The accusations have been frequent and startling: greater than two dozen ladies have stated the soccer star Deshaun Watson harassed or assaulted them throughout therapeutic massage appointments that Watson and his attorneys insist had been innocuous.

Two grand juries in Texas this yr declined to cost him criminally and, whereas the N.F.L. considers whether or not to self-discipline him, he has gotten one other job, signing a five-year, $230 million totally assured contract to play quarterback for the Cleveland Browns this coming season.

It’s time, Watson and his representatives say, for everybody to maneuver on.

But a New York Occasions examination of information, together with depositions and proof for the civil lawsuits in addition to interviews of a few of the ladies, confirmed that Watson engaged in additional questionable conduct than beforehand identified.

The Occasions’s assessment additionally confirmed that Watson’s conduct was enabled, knowingly or not, by the crew he performed for on the time, the Houston Texans, which supplied the venue Watson used for a few of the appointments. A crew consultant additionally furnished him with a nondisclosure settlement after a lady who’s now suing him threatened on-line to reveal his conduct.

Rusty Hardin, Watson’s lawyer, stated his consumer “continues to vehemently deny” the allegations within the lawsuits. He declined to reply intimately to The Occasions’s questions, however stated in a press release, “We will say when the true details are identified this challenge will seem in a special mild.”

The Texans didn’t reply to particular questions on Watson’s use of crew sources. They stated in a press release that they first discovered of the allegations in opposition to him in March 2021, have cooperated with investigators and “will proceed to take action.”

A spokesman for the Browns stated the crew had no fast remark. An N.F.L. spokesman declined to remark, saying the Watson matter is beneath assessment.

Watson has stated publicly that he employed about 40 completely different therapists throughout his 5 seasons in Houston, however The Occasions’s reporting discovered that he booked appointments with no less than 66 completely different ladies in simply the 17 months from fall 2019 via spring 2021. A number of of those further ladies, talking publicly for the primary time, described experiences that undercut Watson’s insistence that he was solely looking for skilled therapeutic massage remedy.

One lady, who didn’t sue Watson or complain to the police, advised The Occasions that he was persistent in his requests for sexual acts throughout their therapeutic massage, together with “begging” her to place her mouth on his penis.

“I particularly needed to say, ‘No, I can’t try this,’” stated the girl, who spoke on situation of anonymity to guard her household’s privateness. “And that’s once I went into asking him, ‘What’s it like being well-known? Like, what’s happening? You’re about to mess up every little thing.’”

Earlier than Watson was drafted by the Texans twelfth total in 2017, he was a championship-winning quarterback at Gainesville (Ga.) Excessive College and Clemson College.

N.F.L. groups extensively seen him as a potential franchise quarterback with no identified character points, and he appeared to be dwelling as much as his billing. When Hurricane Harvey walloped Houston in August 2017, earlier than Watson’s rookie season, he donated his first sport verify to stadium cafeteria staff who had been affected by the storm.

Because the first wave of fits had been filed in opposition to Watson final yr, the primary allegations in opposition to him have turn into acquainted. Ladies complained that Watson turned massages sexual with out their consent, together with purposely touching them together with his penis and coercing sexual acts.

It’s not clear when he started searching for so many various ladies to present him massages. Hardin has stated his consumer wanted to ebook appointments “advert hoc” when the coronavirus pandemic started, although Watson started working with quite a few ladies earlier than then.

Not the entire ladies who gave Watson massages between October 2019 and March 2021 have detailed their interactions with him. Some who’ve shared their experiences say that they had no issues with him. Others describe troubling — and related — behaviors.

The 66 ladies are:

  • The 24 who’ve sued him, together with two who filed fits inside the final week. In the latest swimsuit, the girl stated Watson masturbated through the therapeutic massage.

  • A lady who sued however then withdrew the grievance due to “privateness and safety considerations.”

  • Two ladies who filed felony complaints in opposition to Watson however didn’t sue him.

  • A minimum of 15 therapists who issued statements of help for Watson on the request of his attorneys and gave him massages throughout that interval.

  • A minimum of 4 therapists from Real Contact, the therapeutic massage remedy group contracted with the Texans.

  • 5 ladies recognized by the plaintiffs’ attorneys through the investigation for his or her civil fits.

