Attorney Tony Buzbee recently said his 21 clients won’t submit evidence of potential criminal misconduct by Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson to the Houston Police Department. On Friday, someone did.
The HPD made the following announce on Twitter: “Today, a complainant filed a report with the Houston Police Department concerning Deshaun Watson. As with any allegation, the Houston Police Department is now conducting an investigation and will not comment further during the investigative process.”
It’s unknown whether the complainant is one of the 21 plaintiffs who have sued Watson in civil court. Watson’s lawyer, Rusty Hardin, chided Buzbee on Thursday for his position that evidence won’t be provided to the Houston Police Department, based on concerns of bias relating to Buzbee and to Hardin.
Criminal charges, if filed, ultimately must be established with proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors, given the broad discretion they have, routinely choose not to pursue criminal convictions if they believe it will be difficult to overcome that very high bar.
For the civil cases, a much lower standard of proof (preponderance of the evidence, basically 51-49) applies.