Dak Prescott Extortion Drama Explained By Legal Expert
Dak Prescott Extortion Drama Explained By Legal Expert
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00:00 All right, finally, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Jack Prescott alleged in a new lawsuit that
00:04 he's the victim of an elaborate extortion plot.
00:07 So he reportedly filed a lawsuit in Texas on March 11th and in response to a letter
00:12 he received earlier this year, which threatened to go public with allegations of sexual assault.
00:18 So the accuser's attorney noted that she is willing to forego pursuing criminal charges
00:22 along with disclosing this information to the public in exchange for compensating her
00:26 for her mental anguish that she has suffered.
00:29 She was requesting $100 million in damages.
00:32 The letter claimed that the pain and trauma of the alleged assault has made a significant
00:36 impact on the woman's life so much that she had to attend therapy and counseling and will
00:41 require future therapy and counseling.
00:43 He was given until February 16th to respond in his 11 page counter suit.
00:48 He alleged defamation and slander defamation per se, civil extortion, duress, business
00:53 disparagement, kind of the list goes on and on and on.
00:57 His attorney hit back at the woman's completely fabricated accusations in a statement as well.
01:04 So where does this is a very interesting as well.
01:08 I didn't think that we would have this to talk about what an $100 million extortion
01:13 plot.
01:14 Why did he decide to go public with this?
01:15 Is this like kind of the only avenue he really could take in this?
01:21 Well, Christina, it's the circle of life.
01:23 And we talked about at the top of the show, but sometimes the best defense is a good offense.
01:27 And, you know, when we talked about Andy Cohen and we talked about Leah's case, we said that,
01:32 well, whatever's in the lawsuit is protected.
01:34 It can't be the basis of a defamation suit.
01:36 But here there wasn't a lawsuit that was filed.
01:39 It was a demand letter.
01:41 So potentially, if that demand was published to third parties, Dak Prescott can sue for
01:47 defamation.
01:48 And here's something to know about extortion.
01:51 You can make a demand, but you can't threaten to go to law enforcement if someone doesn't
01:58 pay your demand.
02:00 That's considered extortion under most states.
02:02 So you go to law enforcement, you can report a sexual assault or a rape, but you can't
02:06 necessarily say, pay me.
02:08 I want to go to law enforcement.
02:10 And lawyers before have been caught up in extortion cases.
02:13 Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels, his attorney, tried to shake down Nike and he's in federal
02:18 prison for this.
02:19 So obviously we don't know what happened behind the scenes between Dak Prescott's lawyers
02:23 and the accuser.
02:24 But those lawyers need to be very careful.
02:27 Generally speaking, your best bet as a lawyer is to file a lawsuit that protects you from
02:31 any defamation claim, any extortion claim, because all that's privileged.
02:35 So clearly Prescott's lawyers thought a lawsuit was going to be filed if the demand was rejected.
02:41 So they decided to get out ahead of it for those PR reasons and file the lawsuit themselves.
02:47 Now he is seeking $100 million, he's seeking $1 million in relief and plans to donate the
02:52 money to a foundation.
02:55 Do we think that he'll ever see that money?
02:57 Where do you kind of see this one playing out?
03:00 It's possible.
03:01 We've seen celebrities do this before.
03:02 Obviously Johnny Depp donated his defamation lawsuit proceedings charity.
03:09 Gwyneth Paltrow in her ski accident case famously asked for a dollar.
03:13 So I don't think Dak Prescott needs the money, but he's really trying to send a message to
03:18 this woman that, listen, if you're going to threaten me with a lawsuit, you better prepare
03:23 to go forward.
03:24 Now, you know, oftentimes victims of sexual assault are afraid to go forward.
03:28 So if she was truly a victim, I would not be afraid to go after Dak Prescott or any
03:35 celebrity.
03:36 But obviously we don't know what happened here.
03:39 Prescott is saying that any sexual contact was entirely consensual.
03:42 And of course the victim is saying that she's raped.
03:45 So this is something that's going to have to play out in a court of law.