  • A minimum of 15 different ladies whose appointments with Watson had been confirmed via interviews and information reviewed by The Occasions.

A deeper take a look at the civil fits, together with a assessment of personal messages entered as proof, exhibits the prolonged efforts by Watson to ebook massages and the strategies he used to guarantee ladies that he might be trusted.

One lady who sued Watson was a flight attendant who started taking therapeutic massage remedy lessons through the pandemic. She and Watson had been in the identical social circle, however Watson acknowledged in a deposition that that they had by no means actually spoken besides to say whats up.

In November 2020, after a pleasant alternate on Instagram, Watson noticed that the girl was a therapeutic massage therapist and despatched a message asking for an appointment. As they struggled to work out a time, Watson advised her, “Simply tryna help black companies,” a message he repeated later.

Watson usually introduced himself as an ally to businesswomen. Within the swimsuit filed this week, the therapist alleged that he advised her that he “actually needed to help” Black companies, and on one other event, he left a lady perplexed when he bought 30 bottles of her $40 pores and skin cleanser.

In messages to the girl, whom he knew from his social circle, Watson requested to satisfy at The Houstonian, an upscale resort and membership the place the Texans had secured a membership for him. She stated she wasn’t snug going to a resort as a result of she knew Watson’s girlfriend — and certainly had as soon as babysat her and her youthful brother. The girl advised Watson she needed to maintain issues “skilled and respectful.”

“Oh most undoubtedly all the time skilled,” he texted. “I actually have a NDA I’ve therapist signal too.” He was referring to the N.D.A. he had obtained simply days earlier from a member of the Texans’ safety workers. Watson didn’t clarify within the textual content how the girl would profit from signing a doc meant to guard him.

Lastly, the girl recommended they meet at her mom’s residence in Manvel, a 30-minute drive for Watson. He responded, “Rattling thats far,” however agreed to make the journey.

Within the civil swimsuit the girl filed in opposition to Watson final yr, she stated she was uneasy together with his instructions to “stand up in there” through the therapeutic massage, however chalked it as much as her inexperience and agreed to work with him once more. When he ejaculated through the second appointment after which requested her for one more therapeutic massage later that day on the Houstonian, she first agreed, then advised him she couldn’t make it. She ultimately blocked his quantity.

A lot of the ladies Watson noticed for massages didn’t sue or name the police. However even some who didn’t complain stated Watson got here searching for intercourse.

The girl who offered bottles of cleanser to Watson had a number of appointments with him through the summer time of 2020. This aesthetician, who spoke on situation of anonymity to guard her privateness, advised Watson when he booked an appointment that she was licensed solely to present him a again facial. However she stated in an interview with The Occasions that he received totally undressed and directed her towards his groin. Whereas she stated there was no sexual contact, she believed that he was looking for greater than knowledgeable therapeutic massage.

Watson and his attorneys have stated he was solely looking for massages. The attorneys have acknowledged that Watson had sexual contact with three of the ladies who’ve sued him. However the sexual acts occurred after the massages, they stated, and had been initiated by the ladies. Requested whether or not he was asserting that Watson by no means had sexual contact with every other therapeutic massage therapists, Hardin didn’t reply.

One other lady who spoke to The Occasions, a bodily therapist who didn’t sue Watson, stated he initiated sexual contact in all three of their appointments.

This lady, who spoke on situation of anonymity to guard her privateness, stated in an interview she started by engaged on Watson’s again. However when he flipped over, she stated his demeanor and voice modified, and he started aggressively dictating the place he needed her to the touch him. Of their first session, she stated he received into the joyful child yoga pose — on his again together with his toes in his arms — and requested her to therapeutic massage between his testicles and anus. She laughed off the request however stated he grabbed her wrist and put her hand there.

The girl stated Watson twice initiated sexual activity, as soon as by knocking down the scrubs she was sporting. She and Watson knew one another from round city and had been on pleasant phrases, and she or he admitted she let him proceed with these sexual acts. “I simply didn’t know find out how to inform him no,” she stated.

Hardin stated in a press release: “It could be irresponsible and untimely for us to touch upon imprecise particulars put forth by nameless people.”

