The Shannon Sharpe saga continues.
Former NFL star and current media personality Shannon Sharpe is currently facing a lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault, battery and engaging in intentional infliction of emotional distress. Sharpe, who hosts the uberly popular Club Shay Shay podcast, and also fulfills drop-in appearances on ESPN’s First Take, was sued on Sunday in a lawsuit that was filed in Nevada.
The plaintiff, who in the lawsuit was identified in the case under the alias “Jane Doe,” claims that Sharpe sexually assaulted her, and she’s seeking $50 million in damages. And all of this comes on the heels of rumors surrounding a potential $100 million contract coming Sharpe’s way. The lawsuit suggested, among other things, that Shannon Sharpe got more and more aggressive as the two-year relationship went on.
Despite the serious allegations against Shannon Sharpe in the lawsuit – including claims of rape and threatening to kill the plaintiff – the media personality didn’t take long to respond to the civil complaint. Earlier this week, Sharpe released his own statement, which identified “Jane Doe” as Gabriella Zuniga, and 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.”
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that those text messages are – objectively – pretty nasty.
Jane Doe, who Sharpe identified as Gabriella Zuniga, responded to that statement by releasing an alleged phone call that she and Sharpe shared at some point during their relationship. It sounds as though Shannon Sharpe was not aware that he was being recorded, and it’s possible that Zuniga was attempting to provoke some harsh words from the media personality.
If that is what was happening, it worked. The woman accusing Sharpe kept using the word “manipulate,” which evidently got under the skin of Sharpe. He responded with a threat in a clip that was obtained by TMZ:
“Oh Lord have mercy. If you say that word one more time, I will f**king choke the sh*t out of you when I see you.”
And that’s an increasingly alarming recording now that another piece of information has entered into the arena of allegations against Sharpe.
Front Office Sports reported earlier today that while Shannon Sharpe was with FS1 as a cohost of the show Undisputed, the media personality choked a female production assistant. According to the sources, Sharpe settled with the woman for hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to avoid a lawsuit:
“Before Sharpe’s time at ESPN, when he was the co-host of FS1’s Undisputed, he was accused of choking a female production assistant in the workplace, two sources with knowledge of the incident tell Front Office Sports. One source said Sharpe and Fox settled with the accuser for several hundred thousand dollars. There was no lawsuit filed against Sharpe in the incident.”
Feel like it might be helpful to add that Sharpe allegedly tried to settle with his newest accuser for millions of dollars before the lawsuit was officially filed this past Sunday.
And this news about an incident at FS1 comes just hours after Sharpe put out a statement that he would be stepping away from his role at ESPN’s First Take. Many thought that Sharpe might try to keep a low profile while he fights the allegations, and it appears he’ll be doing just that. Though the timing of his decision to step away from ESPN is definitely interesting, considering the news about his past, additional incident while at FOX just now surfaced.
Sharpe did add that he has intentions to return to ESPN in the near future:
“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.”
