Stepping away.
Shannon Sharpe, the former NFL star and current sports media personality, is stepping away from the limelight after a “Jane Doe” has accused him so sexual assault and rape.
Over the Easter weekend, a woman filed a $50 million lawsuit against Sharpe in Nevada under the pseudonym “Jane Doe.” The woman, who Sharpe later publicly identified as a woman named Gabriella Zuniga, claimed that Sharpe assaulted her during a period of time they were in a relationship.
In the lawsuit, the woman alleges that Sharpe gradually became more aggressive during their time together:
“Sharpe flew into fits of anger when Plaintiff noted his infidelity to their relationship, or called him out about his extraneous activities. What had once been manipulation, control and intimidation now became something far more dangerous and sinister. Sharpe even figured out how to get into Doe’s apartment complex without her permission.”
However, Sharpe combated the claims of sexual assault with text messages that were allegedly sent from Zuniga:
“The lawsuit, filed by Gabriella Zuniga and orchestrated by her attorney Tony Buzbee, is a blatant and cynical attempt to shake down Mr. Sharpe for millions of dollars. It is filled with lies, distortions, and misrepresentations, and it will not succeed.
In her effort to extract a large financial settlement, Ms. Zuniga presented Mr. Sharpe with a secretly recorded video of a consensual sexual encounter. We believe the video has been heavily edited and taken entirely out of context, crafted to falsely portray a consensual act as non-consensual…
To set the record straight, we are releasing several of Ms. Zuniga’s own explicit text messages to Mr. Sharpe that clearly indicate the nature of their relationship was consensual and sexual in nature – and in many cases, initiated by her with specific and graphic requests.”
The case has rapidly gotten messy as both Sharpe and the plaintiff have shared personal details like text messages exchanged, which allegedly include the plaintiff confronting Sharpe about the assault via text. There have also been portions of phone calls shared, and recently, Sharpe and his team believe that the plaintiff’s legal team will release a portion of a sex tape that exists, but will only release a portion of it ot put Sharpe in a bad light.
In response, Sharpe has dared them to release the full tape if that’s the route they choose to take.
“To my family, friends, supporters and colleagues, I want to speak to you directly and from the heart. This is a shakedown. I’m gonna be open, transparent, and defend myself because this isn’t right. This is all being orchestrated by Tony Buzbee. Tony Buzbee targets black men, and I believe he’s going to release a 30 second clip of a sex tape that tries to make me look guilty and play into every stereotype you could possibly imagine.
That video should be 10 minutes or so. Hey Tony, instead of releasing your edit, put the whole video out. I don’t have it or I would myself. You know what happened and you’re trying to manipulate the media. That encounter in question took place during the day at her invitation, and now that appears to be a setup.”
Given the severity of these allegations along with it getting messy in the public’s eye with both parties sharing information publically instead of laying it all out for a jury to review and conclude who is guilty and innocent, Sharpe made a statement today that he is stepping away from his ESPN duties and intends to keep a low profile while this shakes out.
“My statement is found here and this is the truth. The relationship in question was 100% consensual. At this juncture I am electing to step aside temporarily from my ESPN duties. I will be devoting this time to my family, and responding and dealing with these false and disruptive allegations set against me. I plan to return to ESPN at the start of the NFL preseason.
I sincerely appreciate the overwhelming and ongoing support I have received from my family, fans, friends, and colleagues.”
I am sure this was not an easy decision or one that was taken lightly by Sharpe and his colleagues, but I do think that some time away to resolve this case out of the public eye is best. We have seen that this lawsuit is already getting out of hand in the media’s eyes, with a Canadian woman stepping forward with the same name as the plaintiff, asking fans to please stop using her image in news stories.
Hopefully, with Sharpe stepping away from the media, it will prevent this from getting uglier and uglier and will allow the court system to find justice in this case.