In June 2020, Watson started frequenting a spa in a strip mall off Interstate 45, no less than a 30-minute drive from his residence or work. He had discovered A New U Spa on Instagram and despatched a message. The proprietor, Dionne Louis, turned a useful resource for Watson, in a position to join him with a number of ladies for massages.

She appeared out for him, she stated in a deposition, generally arranging for a safety guard when Watson got here in, involved the costly vehicles he drove may make him a goal for a theft. She additionally received issues from him. In November 2020, Watson paid her $5,000 via an app, she stated, to purchase spa gear. Louis advised considered one of her staff in a textual content, “I advised you I’ll present you find out how to get cash from males that’s my specialty.”

Louis and her lawyer didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Throughout the months Louis and Watson labored collectively, she arrange appointments for him with a number of ladies who labored there, none of whom was licensed in Texas to carry out massages.

One was the girl who stated Watson begged her for oral intercourse.

She described how he tried to construct as much as sexual acts, beginning together with his request that she work on his behind and go greater up on his internal thighs, which put her arms uncomfortably near his testicles. When he flipped over, she stated, he was uncovered with an erection, however she refused his requests for oral intercourse.

That lady didn’t sue Watson, however 4 different staff of A New U Spa did. All of them stated of their lawsuits that Louis gave him particular consideration.

In June 2020, one lady stated in her swimsuit, Louis drove her to a resort to satisfy Watson for a therapeutic massage, throughout which he groped her and touched her hand together with his penis. Louis was not within the room, however in textual content messages she later despatched to this lady, she appeared to check with Watson treating her staff poorly: “I been speaking to Deshaun I simply advised his ass off he received it now.” Louis added in a second message, “I advised him he can’t deal with us black ladies any form of method.” (In her deposition, Louis denied sending these messages, although proof within the civil fits signifies they had been despatched from her quantity.)

Nia Smith, who additionally labored at A New U Spa, filed a lawsuit in opposition to Watson final week, the twenty third of 24 civil circumstances. Smith stated that in their first therapeutic massage, Watson requested her to place her fingers inside his anus, a request she stated she advised Louis about afterward. She stated within the second session he requested her if she needed his penis in her mouth, and that he repeatedly requested intercourse of their third and ultimate therapeutic massage. Smith additionally claimed that Louis knew Watson was looking for intercourse and advised her she wanted to maintain Watson joyful. In a deposition, Louis denied she knew something about Watson’s sexual needs.

In early November 2020, after Smith stopped working at A New U Spa, she posted textual content messages from Watson alongside together with his cellphone quantity and his Money App receipts on Instagram. She included the message, “I may actually expose you,” including an expletive.

Days later, when Watson went to work on the Texans’ stadium, he discovered an N.D.A. in his locker. He later stated in a deposition that Brent Naccara, a former Secret Service agent who’s the Texans’ director of safety, put it there after Watson advised him about Smith’s Instagram posts.

Watson started taking the N.D.A. to massages that very same week, giving one to the girl in Manvel, who signed it, and one other to a lady who stated in her lawsuit that she ended the session after he recommended a sexual act. Watson advised her she needed to signal to ensure that him to pay, so she did, in response to her submitting. Watson stated in a deposition that he used this N.D.A. just for therapeutic massage appointments as a result of he had attorneys and brokers who dealt with his different enterprise.

It’s unclear whether or not the Texans knew what number of massages Watson was getting or who was offering them. However their sources helped help his therapeutic massage behavior away from the crew. Watson acknowledged in a deposition that the Texans organized for him to have “a spot” at The Houstonian. He used the health membership, dined there and likewise arrange massages in resort rooms.

A minimum of seven ladies met him on the resort for appointments, in response to interviews and information, together with two who filed civil lawsuits and two who complained to police.

The Texans weren’t conscious of the therapeutic massage appointments on the resort “that I do know of,” Watson stated. He additionally stated that his entry to the property was not beneath his identify. One lady who gave Watson a therapeutic massage at The Houstonian stated she was advised the room was registered to a member of the Texans’ coaching workers.

To protect his status, his profession and presumably his freedom, Watson employed Hardin, now 80, a veteran protection lawyer whose shoppers have included the previous pitcher Roger Clemens, the evangelist Joel Osteen and, within the Enron case, the accounting agency Arthur Andersen.

