Zion Williamson is being sued by a girl describing herself as a former relationship accomplice and who alleges the New Orleans Pelicans star dedicated repeated sexual violence in opposition to her.
The civil lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court docket on Thursday night time, identifies the plaintiff as “Jane Doe.” She claims she started relationship Williamson in 2018, when he performed at Duke, and alleges that he engaged in abusive conduct towards her in California, Louisiana and Texas from 2020 till their relationship resulted in 2023.
Williamson’s New Orleans-based lawyer, Michael Balascio, referred to as the claims within the lawsuit “categorically false and reckless,” and accused the plaintiff of extortion, which he mentioned has been reported to legislation enforcement.
“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and we unequivocally deny them,” Balascio mentioned in a written assertion offered to The Related Press. “This seems to be an try to use an expert athlete pushed by a monetary motive relatively than any professional grievance.”
The lawsuit alleges that the primary occasion of sexual violence occurred in a house Williamson had rented in Beverly Hills, California.
The lawsuit additionally alleges that Williamson quickly took the plaintiff’s cell phone from her after the primary two situations of pressured intercourse and in addition took her laptop computer after the second.
The grievance consists of accusations of strangulation, demise threats to the plaintiff and her household, and bodily abuse, together with being kicked, slammed with a automotive door, and suffocated till she misplaced consciousness.
“We’re going to be very cautious about litigating this within the press,” mentioned the plaintiff’s lawyer, Sam Taylor II, who’s with the Lanier Legislation Agency in Los Angeles.
“It is a very severe case as mirrored within the allegations within the grievance, that are fairly detailed,” Taylor continued, including that his consumer “genuinely appears to be like ahead to her day in court docket when she will be able to inform a jury of her friends what occurred to her and search justice.”
The lawsuit seeks financial damages — together with punitive damages — for emotional misery.
Balascio mentioned Williamson and the plaintiff “by no means dated, however did preserve a consensual, informal relationship that started greater than six years in the past,” when Williamson was 18.
“At no level throughout or instantly after that relationship did the plaintiff increase any considerations,” Balascio mentioned, including that “solely after the friendship ended did she start demanding hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.”
Williamson additionally intends to file counterclaims and “search vital damages for this defamatory lawsuit,” Balascio mentioned.
A Pelicans spokesman mentioned the membership was conscious of the matter however deferred remark to Williamson’s lawyer.
Williamson was the primary participant picked within the 2019 draft. In six years as a professional, he has averaged 24.7 factors per sport. However has performed in solely 214 of 472 common season video games — and no playoff video games — throughout that span due to a collection of accidents, one in all which brought on him to overlook the complete 2021-22 season.
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