I usually sympathize with the woman in these cases, and there are certainly reasons to do so here. Brown sounds like the kind of me-and-my-needs-first guy who could do this. The emails that have been published, admitting he masturbated in her presence, and calling her a b!tch and a hoe, paint a picture of a real a$$hole. He also in effect brags about screwing her, so it seems that virtually everything she has accused him of doing is true.
But the question is whether the relationship was consensual, as Brown claims, and there are some things in her story that Brown’s lawyers will no doubt use against her.
- The first two incidents happened in 2017, after which she stopped working with him. Despite those incidents, she changed her mind and agreed to keep working with him. This was after some of those emails making degrading insults. The best possible take on this is that she had the same attitude the NFL does. Money is more important than character.
- The second incident happened when she was watching a church service online in Brown’s home. In fact, she was staying at his home, not in a hotel. That sounds consistent with Brown’s contention that they had a personal relationship as well as a professional one. (She said she thought they had a brother-sister relationship, which seems naive, given that even before they began working together, they were in communication, and Brown asked for a naked photo of her). So she not only gave the guy a pass on the first incident of sexual harassment—when he approached her naked and with an erection—but couldn’t even maintain her professional distance.
- The third incident occurred after they went out together—more evidence of a personal relationship. He drove her back to his home, where, instead of getting into her car and going to her hotel—when they reconnected, that was one of her terms—she went inside to use a bathroom. After the rape, she returned the next day to get her belongings. After such a traumatic experience, why wouldn’t she bring her fiancé or someone else she trusted, instead of going there alone? Brown also claims, but she AFAIK hasn’t commented on this, that she returned to his home again ten days after the alleged rape.
- She said, as women usually do in this situation, that it was difficult for her to get the courage to speak out. But the me too movement began in 2017, right when the first incidents reportedly happened. Why did it take her two years, with all the women who were coming forward at that time?
- If it was difficult to come forward, why would she wait till Brown was plastered all over the news, and any rape charges would get far more publicity? If she had made these charges as recently as a few months ago, before Brown was traded to the Raiders, let alone last year, before his poor relationships with the Steelers emerged, they would have generated far less attention. Instead, she comes forward at the worst possible time if she wanted to avoid publicity. To be fair, it’s been reported she became engaged less than two weeks after the alleged rape, and it took her a long time to tell her fiancé. But still, it’s been almost a year and a half.
My best half-a$$ guess is that she wanted a personal relationship with him, but resisted his sexual advances for (justifiable) fear of just being used and tossed aside (they met at some college Christian group, and my impression of her is that she would refuse to have sex with him without a long-term commitment). If she also asked for money for her business, as Brown alleges, that obviously is also very damning. Still, after saying all this, it sounds like rape by the current definition probably did occur. Her case would be much better if she filed a criminal rather than civil suit. She could do both, of course, but if she really was raped, plus the harassment that Brown basically admits, she should have filed criminal charges first.
The absence of criminal charges also apparently is why the NFL will not put Brown on the exempt list, which would prevent him from playing for the time being. He's eligible to play this Sunday, not that NE needs him.