Hardin has stated the ladies who’ve accused Watson of sexual misconduct are mendacity. He had ample alternative to make his case to the district legal professional’s workplace. Via a public information request, The Occasions reviewed the communications between Hardin and the prosecutors in Watson’s felony circumstances. These messages revealed intensive communication between the 2 sides and demonstrated, in any case, the worth of a well-paid and well-connected lawyer.

In early 2022, Hardin, a former prosecutor himself, started a daily dialogue with Johna Stallings, the Harris County intercourse crimes prosecutor dealing with the Watson investigation. Within the two months earlier than two completely different Texas grand juries heard the felony circumstances in opposition to Watson, Stallings and Hardin met at Hardin’s workplace, spoke over the cellphone 12 instances and exchanged greater than two dozen textual content messages, in response to public information.

A few of their exchanges had been peppered with congenial remarks about circumstances they had been making an attempt. Others had been extra opaque. Sooner or later, Stallings requested Hardin if he may chat. He stated he was in trial, then requested, “Any issues?” They spoke over the cellphone twice that day.

The quantity of contact between the prosecutor and the protection was noteworthy, stated Njeri Mathis Rutledge, a former Harris County prosecutor who’s now a professor at South Texas School of Regulation Houston.

“There are some well-known protection attorneys like a Rusty Hardin which will have gotten a bit further actual property when it comes to time, however even given the truth that it was Rusty, that’s nonetheless lots of time,” Rutledge stated.

The Occasions additionally reviewed communications between prosecutors and the attorneys for the ladies suing Watson. There was only one alternate: In March 2021, Tony Buzbee, the plaintiffs’ legal professional, alerted the district legal professional’s workplace to the allegations within the civil fits. The district legal professional requested if his shoppers had made experiences to the police, and eight of Buzbee’s shoppers quickly did. The prosecutors had some direct contact with these ladies, quite than going via Buzbee.

In a press release, Hardin stated it’s “a regular apply” for attorneys to work immediately with regulation enforcement and prosecutors.

The Harris County district legal professional’s workplace didn’t reply to particular questions on their prosecutors’ contacts with Hardin and attorneys for the ladies. In a press release, a spokesman for Kim Ogg, the district legal professional, stated prosecutors “vigorously examined all of the proof and spoke at nice size with accusers.”

In March 2021, Stallings ready to current her circumstances in opposition to Watson to the Harris County grand jury. She and Hardin exchanged greater than a dozen calls and messages through the week of the listening to. As a substitute of placing his consumer in entrance of the grand jury, Hardin created a slide presentation arguing for Watson’s innocence and gave it to Stallings together with different paperwork he deemed vital.

“We’ll let our submissions to you on our consumer’s behalf function our presentation to the Grand Jury,” Hardin advised her in an electronic mail. The grand jury declined to cost Watson, and a Brazoria County panel adopted swimsuit.

Amanda Peters, a former Harris County prosecutor who teaches regulation at South Texas School of Regulation in Houston, stated such submissions, often known as grand jury packets, usually are not the norm for the common particular person dealing with expenses. They’re extra generally launched in high-profile circumstances through which the consumer can afford an elaborate and expensive protection.

The N.F.L.’s self-discipline is probably going the following step. Watson has been shuttling between Cleveland, the place he’s coaching together with his new crew, and Houston, the place he met with N.F.L. investigators and is giving depositions within the lawsuits. The civil circumstances, if not settled, shall be tried after the soccer season.

Via all of it, Watson has been adamant that he did nothing unsuitable. In a deposition on Could 13, he was requested concerning the textual content message he despatched to Ashley Solis, considered one of his accusers, instantly after their appointment in March 2020. “Sorry about you feeling uncomfortable,” he wrote to her. Watson acknowledged that Solis was “teary-eyed” on the finish of their session, however testified beneath oath that he nonetheless doesn’t perceive why.

“I don’t know,” Watson stated. “Like I advised you at first of this depo, I’m nonetheless making an attempt to determine why we within the state of affairs we’re in proper now, why I’m speaking to you guys, why you guys are interviewing me. I don’t know. Have no idea.”

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