On Monday, Bills defensive lineman Mario Williams tried to explain text messages that had been released to the media by the lawyer representing Williams’ ex-fiancée. It could be the first of many times that Mario must respond or react to things said and done by Tony Buzbee.
Buzbee is employing a common, and effective, litigation tactic. Williams has sued Buzbee’s client on grounds Buzbee deems to be frivolous and unwarranted, and Buzbee will do everything he can to make Williams regret that decision.
For more proof of Buzbee’s plan, look no farther than his recent comments to Tim Graham of the Buffalo News. Buzbee justifies an aggressive reaction to the Williams lawsuit by explaining that the lawsuit he filed contains serious allegations against Buzbee’s client, Erin Marzouki.
“He called her a thief in a public pleading,” Buzbee told Graham. “He said in a public pleading that she never had any intention of marrying him. He said in a public pleading that she had been the one to break off the relationship. He said in a public pleading that the only reason she was with him was to get his money.
“He swore that to be true. Those are some pretty damaging things to say about someone when you know good and well the pleading that you filed is going to be picked up by the press.”
And so Buzbee is fighting fire with hellfire, releasing text messages that have limited relevance to the potentially key question of whether Williams or Marzouki broke off the engagement. While the text messages arguably prove that Williams was moody and erratic, which could perhaps support a finding by a jury that Williams ended the engagement and permit Marzouki to keep the $785,000 engagement ring, that’s just cover for what Buzbee is really doing.
It’s the Reggie Hammond “let’s see what we can f--k with next” approach. And it often works.
In some cases, however, the approach serves only to piss off the other party. Here, it could cause Williams to dig in and spend more than $785,000 in an effort to retrieve the ring.
The only good news is that the couple apparently hadn’t registered at Bed Bath & Beyond.