Former NBA star Dwight Howard is asking for the bombshell lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault and battery to be dismissed.
Howard’s attorneys declare that the encounter between their shopper and Stephen Harper engaged in a consensual encounter involving a 3rd individual at Howard’s Georgia residence in July 2021, according to a Thursday filing that was obtained by ESPN.
Harper filed a lawsuit in July alleging that Howard and Harper started corresponding by way of Instagram direct messages, with Harper initiating the alternate. Harper accused Howard of sexually assaulting him at the latter’s home during the subsequent July 2021 encounter.
In the original filing, Harper included alleged screenshots of messages exchanged between Harper and Howard from 2021, together with an Uber receipt to Howard’s home on the night time of the incident.
Howard denied the allegations in October, asking the case to be dismissed.
Howard’s attorneys allege that key text messages were deleted and not present in Harper’s initial complaint. The submitting, in accordance with ESPN, incorporates these new messages together with a number of that Howard’s attorneys declare are doctored.
“In short, the totality of the text messages between Mr. Howard and Mr. Harper make it abundantly clear that Mr. Harper’s claims are frivolous, that he was a willing participant in the events of July 19, 2021, and the early morning hours of July 20, 2021, and that the touching of his person had been invited by him,” Howard’s attorneys write in Thursday’s submitting.
“More importantly, the explicit messages not only show consent but also that Mr. Harper was initiating some of the sexual contact. Mr. Harper not only invited the initial experience, but tried to initiate a second encounter because the first was so enjoyable. As it is undisputed that Mr. Harper consented to the touching between him and Mr. Howard, Mr. Harper’s claims necessarily fail, and Mr. Howard is entitled to summary judgment as the clear consent negates the essential element of intent and the claims of Assault, Battery, False Imprisonment, and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress fall like a house of cards.”
Harper’s attorneys didn’t instantly reply to ESPN’s request for remark.
Howard’s attorneys now declare, per the Thursday submitting, that the incident is “nothing more than a classic case of unrequited love. After one consensual event together, Mr. Howard was no longer interested in keeping Mr. Harper’s company.”
The submitting additionally alleges that Howard obtained a number of calls for for fee, every from totally different authorized representatives over the course of a 12 months.
The 38-year-old Howard has lengthy been dogged by rumors regarding his sexuality.
