disgraced yourselves by meeting with Watson and then leaking that you want to move on from Baker Mayfield because you want an \u201cadult in the room,\u201d<\/a> as though a man who has been accused of sexual misconduct by 22 women can provide some sort of cultural boost. You want a better quarterback, and Watson is better than Mayfield. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n\n And to everybody: Do not, under any circumstances, claim that a Houston grand jury exonerated Watson last week. It did nothing of the kind. It simply chose not to indict him<\/a>. If you cite the grand jury\u2019s decision not to press charges as proof he did nothing wrong, you only reveal your own ignorance about the criminal-justice system generally and sexual-assault cases specifically<\/a>.<\/p>\n But you don\u2019t have to be ignorant, because Melissa Morabito did some due diligence for you. Wasn\u2019t that nice of her? Morabito is an associate professor in the University of Massachusetts-Lowell School of Criminology and Justice Studies and co-author of a U.S. Department of Justice-funded study of decision-making and attrition in sexual-assault cases<\/a>.<\/p>\n The study covers 3,269 cases over a three-year period across six states. Only 1.6% of cases where sexual assault was reported to police ever made it to court. Morabito says the chances of Watson facing a jury trial were probably lower, because most of the accusations by the 22 women involve forcible fondling as opposed to direct penetration or rape, though at least one woman accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex. As Ann Burdges, a former police detective who is now president of End Violence Against Women International, says, these kinds of acts can be, \u201cscripted by an offender in a setting of which there is isolation, control, and two people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n The lack of direct eyewitnesses and physical evidence made this an extremely hard case to win. Add misperceptions about the massage-therapy profession and it becomes even harder. It\u2019s true that the threshold for a grand-jury indictment is lower than for a jury conviction, and prosecutors have wide discretion in how they present their cases to grand juries. But let\u2019s be real about how that game is often played, even when somebody is accused of sexual misconduct by at 22 women.<\/p>\n Some prosecutors worry about using resources on what they believe is a losing proposition, and they know they are often judged on their winning percentage in jury trials. This is one reason they can be reluctant to aggressively pursue sexual assault cases. As Morabito points out, with a high-profile case, simply dropping the case would be a bad look \u2026 but if the D.A. took it to a grand jury\u2014where proceedings are private\u2014and then intentionally presented a weak case, then what would happen? The grand jury would decide not to indict. The prosecutor wouldn\u2019t risk losing a high-profile jury trial, but could still claim to have taken the case seriously.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can tell whatever story they want to tell,\u201d Morabito says. \u201cSo it is a way to dispose of a case to show that, \u2018I’ve done something, but it’s not my fault. It’s the fault of the grand jury.\u2019\u201d This might sound like a wild conspiracy theory, but it shouldn\u2019t. \u201cThat\u2019s not only reasonable,\u201d Burdges says, \u201cI\u2019m sure that is a reality in many, many, many, many cases that are driven by more complex agendas than just presenting the facts to the grand jury.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Scroll to Continue<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n SI reached out to the Harris County district attorney\u2019s office to ask about the nine criminal cases brought to the grand jury. In response to a question about a New York\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0report<\/a> that,\u00a0\u201cseveral of the women who filed criminal complaints also sat in a room together at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, ready to provide testimony, but only one was called in front of the grand jury,\u201d\u00a0Dane Schiller, the district attorney office\u2019s director of communications, wrote in an email, \u201cGrand jury proceedings are secret under Texas law. That means that we are strictly prohibited from discussing them and that includes revealing anything about evidence. I can tell you that the presentation lasted more than six hours.\u201d<\/p>\n To another question, about, specifically, what information was presented to the grand jury, Schiller wrote, \u201cI am prohibited from revealing or discussing what evidence was presented. This is not an instance of not wanting to assist but we simply can\u2019t go there.\u201d<\/p>\n Because of the legal requirement for secrecy, we have no way of knowing how hard prosecutors fought for these charges. But we should not simply assume that the grand jurors heard the best possible case and decided not to indict based on the evidence. And even if they did decide that the alleged conduct was not an indictable offense, that still does not mean that Deshaun Watson lived up to the ethical standards we expect from pro athletes, or, really, human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n NFL teams can thank the New York Times<\/em> for their due diligence if they would like. Or they can read Sports Illustrated<\/em>\u2019s independent reporting that uncovered corroborating evidence<\/a> of one plaintiff\u2019s claim, and also telling the story of a licensed massage therapist\u2014not among the plaintiffs\u2014who had a similarly problematic session with Watson<\/a>. But please, please, please <\/em>don\u2019t come at us with any nonsense about how all 22 women accused him of sexual misconduct because he is rich and famous. Watson\u2019s fame means that anybody accusing him goes through hell. His money means he can find lawyers to win in court.<\/p>\n \u201cHe may think he has a target on his back,\u201d Burdges says. \u201cBut really, he’s got a hall pass in his pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n Burdges read through news stories about Watson being accused of sexual misconduct by 22 women, and she couldn\u2019t even believe we were having this conversation: \u201cDo you really think another team will want him, as toxic and tainted as he is with this? And having been dropped by so many sponsors?\u201d<\/p>\n The answer to that was: Of course <\/em>they want him even though he has been accused of sexual misconduct by 22 women. Great quarterbacks are the NFL\u2019s hidden treasure. Everybody wants one and nobody knows exactly where to look. Teams see Watson as a rare gem: a young and proven superstar who is sitting out in the open, waiting to be acquired. But if that\u2019s all they see, they aren\u2019t really looking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n There are still civil cases still pending against Watson. For the plaintiffs, those are easier to win than criminal cases, but Watson could also settle them and claim he only did so because he wants to \u201cmove on\u201d and \u201crestore my name\u201d after being accused of sexual misconduct by 22 women. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will probably suspend Watson, but a suspension would likely cost Watson games, not years, because Watson was never indicted after being accused of sexual misconduct by 22 women.<\/p>\n If the general manager who acquires him is honest\u2014which he won\u2019t be\u2014he will say that he doesn\u2019t care if Watson is a good person as long as he is a rational one. Watson can earn hundreds of millions more dollars playing the game he loves if he just behaves for the rest of his career. A person of sound mind should be able to do that; a person with a pathological need to overpower and humiliate women could not. Publicly, some team will be counting on Deshaun Watson to play awesome football. And privately, they\u2019ll hope he does not get accused of sexual misconduct by more women.<\/p>\n More on Deshaun Watson:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 How 22 Women and One Star Quarterback Got Here<\/a>
\u2022 A Massage Therapist on Her Session With Deshaun Watson<\/a>
\u2022 Now Is Not the Time for Deshaun Watson Trade Speculation<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n